CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/29-31/2011
Power rates in Vietnam are $0.05/ kWh; Thailand, $ 0.15/kWh; and in the Philippines, from $0.21 to $0.25/kWh today.
However, ours will even get higher, especially when new rate hike petitions, including renewable energy (RE) feed-in tariffs as well as the huge jump in the Universal Charge of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp., are approved. This is the REAL reason Philippine foreign direct investments (FDIs) are at a dismal $1.7 billion compared with Thailand’s $6 billion and Vietnam’s $8 billion.
The claim of Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte that Charter change (Cha-cha) to open up ownership of Philippine lands, alongside other national patrimonies, plus media and other sectors to foreign capital will bring in FDIs is a big fat lie. Foreign land speculators in cahoots with local land grabbers/ bankers will be the only ones who will reap the bonanza while ordinary Filipinos will be priced out of owning their own land. By then, transnationals would have gobbled up majority of the nation’s natural wealth and public franchises.
The real alternative is retention of protection for Filipinos and nationalization of large scale industries for all to benefit
Off the Mark
Can we trust the likes of Enrile, who, aside from being a confirmed dagdag-bawas beneficiary in the 1995 senatorial elections, admitted in 1986 to his faked assassination in 1971 to justify the declaration of Martial Law? Can we trust Belmonte, who was instrumental in passing the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001 through the lame duck Congress after Edsa Dos by distributing P500,000 to each congressman from the oligarch-beneficiaries of the law, which gave us the “highest power rates” in Asia for the past 10 years? Can we even trust Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos, chair of the House committee on constitutional reforms, or his aptitude for math when he declared, “I think our FDIs will TRIPLE from the current $2 billion to $3 billion once these constitutional reforms are implemented…”? As the promised Cha-cha reforms are sure to be massively off the mark, they are, in turn, right on track with the desires of the IMF, World Bank and ADB that are egging for it.
In fact, the track record of “reforms” of the Philippine Congress the past 25 years doesn’t inspire confidence at all – which is why it is scary that they are brandishing the term again. Consider some of the key REFORM packages Congress had championed and passed into law since the Edsa I “People Power” government, beginning with the Comprehensive Tax REFORM Program (CTRP) that replaced the progressive income tax system with the regressive value added tax (VAT) that transferred the tax burden to the vast majority of middle and low income consumers.
Also, consider the trade REFORM laws passed in the early ‘90s that introduced liberalization, deregulation, and privatization – now casting a curse on the Philippine economy, spurring uncontrolled fuel and power rate hikes, debilitating peso fluctuations, and privatizations that socialize the debts while privatizing the profits.
Oh, lest we forget: The EPIRA wouldn’t be called the Electric Power Industry REFORM Act for nothing – for it simply raised our electricity rates to the highest in Asia, if not the world!
Net Invasion
This Cha-cha for FDI campaign has been massive – so massive and multi-media in fact that it has invaded the Net. I have had a few run-ins with its advocates who use as bogeyman, the “privileged, favored and protected, abusive and exploitative Filipino oligarchs” like the Lopezes, Cojuangcos, et al., who take advantage of the Constitution’s protectionist provisions to monopolize businesses and keep out foreign capital at the expense of free market competition. But is this so? Isn’t it a fact that in many of the oligarch-controlled companies such as PLDT, San Miguel, Petron, etc., foreign capitalists are the major partners of these local oligarchs or, in the case of PLDT, the ones who actually control these companies via majority voting shares?
A look at the Asean website’s “Foreign Equity Policies” section already gives us an overview of how certain of its members conduct themselves on this issue. In the Philippines, for instance, it says that “100 percent foreign equity ownership is allowed in all areas except those in the negative list under the Foreign Investment Act of 1991 as amended.”
As for Thailand, “The 1972 Alien Business Law grants foreigners permission to engage in certain business enterprises… only if more than 50 percent of the capital is owned by Thai Nationals. However, for BOI promoted companies, majority foreign ownership is permitted for projects that export not less than 50 percent of sales.”
Meanwhile, even as Vietnam’s foreign equity rule there appears liberal, where “100 percent foreign equity ownership is allowed” – and this is a phrase often cited by the likes of AntiPinoy.com to buttress their point – it appears to be more of a simplistic reading of its Law on Foreign Investments, Art. 4, Sec. 3, which, if we were to go by a May 2011 US State Department investment climate assessment, is nuanced as follows:
“There are ownership limitations… Foreign ownership cannot exceed 49 percent of listed companies and 30 percent of listed companies in the financial sector. A foreign bank is allowed to establish a 100-percent foreign owned bank in Vietnam but may only own up to 20 percent of a local commercial bank. Individual foreign investors are usually limited to 15-percent ownership, though a single foreign investor may increase ownership to 20 percent through a strategic alliance with a local partner.”
Difficult Challenge
Let’s just keep in mind that no country will ever give away protection of its interests and concerns, much less, the privileges of its own people. Local PR pushers for this Cha-cha for FDI are pulling the wool over many Filipinos’ eyes. What everyone should realize is that a major factor in any country’s investment climate is the cost of power or electricity. Even our detractor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo, had to admit in a private NEDA briefing that “the most difficult challenge for the national government and the private sector (is) addressing the high cost of power in the country.”
However, Guinigundo, along with our senators and congressmen, don’t seem to have the balls to say this out loud in national media: That the exorbitant, predatory, and murderous power rates are the real reason FDIs shy away from our country. Instead, most of them lie, steal, and sell our nation out.
Filipinos should thus act now to stop their national swindles through Cha-cha. Write to newspapers; text radio programs; and send hate mails to those blasted legislative proponents. LET’S DEMAND OUR BIRTHRIGHT FOR PROTECTION IN OUR OWN LAND AS FILIPINOS AND TAXPAYING CITIZENS!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Nothing Good, New from P-Noy, A Year Later
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/29-31/11
Last week, we observed two anniversaries, one sad and one happy.
The sad one was the Luneta Hostage Massacre. The happy one was the first birthday of OpinYon.
A delegation of relatives and friends of the massacre victims came to Manila from Hong Kong. They sought an audience with the President, a formal apology, compensation and justice. They went home empty handed.
No less than P-Noy turned them down. He turned down both the request for an audience and the demand for a formal apology. He knew no better in regards to compensation. More on the injustice later.
Distorted Reasoning
According to P-Noy, only one man, Police Senior Inspector (Captain) Rolando Mendoza, was responsible for the eight deaths and the wounded.
He went on to cite the recent bombing and shootings in Norway.
This distorted reasoning just goes to show how P-Noy has not learned anything even after a year and almost two months in office. The respective governments’ reaction and response to both incidents were miles apart.
So far, we have not heard of any criticism or reports about “kapalpakans” by the Norwegian authorities.
The Luneta Massacre is the best and most complete compilation of all the do nots in hostage-taking situations.
Why did they not?
Sometime in the late Marcos years, there was a bank robbery at a BPI branch in Cubao. The police (at that time the PC Metrocom) response turned into a nationally-televised comedy.
Contrary to P-Noy’s jaded opinion on the matter, our opinion is the exact opposite.
Left alone or simply subjected to standard or “by-the-book” responses, Mendoza could not kill or would not kill anyone.
This must have been the perception and understanding of and by the negotiators, the ground commander and the local crisis committee.
Otherwise, they should have taken more aggressive and decisive action during the almost nine hours of daylight.
During this time, Mendoza could be seen, approached and talked to. There were countless opportunities to neutralize Mendoza both with and without gunfire. Why did they not?
Justice not Served
In not doing so, the authorities condemned the hostages to death, being wounded and/or psychological trauma.
Worse, it was the authorities who provoked Mendoza to run berserk when they manhandled his brother, Gregorio, in full view of the cameras.
It was the authorities who were criminally negligent when they did not prevent the live airing of the manhandling.
It was the most central authority, Mayor Alfredo “Fred” Lim, who could have been perceived as ordering the salvaging or extra judicial execution of the brother.
A year after, justice has not been served.
Aquino-Cojuanco Disposition
The responsibility for the injustice is squarely on the President’s lap.
It is he who thwarted the Incident Investigation and Review Committee’s recommendations that are almost eleven months’ old. He has continuously and consistently played favorites with his ka’s….
The Aquino–Cojuangco clan has a disposition for adding insult to injury.
At the same time that relatives and friends of the Massacre Victims were to commemorate the anniversary at the Luneta Grandstand Road, P-Noy was discovering a new toy, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the new old USCG Cutter Alexander Hamilton.
His mother, Cory, did a similar thing.
In January 1997, the PC Metrocom with WPD, INP and Philippine Marines attacked violently and dispersed with gunfire a farmer’s rally at the Mendiola Bridge.
Although he was not the ground commander, PC Metrocom Commanding General Ramon Montano immediately resigned his position.
Exactly a year later, he was promoted and appointed PC Chief/INP Director General.
OpinYon: Of Deadlines and Computers
We have to congratulate OpinYon, Ray Junia and ourselves for the past year. We made it to our first birthday last week.
Our column, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, did not miss a single issue. Except for our first column (The Hard Part, How to Govern … in Six Years, August 23, 2010), we never managed to submit ahead of time. We usually had a Wednesday deadline.
On the average, we managed to submit our final draft just a day and a half late. Or sometimes, when the deadline was Thursday, we would be just half a day late.
Out of 53 columns (including last week’s issues # 1 & 2 of year 2), I wrote most with my son’s computer or laptop, in his ground floor room or in our second floor dining room.
I wrote one in a friend’s house in South Forbes, one at the Jeepney Coffee Shop of the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City, two at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, and the last two in the new OpinYon office at Cityland 9 on De la Rosa Street.
I sent most of my final drafts by Internet from our New Manila, Quezon City home to the E-mail addresses of our paper, publisher, editor, layout artist and secretary.
Five times, I used different means: Friday, March 11, the day of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, I used my friend’s computer and Internet; once, I physically delivered it in a USB; three times, I used public Internet access, once at Annabel’s Restaurant (This was the Friday when the “buhawi” hit our New Manila neighbourhood), and twice at the St. Luke’s Medical Center (When my third child was confined for cellucitis).
If you knew how illiterate I used to be with the computer and Internet, you would congratulate me profusely.
Ray Junia Who?
Ray Junia has turned out to be the real man both behind and in front of the OpinYon.
A year ago, he was “Ray Junia Who?” to some of our readers.
Even when he was already better known, many could not believe that he was capable of financing our weekly opinion paper singlehandedly.
Many would speculate as to who was really financing our paper? Was it GMA? Was it FG? Was it some unknown and anonymous businessman? Sorry to disappoint everyone. It was Ray, just Ray and nobody else.
We congratulate the entire staff and the columnists of OpinYon, most specially our Editor Luchie. We remember also our first editor, Ike Seneres, as well as all the staff members and columnists who did not complete the first year with us.
White Lady in my Column
We would like to invite everyone to watch tonight, Monday, August 29, at 10 pm the QTV 11 program “I Juander” episode on the White Lady of Balete Drive.
Our YTT column in the November 1 – 7, 2010 issue of OpinYon was one of their source materials.
One of their several versions of the White Lady was our three houses away neighbour in the early 50s, Maria Elena Recto Garchitorena, daughter of Maria Christina Recto and a Garchitorena from Tigaon, Camarines Sur. They are relatives of Ricky Recto, Chona Kasten Recto, and Louie Ysmael.
The other white lady is a rape victim circa World War II.
Who else will Resign
Saturday, September 3, is the 40th day since our eldest brother Manuel Vicente Arsenio Zaragoza Araneta Tuason Alcuaz, Jr. who died at the age of 72 (December 14, 1938 – July 24, 2011). We will offer Mass at 6 pm at the Shrine of Mt. Carmel at Broadway Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, New Manila.
Since his death, his articles have come out four times: (1.) Foul! Zubiri freezing the ball! In the July 25 – 31 issue of OpinYon. On Wednesday, August 3, Zubiri resigned; (2.) Making PH the “must experience destination in Asia”: Going back to basics. This was the last article written for the column MAPping the Future of the Management Association of the Philippines on page B4 3 in the August 8 issue of the PDI. Soon after DOT Secretary Alberto “Bertie” Lim resigned;
And, (3 & 4.) Fraud in 2004 presidential polls – was written five years ago but was only published in the full page Talk of the Town sections of the August 14 & 21, Sunday issues of the PDI. Who else will resign?
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/29-31/11
Last week, we observed two anniversaries, one sad and one happy.
The sad one was the Luneta Hostage Massacre. The happy one was the first birthday of OpinYon.
A delegation of relatives and friends of the massacre victims came to Manila from Hong Kong. They sought an audience with the President, a formal apology, compensation and justice. They went home empty handed.
No less than P-Noy turned them down. He turned down both the request for an audience and the demand for a formal apology. He knew no better in regards to compensation. More on the injustice later.
Distorted Reasoning
According to P-Noy, only one man, Police Senior Inspector (Captain) Rolando Mendoza, was responsible for the eight deaths and the wounded.
He went on to cite the recent bombing and shootings in Norway.
This distorted reasoning just goes to show how P-Noy has not learned anything even after a year and almost two months in office. The respective governments’ reaction and response to both incidents were miles apart.
So far, we have not heard of any criticism or reports about “kapalpakans” by the Norwegian authorities.
The Luneta Massacre is the best and most complete compilation of all the do nots in hostage-taking situations.
Why did they not?
Sometime in the late Marcos years, there was a bank robbery at a BPI branch in Cubao. The police (at that time the PC Metrocom) response turned into a nationally-televised comedy.
Contrary to P-Noy’s jaded opinion on the matter, our opinion is the exact opposite.
Left alone or simply subjected to standard or “by-the-book” responses, Mendoza could not kill or would not kill anyone.
This must have been the perception and understanding of and by the negotiators, the ground commander and the local crisis committee.
Otherwise, they should have taken more aggressive and decisive action during the almost nine hours of daylight.
During this time, Mendoza could be seen, approached and talked to. There were countless opportunities to neutralize Mendoza both with and without gunfire. Why did they not?
Justice not Served
In not doing so, the authorities condemned the hostages to death, being wounded and/or psychological trauma.
Worse, it was the authorities who provoked Mendoza to run berserk when they manhandled his brother, Gregorio, in full view of the cameras.
It was the authorities who were criminally negligent when they did not prevent the live airing of the manhandling.
It was the most central authority, Mayor Alfredo “Fred” Lim, who could have been perceived as ordering the salvaging or extra judicial execution of the brother.
A year after, justice has not been served.
Aquino-Cojuanco Disposition
The responsibility for the injustice is squarely on the President’s lap.
It is he who thwarted the Incident Investigation and Review Committee’s recommendations that are almost eleven months’ old. He has continuously and consistently played favorites with his ka’s….
The Aquino–Cojuangco clan has a disposition for adding insult to injury.
At the same time that relatives and friends of the Massacre Victims were to commemorate the anniversary at the Luneta Grandstand Road, P-Noy was discovering a new toy, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the new old USCG Cutter Alexander Hamilton.
His mother, Cory, did a similar thing.
In January 1997, the PC Metrocom with WPD, INP and Philippine Marines attacked violently and dispersed with gunfire a farmer’s rally at the Mendiola Bridge.
Although he was not the ground commander, PC Metrocom Commanding General Ramon Montano immediately resigned his position.
Exactly a year later, he was promoted and appointed PC Chief/INP Director General.
OpinYon: Of Deadlines and Computers
We have to congratulate OpinYon, Ray Junia and ourselves for the past year. We made it to our first birthday last week.
Our column, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, did not miss a single issue. Except for our first column (The Hard Part, How to Govern … in Six Years, August 23, 2010), we never managed to submit ahead of time. We usually had a Wednesday deadline.
On the average, we managed to submit our final draft just a day and a half late. Or sometimes, when the deadline was Thursday, we would be just half a day late.
Out of 53 columns (including last week’s issues # 1 & 2 of year 2), I wrote most with my son’s computer or laptop, in his ground floor room or in our second floor dining room.
I wrote one in a friend’s house in South Forbes, one at the Jeepney Coffee Shop of the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City, two at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, and the last two in the new OpinYon office at Cityland 9 on De la Rosa Street.
I sent most of my final drafts by Internet from our New Manila, Quezon City home to the E-mail addresses of our paper, publisher, editor, layout artist and secretary.
Five times, I used different means: Friday, March 11, the day of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, I used my friend’s computer and Internet; once, I physically delivered it in a USB; three times, I used public Internet access, once at Annabel’s Restaurant (This was the Friday when the “buhawi” hit our New Manila neighbourhood), and twice at the St. Luke’s Medical Center (When my third child was confined for cellucitis).
If you knew how illiterate I used to be with the computer and Internet, you would congratulate me profusely.
Ray Junia Who?
Ray Junia has turned out to be the real man both behind and in front of the OpinYon.
A year ago, he was “Ray Junia Who?” to some of our readers.
Even when he was already better known, many could not believe that he was capable of financing our weekly opinion paper singlehandedly.
Many would speculate as to who was really financing our paper? Was it GMA? Was it FG? Was it some unknown and anonymous businessman? Sorry to disappoint everyone. It was Ray, just Ray and nobody else.
We congratulate the entire staff and the columnists of OpinYon, most specially our Editor Luchie. We remember also our first editor, Ike Seneres, as well as all the staff members and columnists who did not complete the first year with us.
White Lady in my Column
We would like to invite everyone to watch tonight, Monday, August 29, at 10 pm the QTV 11 program “I Juander” episode on the White Lady of Balete Drive.
Our YTT column in the November 1 – 7, 2010 issue of OpinYon was one of their source materials.
One of their several versions of the White Lady was our three houses away neighbour in the early 50s, Maria Elena Recto Garchitorena, daughter of Maria Christina Recto and a Garchitorena from Tigaon, Camarines Sur. They are relatives of Ricky Recto, Chona Kasten Recto, and Louie Ysmael.
The other white lady is a rape victim circa World War II.
Who else will Resign
Saturday, September 3, is the 40th day since our eldest brother Manuel Vicente Arsenio Zaragoza Araneta Tuason Alcuaz, Jr. who died at the age of 72 (December 14, 1938 – July 24, 2011). We will offer Mass at 6 pm at the Shrine of Mt. Carmel at Broadway Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, New Manila.
Since his death, his articles have come out four times: (1.) Foul! Zubiri freezing the ball! In the July 25 – 31 issue of OpinYon. On Wednesday, August 3, Zubiri resigned; (2.) Making PH the “must experience destination in Asia”: Going back to basics. This was the last article written for the column MAPping the Future of the Management Association of the Philippines on page B4 3 in the August 8 issue of the PDI. Soon after DOT Secretary Alberto “Bertie” Lim resigned;
And, (3 & 4.) Fraud in 2004 presidential polls – was written five years ago but was only published in the full page Talk of the Town sections of the August 14 & 21, Sunday issues of the PDI. Who else will resign?
Monday, August 29, 2011
Evil 'Transformers'
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/29/2011
No, it’s not the sci-fi action flick we are writing about. It’s about the real “Transformers” in our world — those giant, steel-hearted, mechanical monsters roaming the boardrooms of power companies that “transform” public utilities into humongous profit machines. It’s about power companies that transform the public’s need for electricity into an unimaginable nightmare for millions of Filipino consumers.
Once the Lopez Group, the Philippine Electric Corp. (Philec) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) are both seen in this light. One supplies actual power transformers and related equipment to the other at what many consider as massive transfer prices of up to 500 percent or more. Our source, who will only testify in public once Congress musters the courage to conduct an honest-to-goodness investigation, claims to have the goods on this.
For a time, as Meralco transitioned from the old guard to the new, sanguine hopes about the eventual dissolution of the tight embrace between the two said companies were raised. It was even claimed that power prices will be brought down since that kind of a set-up will end with the change in management.
It has been pointed out by industry watchers that these so-called “sweetheart deals” form a major component of Meralco’s capital base submission to the state regulatory body, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), upon which the past 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) and the current 15.8-percent Performance Based Regulation (PBR) rate setting schemes are computed. If the supplies and equipment — from transformers, electric poles, to project costs of installations such as substations or plants — are overpriced by exponential percentages, then so are our electricity rates.
The source of this news has, in fact, gone directly to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of Philec which price power transformers for each mega volt-ampere (MVA), similar to horsepower in engines.
In the Taiwan OEM plant visited by our informant for the purpose of getting the real bottom price, for instance, a quote of P250,000/MVA was given — far less than the P600,000/MVA reported in the Philippines, even if the usual discounts of 30 and 15 percent given to buyers, including most Philippine electric cooperatives, were to be deducted.
Further, if a high-end Japanese brand is preferred, which the Taiwanese plant also officially produces, then a simple expedient of tacking on the Japanese brand’s steel plate for it to be priced higher is resorted to. Is this what Meralco does?
In claiming the need for a top-of-the-line variant, it uses the Japanese name plate to increase the quote as well as its capital base with the ERC — which the regulating agency unfortunately approves without as much as a whimper — to the tune of P1,600,000/MVA!
When the Lopez Group sold control of Meralco, there was indeed that opportunity to cut the monopolistic relationship between the two inextricably linked power firms, with hopes that rates will go down in spite of the already escalating bent of the onerous PBR. But nothing has changed. Filings made for the power distributor’s capital expenditures continue to be based on vastly overpriced claims; hence, its 80 to 90 percent yearly profit increases.
Fortunately, power consumers all over the country have begun to understand more comprehensively the massive swindle that is the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), or the post-Edsa II power privatization law that has spawned many “monsters:”
From the ERC that is believed to be captured by Meralco; to the state holding firm Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) that is petitioning for consumers to shoulder the Universal Charge that will pay for $18 billion (still!) in National Power Corp. (Napocor) debts, which were promised to have been paid with privatization but never were; to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) that wants to raise rates to pay for damages caused by typhoons “Ondoy,” “Basyang,” etc., leaving its multi-billion insurance untouched; to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (Pemc) that wants to raise rates for “administrative modernization” (a euphemism for raising officers’ salaries); to its adjunct, the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm), which averages rates based on the highest (instead of the lowest) fluctuations, there are certainly more Epira monsters to discover — and decipher.
What puzzles is that Congress, which is into every sort of investigation imaginable, has not touched on the festering and oppressive electricity scams being perpetrated right before our very eyes. It seems the likes of Rep. Henedina Abad and Sen. Serge Osmeña, who head their respective chamber’s energy committees, are oblivious to appearing as stooges of these power giants.
Given this, will anyone else take the cudgels for the suffering Philippine economy, our industries, and our people? Or is everyone just too scared of the Philippines’ very own, steel-hearted, steel-fisted “Transformers”? The answer need not be more than meets the eye.
(My new e-mail: mentong2011@gmail.com. Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/29/2011
No, it’s not the sci-fi action flick we are writing about. It’s about the real “Transformers” in our world — those giant, steel-hearted, mechanical monsters roaming the boardrooms of power companies that “transform” public utilities into humongous profit machines. It’s about power companies that transform the public’s need for electricity into an unimaginable nightmare for millions of Filipino consumers.
Once the Lopez Group, the Philippine Electric Corp. (Philec) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) are both seen in this light. One supplies actual power transformers and related equipment to the other at what many consider as massive transfer prices of up to 500 percent or more. Our source, who will only testify in public once Congress musters the courage to conduct an honest-to-goodness investigation, claims to have the goods on this.
For a time, as Meralco transitioned from the old guard to the new, sanguine hopes about the eventual dissolution of the tight embrace between the two said companies were raised. It was even claimed that power prices will be brought down since that kind of a set-up will end with the change in management.
It has been pointed out by industry watchers that these so-called “sweetheart deals” form a major component of Meralco’s capital base submission to the state regulatory body, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), upon which the past 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) and the current 15.8-percent Performance Based Regulation (PBR) rate setting schemes are computed. If the supplies and equipment — from transformers, electric poles, to project costs of installations such as substations or plants — are overpriced by exponential percentages, then so are our electricity rates.
The source of this news has, in fact, gone directly to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of Philec which price power transformers for each mega volt-ampere (MVA), similar to horsepower in engines.
In the Taiwan OEM plant visited by our informant for the purpose of getting the real bottom price, for instance, a quote of P250,000/MVA was given — far less than the P600,000/MVA reported in the Philippines, even if the usual discounts of 30 and 15 percent given to buyers, including most Philippine electric cooperatives, were to be deducted.
Further, if a high-end Japanese brand is preferred, which the Taiwanese plant also officially produces, then a simple expedient of tacking on the Japanese brand’s steel plate for it to be priced higher is resorted to. Is this what Meralco does?
In claiming the need for a top-of-the-line variant, it uses the Japanese name plate to increase the quote as well as its capital base with the ERC — which the regulating agency unfortunately approves without as much as a whimper — to the tune of P1,600,000/MVA!
When the Lopez Group sold control of Meralco, there was indeed that opportunity to cut the monopolistic relationship between the two inextricably linked power firms, with hopes that rates will go down in spite of the already escalating bent of the onerous PBR. But nothing has changed. Filings made for the power distributor’s capital expenditures continue to be based on vastly overpriced claims; hence, its 80 to 90 percent yearly profit increases.
Fortunately, power consumers all over the country have begun to understand more comprehensively the massive swindle that is the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), or the post-Edsa II power privatization law that has spawned many “monsters:”
From the ERC that is believed to be captured by Meralco; to the state holding firm Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) that is petitioning for consumers to shoulder the Universal Charge that will pay for $18 billion (still!) in National Power Corp. (Napocor) debts, which were promised to have been paid with privatization but never were; to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) that wants to raise rates to pay for damages caused by typhoons “Ondoy,” “Basyang,” etc., leaving its multi-billion insurance untouched; to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (Pemc) that wants to raise rates for “administrative modernization” (a euphemism for raising officers’ salaries); to its adjunct, the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm), which averages rates based on the highest (instead of the lowest) fluctuations, there are certainly more Epira monsters to discover — and decipher.
What puzzles is that Congress, which is into every sort of investigation imaginable, has not touched on the festering and oppressive electricity scams being perpetrated right before our very eyes. It seems the likes of Rep. Henedina Abad and Sen. Serge Osmeña, who head their respective chamber’s energy committees, are oblivious to appearing as stooges of these power giants.
Given this, will anyone else take the cudgels for the suffering Philippine economy, our industries, and our people? Or is everyone just too scared of the Philippines’ very own, steel-hearted, steel-fisted “Transformers”? The answer need not be more than meets the eye.
(My new e-mail: mentong2011@gmail.com. Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
Topic: Twisted ARMM
Guests: Al Tillah, Former Governor (Tawi-Tawi) and President of Islamic Society of the Philippines and Brigido "Jun" Simon, Former Mayor (Quezon City)
Guests: Al Tillah, Former Governor (Tawi-Tawi) and President of Islamic Society of the Philippines and Brigido "Jun" Simon, Former Mayor (Quezon City)
Invite me at your own risk
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/25-27/2011
On the very light side of things, I fell for a fake invitation to a meeting of Tanggulang Demokrasya (TANDEM) set for 2 pm, Tuesday, August 9, at the Greenhills East Association Boardroom. It was a text invitation from an unlisted cellular phone number.
I responded with a template message – “Hu r u pls? U txtd my Sun w a new # nt in any of my directories – Linggoy”. He responded by sending via business card a name, Willy, whom I knew, and his # that was listed in my Sun memory.
And so, I texted the latter about the invitation. He reiterated the invitation. I asked, “Are you authorized to invite me?”
He answered by saying that it was an open meeting. I explained to him that TANDEM invited me to their big and public meetings, but not to their small and private meetings.
Closed-Door Meeting
Anyway, since Willy was on the way and would arrive ahead of me. I became comfortable with the invitation. When the Gate 3 guard did not get my license or ID, I thought that the welcome was complete.
I had arranged with OpinYon’s Kath to send me some complimentary copies as well as blank advertising contracts and subscription forms to the venue of the meeting.
Our messenger and Willy had arrived at the venue of the TANDEM meeting ahead of me. When at last I got there, Willy told me that it was a closed door meeting.
However, he assumed that I could attend because I was known to the TANDEM leadership. I explained to him that I do not gate crash meetings that I was not invited to.
I just requested him to bring a dozen copies of OpinYon isyu # 51 (with the Banner “Blood on their Hands”) to the boardroom in the second floor.
Fake Invite
Before long, a uniformed security guard arrived and wanted to see my gate pass which I did not have.
The guard explained that whoever had let me in without getting my ID and clearing with TANDEM before letting me in would lose his job.
Then, a security supervisor arrived holding a copy of OpinYon.
According to him it was against association rules and regulations to distribute newspapers.
So, I let go curses and invectives at them for suppressing the freedom of the press. That is what happens when one accepts a fake invitation.
Not all fake invitations turn sour. I once faked a GMA invitation and it turned out very sweet for my victim beneficiary.
It was the fifth night of EDSA 3.
By EDSA 1 and 2 standards, the critical mass or tipping point was long overdue.
EDSA 1 was done in four nights. EDSA 2 too, was done in four nights.
It was Sunday, April 29. Rumors were rife that the political opposition’s leadership would be coming out in force and lead the assembled masses wherever.
Malacaňang was a favorite inspirational target.
Popoy & Atong
We had an emergency meeting in Mabini Hall in Malacaňang set for that evening.
Marie Guingona had informed me about it and had issued periodic text reminders.
I had gone to the birthday party of Margarita “Tingting” de los Reyes Cojuangco at Palm Ave, Forbes Park.
As soon as I entered the house, I saw Gen. Popoy Fianza. Popoy had been with GMA even before I joined Kampi in 1997.
However, when GMA was illegally proclaimed (due to his partisan excitement, Davide forgot to prefix the word “acting” before President) by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., as the permanent replacement of Erap, they had a little “tampuhan”.
Popoy was supposed to stop Atong Ang’s departure abroad so that he could be pressured to testify against Erap.
Considering that he was helping GMA when she was still a Senator wanting to run for the Presidency, he did not get a good position in the PNP.
He was assigned to a staff position in plans or training. These were the least money-making functions in the PNP.
My instinct when I saw him was to kid him and tell him that GMA was calling for him.
Poor man, he took me very seriously and agreed to go straight to where GMA was.
For that he got GMA’s renewed gratitude and a medal which his peers disputed.
As for me, I got a free ride to Malacaňang and easier entry past the strengthened and stricter PSG checkpoints.
Important Days
The last of the very important dates of August is August 27, 1987.
This is the day of the fifth coup attempt. (That came after the following publicly known failed attempts: 1) The July 4, 1986 Manila Hotel Loyalist attempt to install Vice President Arturo Tolentino; 2) The November 1986 “God Save the Queen” plot that hardly took off; 3) The January 1987 Colonel Canlas takeover of GMA 7, and 4) The Black Saturday incident at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Ft. Bonifacio, Taguig.)
This is the day when Noynoy was ambushed along J. P. Laurel Street.
This is the day that as NTC Commissioner, I had to run around closing down radio and TV stations.
That is what gave me the right to criticize Pinoy’s handling of the Luneta Hostage Massacre,
I almost forgot. Another very important date in August is the 30th.
It is the feast day of my mother, Rosa. She used to celebrate it bigger and grander than her birthday in April. We have an altar cum fireplace in our sala at home. That was the center of the praying and singing that she and her guests did before dinner.
It was also the night in 1969 when my future wife and I realized that we would share the next half century together.
In the coming years we will remember in August: the resignation of Juan Miguel Zubiri on the 3rd, Koko Pimentel’s proclamation by our previous pet peeve, the SET, on the 11th, and Koko’s first day in the Senate Plenary on the 15th.
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/25-27/2011
On the very light side of things, I fell for a fake invitation to a meeting of Tanggulang Demokrasya (TANDEM) set for 2 pm, Tuesday, August 9, at the Greenhills East Association Boardroom. It was a text invitation from an unlisted cellular phone number.
I responded with a template message – “Hu r u pls? U txtd my Sun w a new # nt in any of my directories – Linggoy”. He responded by sending via business card a name, Willy, whom I knew, and his # that was listed in my Sun memory.
And so, I texted the latter about the invitation. He reiterated the invitation. I asked, “Are you authorized to invite me?”
He answered by saying that it was an open meeting. I explained to him that TANDEM invited me to their big and public meetings, but not to their small and private meetings.
Closed-Door Meeting
Anyway, since Willy was on the way and would arrive ahead of me. I became comfortable with the invitation. When the Gate 3 guard did not get my license or ID, I thought that the welcome was complete.
I had arranged with OpinYon’s Kath to send me some complimentary copies as well as blank advertising contracts and subscription forms to the venue of the meeting.
Our messenger and Willy had arrived at the venue of the TANDEM meeting ahead of me. When at last I got there, Willy told me that it was a closed door meeting.
However, he assumed that I could attend because I was known to the TANDEM leadership. I explained to him that I do not gate crash meetings that I was not invited to.
I just requested him to bring a dozen copies of OpinYon isyu # 51 (with the Banner “Blood on their Hands”) to the boardroom in the second floor.
Fake Invite
Before long, a uniformed security guard arrived and wanted to see my gate pass which I did not have.
The guard explained that whoever had let me in without getting my ID and clearing with TANDEM before letting me in would lose his job.
Then, a security supervisor arrived holding a copy of OpinYon.
According to him it was against association rules and regulations to distribute newspapers.
So, I let go curses and invectives at them for suppressing the freedom of the press. That is what happens when one accepts a fake invitation.
Not all fake invitations turn sour. I once faked a GMA invitation and it turned out very sweet for my victim beneficiary.
It was the fifth night of EDSA 3.
By EDSA 1 and 2 standards, the critical mass or tipping point was long overdue.
EDSA 1 was done in four nights. EDSA 2 too, was done in four nights.
It was Sunday, April 29. Rumors were rife that the political opposition’s leadership would be coming out in force and lead the assembled masses wherever.
Malacaňang was a favorite inspirational target.
Popoy & Atong
We had an emergency meeting in Mabini Hall in Malacaňang set for that evening.
Marie Guingona had informed me about it and had issued periodic text reminders.
I had gone to the birthday party of Margarita “Tingting” de los Reyes Cojuangco at Palm Ave, Forbes Park.
As soon as I entered the house, I saw Gen. Popoy Fianza. Popoy had been with GMA even before I joined Kampi in 1997.
However, when GMA was illegally proclaimed (due to his partisan excitement, Davide forgot to prefix the word “acting” before President) by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., as the permanent replacement of Erap, they had a little “tampuhan”.
Popoy was supposed to stop Atong Ang’s departure abroad so that he could be pressured to testify against Erap.
Considering that he was helping GMA when she was still a Senator wanting to run for the Presidency, he did not get a good position in the PNP.
He was assigned to a staff position in plans or training. These were the least money-making functions in the PNP.
My instinct when I saw him was to kid him and tell him that GMA was calling for him.
Poor man, he took me very seriously and agreed to go straight to where GMA was.
For that he got GMA’s renewed gratitude and a medal which his peers disputed.
As for me, I got a free ride to Malacaňang and easier entry past the strengthened and stricter PSG checkpoints.
Important Days
The last of the very important dates of August is August 27, 1987.
This is the day of the fifth coup attempt. (That came after the following publicly known failed attempts: 1) The July 4, 1986 Manila Hotel Loyalist attempt to install Vice President Arturo Tolentino; 2) The November 1986 “God Save the Queen” plot that hardly took off; 3) The January 1987 Colonel Canlas takeover of GMA 7, and 4) The Black Saturday incident at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Ft. Bonifacio, Taguig.)
This is the day when Noynoy was ambushed along J. P. Laurel Street.
This is the day that as NTC Commissioner, I had to run around closing down radio and TV stations.
That is what gave me the right to criticize Pinoy’s handling of the Luneta Hostage Massacre,
I almost forgot. Another very important date in August is the 30th.
It is the feast day of my mother, Rosa. She used to celebrate it bigger and grander than her birthday in April. We have an altar cum fireplace in our sala at home. That was the center of the praying and singing that she and her guests did before dinner.
It was also the night in 1969 when my future wife and I realized that we would share the next half century together.
In the coming years we will remember in August: the resignation of Juan Miguel Zubiri on the 3rd, Koko Pimentel’s proclamation by our previous pet peeve, the SET, on the 11th, and Koko’s first day in the Senate Plenary on the 15th.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Opening our door to foreign intervention
BACKBENCHER
8/27-28/2011
Rod Kapunan
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was the principal sponsor of a bill that ratified our subscription to the Statute of Rome that created the International Criminal Court. Once signed by President Aquino, this measure would formalize the devolution of the country’s sovereignty to the European powers to try our leaders and soldiers entrusted with the patriotic duty of keeping the territorial integrity of this country intact.
That means that any Filipino driven by the zeal to defend the Motherland could end up being held accountable for crimes of genocide, human rights violation, war crimes, and other atrocities that at times are the consequences of intense fighting. As Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile would put it, the statute could “expose Philippine presidents to all kinds of suits…”
That decision brings to our recollection the proverbial saying of us “getting our own rope to hang ourselves with.” We say this because our membership to that European-based organization would not guarantee that our leaders and soldiers would be spared from being charged in exchange for our membership. In the first place, the aftermath of war is always taken as circumstantial or “collateral damage”, as the West would put it.
Worse, these idiots failed to realize that even with our membership, it will still be those Europeans now lording the ICC that will determine who will be charged and prosecuted for war crimes. What has been validated is the fact about their stupidity in not seeing the hues of national interest hanging above the heads of those entrusted to enforce their brand of justice. There are prognostications that most likely our soldiers will end up being charged, than those roaming rebels once the conflict in Mindanao deteriorates into another full-scale war.
If that happens, by implication the cause of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front could be interpreted as a just cause. That then would put a heavy international pressure on us to give in to their demand for an independent state just as what happened in Serbia where the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the US helped create the state of Kosovo by force, and lately in Sudan where after a long-drawn civil war instigated by them, the Sudanese government had to hold a referendum to legalize the partition of their country. Most fearful, our leaders and soldiers will be hunted like rats by occupying NATO forces on orders of the ICC.
Although called an international organization, the ICC is far from being one. Except for France, Italy, and Germany and a cluster of tiny European states that had their own history of imperialist conquest in Africa, Latin America and Asia, none of the leading and regional powers like the US, Russia, China, India, Brazil and Argentina are members of the ICC. Not one would recklessly compromise their national sovereignty all for the noble cause of humanity.
It is this aspect about the ICC that exposed our hankering politicians as utterly ignorant! In fact, while the ICC encounters difficulty in convincing others to join, the Philippines, like manna from heaven, volunteered to join. More than that, not one of those senators who voted to ratify that opprobrious treaty could explain why criminal states of the US and Israel have refused to join the ICC. Everybody knows the US has always been able to get away with from its long list of war crimes. Certainly, it would be foolish now to allow its soldiers and its presidents to be placed in default of being tried as war criminals at The Hague.
Despite that, the ICC continues to praise the US for its active participation in various military interventions and in securing the arrest of those charged as war criminals. This scenario is now likely to happen to Libya’s Moammar Gaddhafi; that after being savagely attacked by international gangsters calling themselves NATO, he now is likely to stand trial for alleged war crimes against his own people.
Hence, for all of Senator Santiago’s hallucinations of the Morgenthau era of international relations, she miserably failed to read between the lines that the creation of the ICC is part of that concerted plot to substitute the UN with a NATO-created and controlled international organization. As collaborating quisling, she could not see that the objective of the European-based mafia is anachronistic to the four principles of the UN, foremost of which is the respect for equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
It did not even seep into their brains that to capture those accused of war crimes would require the commission of aggression which constitutes a violation of the UN Charter. This has lead scholars on international relations and international law to suspect that indeed NATO and the US are collaborating to systematically supersede the role of the UN. Such is the familiar case now of NATO and the US acting as the conduit of the ICC.
Although the ICC projects its role as supplementary to the International Court of Justice, in truth its function runs counter to the charter of the UN, much that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of an independent state is the cornerstone for which it was created. There may have been sporadic internal fighting in many countries, but somehow those conflicts were prevented from escalating precisely because of that limitation in the UN Charter.
Since ICCs concept of justice points at the individual or group of players in an internal conflict, the view about the inviolability of one’s sovereignty has all of a sudden been erased. Consequently, things had been made easy much that it has for its main frame the concept of bringing to court “people” it may identify as war criminals, while they run the show of acting as prosecutor, judge and executioners, all rolled into one. This has now become their most convenient passport to justify aggression.
Without the world knowing it, the ICC stands as more formidable than the UN Security Council. Unlike the UN Security Council which has to secure a prior unanimous approval from all the permanent members to militarily intervene, the ICC has at its disposal a fully armed war machine called NATO. The people of Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and now Libya all could tell their harrowing experience of savage aggression, while NATO and its Kangaroo Court denudes the world about its role to humanity.
Thus, after being “liberated” and their leaders tried and executed as war criminals, oil-rich countries like Iraq ended up having its oil fields owned by foreign companies, and their people driven to extreme poverty. This again is likely to happen in Libya, with Senator Santiago not asking whether hapless states ever voted to join the ICC.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
8/27-28/2011
Rod Kapunan
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was the principal sponsor of a bill that ratified our subscription to the Statute of Rome that created the International Criminal Court. Once signed by President Aquino, this measure would formalize the devolution of the country’s sovereignty to the European powers to try our leaders and soldiers entrusted with the patriotic duty of keeping the territorial integrity of this country intact.
That means that any Filipino driven by the zeal to defend the Motherland could end up being held accountable for crimes of genocide, human rights violation, war crimes, and other atrocities that at times are the consequences of intense fighting. As Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile would put it, the statute could “expose Philippine presidents to all kinds of suits…”
That decision brings to our recollection the proverbial saying of us “getting our own rope to hang ourselves with.” We say this because our membership to that European-based organization would not guarantee that our leaders and soldiers would be spared from being charged in exchange for our membership. In the first place, the aftermath of war is always taken as circumstantial or “collateral damage”, as the West would put it.
Worse, these idiots failed to realize that even with our membership, it will still be those Europeans now lording the ICC that will determine who will be charged and prosecuted for war crimes. What has been validated is the fact about their stupidity in not seeing the hues of national interest hanging above the heads of those entrusted to enforce their brand of justice. There are prognostications that most likely our soldiers will end up being charged, than those roaming rebels once the conflict in Mindanao deteriorates into another full-scale war.
If that happens, by implication the cause of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front could be interpreted as a just cause. That then would put a heavy international pressure on us to give in to their demand for an independent state just as what happened in Serbia where the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the US helped create the state of Kosovo by force, and lately in Sudan where after a long-drawn civil war instigated by them, the Sudanese government had to hold a referendum to legalize the partition of their country. Most fearful, our leaders and soldiers will be hunted like rats by occupying NATO forces on orders of the ICC.
Although called an international organization, the ICC is far from being one. Except for France, Italy, and Germany and a cluster of tiny European states that had their own history of imperialist conquest in Africa, Latin America and Asia, none of the leading and regional powers like the US, Russia, China, India, Brazil and Argentina are members of the ICC. Not one would recklessly compromise their national sovereignty all for the noble cause of humanity.
It is this aspect about the ICC that exposed our hankering politicians as utterly ignorant! In fact, while the ICC encounters difficulty in convincing others to join, the Philippines, like manna from heaven, volunteered to join. More than that, not one of those senators who voted to ratify that opprobrious treaty could explain why criminal states of the US and Israel have refused to join the ICC. Everybody knows the US has always been able to get away with from its long list of war crimes. Certainly, it would be foolish now to allow its soldiers and its presidents to be placed in default of being tried as war criminals at The Hague.
Despite that, the ICC continues to praise the US for its active participation in various military interventions and in securing the arrest of those charged as war criminals. This scenario is now likely to happen to Libya’s Moammar Gaddhafi; that after being savagely attacked by international gangsters calling themselves NATO, he now is likely to stand trial for alleged war crimes against his own people.
Hence, for all of Senator Santiago’s hallucinations of the Morgenthau era of international relations, she miserably failed to read between the lines that the creation of the ICC is part of that concerted plot to substitute the UN with a NATO-created and controlled international organization. As collaborating quisling, she could not see that the objective of the European-based mafia is anachronistic to the four principles of the UN, foremost of which is the respect for equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
It did not even seep into their brains that to capture those accused of war crimes would require the commission of aggression which constitutes a violation of the UN Charter. This has lead scholars on international relations and international law to suspect that indeed NATO and the US are collaborating to systematically supersede the role of the UN. Such is the familiar case now of NATO and the US acting as the conduit of the ICC.
Although the ICC projects its role as supplementary to the International Court of Justice, in truth its function runs counter to the charter of the UN, much that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of an independent state is the cornerstone for which it was created. There may have been sporadic internal fighting in many countries, but somehow those conflicts were prevented from escalating precisely because of that limitation in the UN Charter.
Since ICCs concept of justice points at the individual or group of players in an internal conflict, the view about the inviolability of one’s sovereignty has all of a sudden been erased. Consequently, things had been made easy much that it has for its main frame the concept of bringing to court “people” it may identify as war criminals, while they run the show of acting as prosecutor, judge and executioners, all rolled into one. This has now become their most convenient passport to justify aggression.
Without the world knowing it, the ICC stands as more formidable than the UN Security Council. Unlike the UN Security Council which has to secure a prior unanimous approval from all the permanent members to militarily intervene, the ICC has at its disposal a fully armed war machine called NATO. The people of Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and now Libya all could tell their harrowing experience of savage aggression, while NATO and its Kangaroo Court denudes the world about its role to humanity.
Thus, after being “liberated” and their leaders tried and executed as war criminals, oil-rich countries like Iraq ended up having its oil fields owned by foreign companies, and their people driven to extreme poverty. This again is likely to happen in Libya, with Senator Santiago not asking whether hapless states ever voted to join the ICC.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Friday, August 26, 2011
Mabuhay, Kadhafi forces!
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/26/2011
The strategies employed by the US and Nato are all too familiar by now: First, a massive disinformation campaign, followed by a mobilization of armed opportunistic defectors. Then, as more gangster and terrorist elements are recruited, massive Nato bombings are set off to precede an actual armed incursion.
Ostensibly, the assault to re-colonize Libya officially began in February 2011 with the disinformation that Moammar Kadhafi’s air force had strafed and bombed “peaceful” demonstrators — who, in no time, had lots of arms and SUVs outfitted with anti-aircraft artillery. A UN resolution for a “humanitarian no-fly zone” was thereafter rushed, which, to date, has yielded 20,000 bombing sorties that have brought death and destruction to thousands upon thousands of innocent Libyan civilians. Of course, the script will never be complete without an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Kadhafi and his family.
But despite the promise of a “short campaign” lasting a few days or weeks from US President Barack Obama, it’s been almost seven months now and still, Kadhafi continues to be a pain in his backside. Remember the reports early on of a Kadhafi plane landing in Venezuela, insinuating an escape? Well, it’s the same kind of blatant disinformation resorted to recently, where Khamis Kadhafi, the son in command of elite forces, was said to have been killed; followed by claims of another two of Kadhafi’s sons being captured.
Between the disinformation that Khamis had been killed and the rebel “invasion” of Tripoli, French journalist Thierry Meyssan reported on GlobalResearch.ca that “(by) evening, a motorcade of official cars carrying top government figures came under attack… (forcing it to flee) to the Hotel Rixos, where the foreign press is based… At 1 a.m., Khamis… came to the Rixos… personally to deliver weapons for the defense of the hotel. He then left… (after which) heavy fighting all around (ensued)…”
We all know that Libyan political leader Seif Al-Islam, another of Kadhafi’s sons, appeared later in public to rally the troops, belying western media claims that he had been arrested by rebel forces.
Moreover, as Sunday’s reports of the rebel advance into Tripoli blared, Meyssan recounted on PrisonPlanet.com eyewitness reports detailing that “a Nato warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking al-Qaeda jihadi forces… led by Nato officers… (Then, after) intense firefights… drones and aircraft (of Nato) kept bombing in all directions… straf(ing) civilians in the streets with machine guns to open the way for the jihadis.”
Kadhafi had repeatedly pointed to these al-Qaeda jihadis as the rebels’ main fighting force. So, even with al-Qaeda’s status as the West’s public enemy No. 1, it should be clear to all that these so-called “enemies” have long worked together, just as Osama bin Laden did with the CIA in Afghanistan.
Overall, since the initial assault of Nato’s sleeper elements almost seven months ago, Kadhafi had quickly regrouped and turned the tables on his foes. Indeed, while the US and Nato believed that drones and air power alone were enough to neutralize Kadhafi in weeks, they didn’t count on his troops hiding their tanks and SUVs from Tunisia to disguise themselves as rebels moving about the desert.
Now that the fighting is all over Tripoli and the other cities of Libya, there’s no denying the tenacity and “brilliance” of Kadhafi’s forces in surprising the enemy. As I have said many times, “The fighting ain’t over till it’s over.” And, going by an old military adage saying, “Let the snake’s head enter then cut it off,” the entry of rebel forces into Tripoli may well be the proverbial snake’s head that Nato-bombarded Kadhafi forces are waiting to decapitate.
Even western media have reported of an imminent “counter attack” by Kadhafi — this, as they expressed fears of a possible crack in the already fractious rebel forces, made evident by the murder of their erstwhile head, Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis, by elements believed to be linked to al-Qaeda. And as the power-crabbing and grabbing of the factions within the rebel forces may erupt any moment, time is not necessarily on Nato’s side. The longer the Kadhafi family keeps the fight going, the greater the chance for a turnaround against it.
Whatever the final outcome of the battles in Tripoli and in Libya as a whole, the conflict will exacerbate beyond the leaders of today, as what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. Expect Libyan per capita income, at $12,000/annum under Kadhafi, to be slashed to half (and then a fourth), not only because of the war but because of the West devouring the lion’s share of the wealth of Libya’s oil fields already nationalized by Kadhafi.
Both the US and Nato will continue their war campaign against Syria, and then Iran, with their ultimate goal being China — not because the emerging superpower is a threat but because war is necessary for the western oligarchs to survive and for their populations to be continually distracted — all to feed the military-industrial complex (now celebrating its 50th year) that former US President Dwight Eisenhower had warned about, which the world has unfortunately failed to act on.
Unless we stop them soon, we’ll be in for the real holocaust. For now, Kadhafi has done his part to forestall that march toward global war. To him we say, “Mabuhay ka, Kadhafi!”
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives; and e-mail me at mentong2011@gmail.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/26/2011
The strategies employed by the US and Nato are all too familiar by now: First, a massive disinformation campaign, followed by a mobilization of armed opportunistic defectors. Then, as more gangster and terrorist elements are recruited, massive Nato bombings are set off to precede an actual armed incursion.
Ostensibly, the assault to re-colonize Libya officially began in February 2011 with the disinformation that Moammar Kadhafi’s air force had strafed and bombed “peaceful” demonstrators — who, in no time, had lots of arms and SUVs outfitted with anti-aircraft artillery. A UN resolution for a “humanitarian no-fly zone” was thereafter rushed, which, to date, has yielded 20,000 bombing sorties that have brought death and destruction to thousands upon thousands of innocent Libyan civilians. Of course, the script will never be complete without an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Kadhafi and his family.
But despite the promise of a “short campaign” lasting a few days or weeks from US President Barack Obama, it’s been almost seven months now and still, Kadhafi continues to be a pain in his backside. Remember the reports early on of a Kadhafi plane landing in Venezuela, insinuating an escape? Well, it’s the same kind of blatant disinformation resorted to recently, where Khamis Kadhafi, the son in command of elite forces, was said to have been killed; followed by claims of another two of Kadhafi’s sons being captured.
Between the disinformation that Khamis had been killed and the rebel “invasion” of Tripoli, French journalist Thierry Meyssan reported on GlobalResearch.ca that “(by) evening, a motorcade of official cars carrying top government figures came under attack… (forcing it to flee) to the Hotel Rixos, where the foreign press is based… At 1 a.m., Khamis… came to the Rixos… personally to deliver weapons for the defense of the hotel. He then left… (after which) heavy fighting all around (ensued)…”
We all know that Libyan political leader Seif Al-Islam, another of Kadhafi’s sons, appeared later in public to rally the troops, belying western media claims that he had been arrested by rebel forces.
Moreover, as Sunday’s reports of the rebel advance into Tripoli blared, Meyssan recounted on PrisonPlanet.com eyewitness reports detailing that “a Nato warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking al-Qaeda jihadi forces… led by Nato officers… (Then, after) intense firefights… drones and aircraft (of Nato) kept bombing in all directions… straf(ing) civilians in the streets with machine guns to open the way for the jihadis.”
Kadhafi had repeatedly pointed to these al-Qaeda jihadis as the rebels’ main fighting force. So, even with al-Qaeda’s status as the West’s public enemy No. 1, it should be clear to all that these so-called “enemies” have long worked together, just as Osama bin Laden did with the CIA in Afghanistan.
Overall, since the initial assault of Nato’s sleeper elements almost seven months ago, Kadhafi had quickly regrouped and turned the tables on his foes. Indeed, while the US and Nato believed that drones and air power alone were enough to neutralize Kadhafi in weeks, they didn’t count on his troops hiding their tanks and SUVs from Tunisia to disguise themselves as rebels moving about the desert.
Now that the fighting is all over Tripoli and the other cities of Libya, there’s no denying the tenacity and “brilliance” of Kadhafi’s forces in surprising the enemy. As I have said many times, “The fighting ain’t over till it’s over.” And, going by an old military adage saying, “Let the snake’s head enter then cut it off,” the entry of rebel forces into Tripoli may well be the proverbial snake’s head that Nato-bombarded Kadhafi forces are waiting to decapitate.
Even western media have reported of an imminent “counter attack” by Kadhafi — this, as they expressed fears of a possible crack in the already fractious rebel forces, made evident by the murder of their erstwhile head, Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis, by elements believed to be linked to al-Qaeda. And as the power-crabbing and grabbing of the factions within the rebel forces may erupt any moment, time is not necessarily on Nato’s side. The longer the Kadhafi family keeps the fight going, the greater the chance for a turnaround against it.
Whatever the final outcome of the battles in Tripoli and in Libya as a whole, the conflict will exacerbate beyond the leaders of today, as what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. Expect Libyan per capita income, at $12,000/annum under Kadhafi, to be slashed to half (and then a fourth), not only because of the war but because of the West devouring the lion’s share of the wealth of Libya’s oil fields already nationalized by Kadhafi.
Both the US and Nato will continue their war campaign against Syria, and then Iran, with their ultimate goal being China — not because the emerging superpower is a threat but because war is necessary for the western oligarchs to survive and for their populations to be continually distracted — all to feed the military-industrial complex (now celebrating its 50th year) that former US President Dwight Eisenhower had warned about, which the world has unfortunately failed to act on.
Unless we stop them soon, we’ll be in for the real holocaust. For now, Kadhafi has done his part to forestall that march toward global war. To him we say, “Mabuhay ka, Kadhafi!”
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives; and e-mail me at mentong2011@gmail.com)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
MPIC, ERC, et al.: Economic sabotage
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/22-24/2011
High winds and turbulent tides are lashing our Philippine economy.
As the main engine of the world economy buckles, with the US financial system reeling from its asymmetrically exploding fiscal crisis, Europe staggers amidst socio-economic upheaval while the Japanese nation’s risen sun dims in the dark cloud of its tectonic and nuclear disaster.
Inevitably, local business news reported that “Exports (are) down 10.2 percent in June,” from $4.557 to $4.092 billion year-on-year, or a loss of almost P25.2 billion.
Sustaining Losses
On top of that, the Philippine economy in general -- including our exporters, as well as our largest dollar-earning sectors, the OFWs and BPOs -- is sustaining many losses from the appreciation of our currency.
Every peso appreciation to the dollar costs OFWs a least a billion and BPOs probably close to that amount.
From the way the global situation looks, it will be even worse in the next two months.
But while all these setbacks are hitting the Philippine economy, Filipino entrepreneurs, workers, and consumers like tons of bricks in every waking hour, guess what, the newspapers have reported that a Big Business conglomerate such as Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) expects core profits to grow nearly 25 percent, with 31 percent coming from its Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) operations which have been reaping up to 87 percent in profit growth each year, from 2008 to 2010.
Why, MPIC CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan even expects its power unit’s profits to grow “modestly” to P14 billion in 2011, which it seems ready to exceed by the time the year ends, judging from it profits midway.
How did the power company achieve such a feat and continue this bountiful harvest for MPIC?
New Pac-Man
Newspaper reports state that in the first half of 2011, “Meralco’s core net income increased 35 percent to P7.82 billion on higher distribution tariffs despite the slightly lower volume of electricity sold because of the cooler weather and lower industrial consumption of power as a result of the disruption caused by the March earthquake in Japan.”
So, Meralco sold less electricity but got higher profits.
Now isn’t that one business everyone should envy?
The other major component of MPIC’s profit this year -- which was a surprise even to me despite my constant monitoring of the utilities sector -- is from water.
With the control of Maynilad Water Service Inc. (MWSI) by MPIC, better known as the “Manny Pangilinan Infection of Companies,” a new Pac-Man has indeed arrived! MWSI contributed 41 percent of MPIC’s profits -- again on higher rates plus tax holidays.
The next major unit contributing P720 million or 21 percent of MPIC’s profits is its infrastructure arm, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC).
Its higher rates are, of course, the culprit again.
eVAT for Motorists
Note that this does not yet include the 12 percent eVAT soon to be slapped on hapless motorists due to the Supreme Court (SC)’s recent decision sustaining the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)’s imposition of said tax.
Overall, though, of all the utility services under the MPIC empire, it’s still power that draws the greatest attention due to its far-reaching effects on the most number of people and enterprises.
Meralco’s “highest power cost in Asia,” as stated in a February study by the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation (PEC) and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) entitled, “The Impact of High Energy Costs on Exports,” which quotes an October 2010 study by independent think tank, International Energy Consultants, was described as such: “with average retail rate of electricity of 18.1 US cents per kilowatt/hour… the Philippines… has eased out Japan at the top… at 17.9 US cents per kilowatt/hour.”
The report further stated: “The high cost of electricity in the Philippines was traced by the group to the fact that all costs --from producing power to distribution and taxes-- are passed on to consumers.
Besides, the Philippines is the only country in the region that has privatized its electric power sector and has no state subsidy on rates.
Power Rates Mount
The (2010) study likewise noted that domestic natural gas coming from the Malampaya gas deposits in offshore Palawan that fuels three of the biggest power plants in Luzon (has) been priced so high. It has been suggested that the Philippine government renegotiate the Malampaya contract to bring down the cost of natural gas.”
Meanwhile, other power rate hikes have been mounting this past month: First, the Supreme Court sided with both the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Meralco on a 2009 P0.29/kWh rate hike petition on purely technical procedural grounds, making everyone wonder whether P-Noy’s first appointee there, Justice Lourdes Sereno, appreciates the substantive issue of Salus populi est suprema lex (the welfare of the people is the supreme law) as the ponente in the case.
Sereno even faulted consumers, saying, “they should be more vigilant in protecting their rights,” but does not consider that Meralco has hundreds of millions to pay for lawyers (with literally two dozens appearing on its behalf), not to mention P480 million for “regulatory liaison,” P72 million for foreign consultants, ad nausea, all charged to its customers. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, have to pay for their own fares; solicit volunteer legal representation; and plod through deliberately obfuscated ERC rules and rulings.
So how in heaven’s name can Sereno still claim that consumers have been remiss?
Bleeding Heart
Second, within the same month, Congress has extended the lifeline rate to consumers using 99 kWh/month or less of electricity but takes this doleout from paying consumers who use up to 100 kWh/month upwards, most of whom are equally poor; this, despite the fact that a bleeding heart such as House Energy Committee chair Rep. Dina Abad does not even shell out a cent from her P380-million pork barrel.
Then, we have the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)’s approval of a P4.5-billion National Power Corp. (Napocor) petition for increase of P0.07/kWh starting August to cover for “losses” from its 2003 to 2009 missionary electrification operations.
But that’s not all: In the same month again, Meralco announces an 8.5 centavos per kWh generation rate hike from the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market)’s share of power, which went up due to Malampaya Gas’ price hike (increasing WESM rates from P1.29/kWh to a gobsmacking P9.70/kWh, when the average regular generation rate is around P5.00/kWh).
Proponents of the wretched 10-year-old EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) claim that WESM will bring down rates by competition; but it’s plain to see that it has more than doubled charges in the long run.
Indeed, we have so many fronts to watch out for in the power sector.
Murderous Exactions
In Mindanao alone, we have the Aboitizes and Alcantaras who are waiting to pounce on the privatization of the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complexes that supply the cheapest power in the country.
Even though they have so far been frustrated, the Alcantara group, through Joseph C. Nocos, Sarangani Energy Corp. vice-president for business development, part of the Alsons Consolidated Resources Corp., has proposed that authorities “privatize the future output of the power plants much like an independent power producer administrator contract but have the government keep control over the power plants.” Sneaky, sneaky...
Last, as if you are not yet dizzied by all the convoluted crap, the headline of one Aug. 1 report even has this proposal from another EPIRA body, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC): “Higher fee sought for power mart… to increase by 17 percent fees in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) it operates… (for a) rate of P0.0168/kWh for 2011…”
With all these murderous exactions on privatized power and public services, can anyone expect our people and economy to survive?
Hope for Justice
We thus ask of the last bastion of the people’s hope for justice, the Supreme Court, which defended public welfare through its 2003 decisions against the ERC and Meralco: Has it now been captured too?
We persist in our fight because we know the Filipino consumer can only take so much.
Hopefully, the next power and public utility hikes will serve as the final spark to light the prairie fire.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., andSulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/22-24/2011
High winds and turbulent tides are lashing our Philippine economy.
As the main engine of the world economy buckles, with the US financial system reeling from its asymmetrically exploding fiscal crisis, Europe staggers amidst socio-economic upheaval while the Japanese nation’s risen sun dims in the dark cloud of its tectonic and nuclear disaster.
Inevitably, local business news reported that “Exports (are) down 10.2 percent in June,” from $4.557 to $4.092 billion year-on-year, or a loss of almost P25.2 billion.
Sustaining Losses
On top of that, the Philippine economy in general -- including our exporters, as well as our largest dollar-earning sectors, the OFWs and BPOs -- is sustaining many losses from the appreciation of our currency.
Every peso appreciation to the dollar costs OFWs a least a billion and BPOs probably close to that amount.
From the way the global situation looks, it will be even worse in the next two months.
But while all these setbacks are hitting the Philippine economy, Filipino entrepreneurs, workers, and consumers like tons of bricks in every waking hour, guess what, the newspapers have reported that a Big Business conglomerate such as Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) expects core profits to grow nearly 25 percent, with 31 percent coming from its Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) operations which have been reaping up to 87 percent in profit growth each year, from 2008 to 2010.
Why, MPIC CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan even expects its power unit’s profits to grow “modestly” to P14 billion in 2011, which it seems ready to exceed by the time the year ends, judging from it profits midway.
How did the power company achieve such a feat and continue this bountiful harvest for MPIC?
New Pac-Man
Newspaper reports state that in the first half of 2011, “Meralco’s core net income increased 35 percent to P7.82 billion on higher distribution tariffs despite the slightly lower volume of electricity sold because of the cooler weather and lower industrial consumption of power as a result of the disruption caused by the March earthquake in Japan.”
So, Meralco sold less electricity but got higher profits.
Now isn’t that one business everyone should envy?
The other major component of MPIC’s profit this year -- which was a surprise even to me despite my constant monitoring of the utilities sector -- is from water.
With the control of Maynilad Water Service Inc. (MWSI) by MPIC, better known as the “Manny Pangilinan Infection of Companies,” a new Pac-Man has indeed arrived! MWSI contributed 41 percent of MPIC’s profits -- again on higher rates plus tax holidays.
The next major unit contributing P720 million or 21 percent of MPIC’s profits is its infrastructure arm, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC).
Its higher rates are, of course, the culprit again.
eVAT for Motorists
Note that this does not yet include the 12 percent eVAT soon to be slapped on hapless motorists due to the Supreme Court (SC)’s recent decision sustaining the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)’s imposition of said tax.
Overall, though, of all the utility services under the MPIC empire, it’s still power that draws the greatest attention due to its far-reaching effects on the most number of people and enterprises.
Meralco’s “highest power cost in Asia,” as stated in a February study by the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation (PEC) and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) entitled, “The Impact of High Energy Costs on Exports,” which quotes an October 2010 study by independent think tank, International Energy Consultants, was described as such: “with average retail rate of electricity of 18.1 US cents per kilowatt/hour… the Philippines… has eased out Japan at the top… at 17.9 US cents per kilowatt/hour.”
The report further stated: “The high cost of electricity in the Philippines was traced by the group to the fact that all costs --from producing power to distribution and taxes-- are passed on to consumers.
Besides, the Philippines is the only country in the region that has privatized its electric power sector and has no state subsidy on rates.
Power Rates Mount
The (2010) study likewise noted that domestic natural gas coming from the Malampaya gas deposits in offshore Palawan that fuels three of the biggest power plants in Luzon (has) been priced so high. It has been suggested that the Philippine government renegotiate the Malampaya contract to bring down the cost of natural gas.”
Meanwhile, other power rate hikes have been mounting this past month: First, the Supreme Court sided with both the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Meralco on a 2009 P0.29/kWh rate hike petition on purely technical procedural grounds, making everyone wonder whether P-Noy’s first appointee there, Justice Lourdes Sereno, appreciates the substantive issue of Salus populi est suprema lex (the welfare of the people is the supreme law) as the ponente in the case.
Sereno even faulted consumers, saying, “they should be more vigilant in protecting their rights,” but does not consider that Meralco has hundreds of millions to pay for lawyers (with literally two dozens appearing on its behalf), not to mention P480 million for “regulatory liaison,” P72 million for foreign consultants, ad nausea, all charged to its customers. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, have to pay for their own fares; solicit volunteer legal representation; and plod through deliberately obfuscated ERC rules and rulings.
So how in heaven’s name can Sereno still claim that consumers have been remiss?
Bleeding Heart
Second, within the same month, Congress has extended the lifeline rate to consumers using 99 kWh/month or less of electricity but takes this doleout from paying consumers who use up to 100 kWh/month upwards, most of whom are equally poor; this, despite the fact that a bleeding heart such as House Energy Committee chair Rep. Dina Abad does not even shell out a cent from her P380-million pork barrel.
Then, we have the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)’s approval of a P4.5-billion National Power Corp. (Napocor) petition for increase of P0.07/kWh starting August to cover for “losses” from its 2003 to 2009 missionary electrification operations.
But that’s not all: In the same month again, Meralco announces an 8.5 centavos per kWh generation rate hike from the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market)’s share of power, which went up due to Malampaya Gas’ price hike (increasing WESM rates from P1.29/kWh to a gobsmacking P9.70/kWh, when the average regular generation rate is around P5.00/kWh).
Proponents of the wretched 10-year-old EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) claim that WESM will bring down rates by competition; but it’s plain to see that it has more than doubled charges in the long run.
Indeed, we have so many fronts to watch out for in the power sector.
Murderous Exactions
In Mindanao alone, we have the Aboitizes and Alcantaras who are waiting to pounce on the privatization of the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complexes that supply the cheapest power in the country.
Even though they have so far been frustrated, the Alcantara group, through Joseph C. Nocos, Sarangani Energy Corp. vice-president for business development, part of the Alsons Consolidated Resources Corp., has proposed that authorities “privatize the future output of the power plants much like an independent power producer administrator contract but have the government keep control over the power plants.” Sneaky, sneaky...
Last, as if you are not yet dizzied by all the convoluted crap, the headline of one Aug. 1 report even has this proposal from another EPIRA body, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC): “Higher fee sought for power mart… to increase by 17 percent fees in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) it operates… (for a) rate of P0.0168/kWh for 2011…”
With all these murderous exactions on privatized power and public services, can anyone expect our people and economy to survive?
Hope for Justice
We thus ask of the last bastion of the people’s hope for justice, the Supreme Court, which defended public welfare through its 2003 decisions against the ERC and Meralco: Has it now been captured too?
We persist in our fight because we know the Filipino consumer can only take so much.
Hopefully, the next power and public utility hikes will serve as the final spark to light the prairie fire.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., andSulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)
Ghosts of assassinations, bombings, coups, demos, EDSA's, elections, fraud, rebellions, & seditions
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/22-24/2011
Don’t ever make the mistake of inviting me to any of the above. I’m a joiner and a perennial supporter. And if nobody else wants to lead, I will always be available to do so. I might just honor your invitation.
Then you will have to feed my appetite for activism, adventure, advocacy, danger, defeat, excitement, helping lost causes and “talunans,” history, love of country and politics, passion to do good and bad, patriotism, romance, success, victory.
Seven years ago (around FPJ’s August 20, 2004 birthday), fellow OpinYon columnist Herman “Ka Mentong” Tiu Laurel invited me to have lunch with Erap in his Tanay farm resort. Accepting that one lunch invitation led to my having lunch with Erap in Tanay once a week for the next three years and two months.
And the rest of the week, I had lunch with Erap’s younger brother, Jesse, and Erap’s battle staff, at 409 Shaw Boulevard.
When Erap was released on Friday, October 26, 2007, it became daily weekday lunches at Erap’s clubhouse at 1 Polk Street, North Greenhills, San Juan.
More accurately, we would assemble at the office at # 15 Hayes Street and walk over to the clubhouse next door.
A Yellow Ghost
The day before Ondoy, Friday, September 25, the yellow ghosts made me say goodbye to Erap. That farewell showed me that there is no more gracious gentleman in the world than Erap.
Lunch with Erap had become my social, political and business routine for five years.
I gave that up for a Noynoy that I did not believe was prepared for the presidency. I had campaigned and lobbied from August 8 to September 9, 2009 for him to run for Vice President instead.
When my enlightened efforts failed, I joined the unenlightened mob and supported Noynoy for President. “Bahala na kung anong mangyari!”
Not just one, but several invitations plucked me away from Erap and thrust me back into the mess that the Aquino–Cojuangco clan is.
On Saturday, September 11, former QC Mayor Brigido “Jun” Simon hosted a small dinner for his friends and political colleagues.
Former QC District 2 Congressman Tony Aquino was to deliver the pitch for Noynoy. He would be assisted by former QC District I Councilor Emil Tamayo. At the end of the meeting, Tony invited Jun and me to a meeting of the 1987-92 batch of Congressmen at the BMW coffee shop along E. Rodriguez/C-5 in Libis, QC on Tuesday, September 14.
On Friday, September 17, I was invited to a reorganization meeting at the AIM lounge of the old FPJ Movement (2003) now to be called Sulong NOYNOY.
Later, it would be renamed Sulong NOY-MAR. Its chairman was Manny Portes.
Noynoy for VP
Finally, on Saturday, September 18, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIAA General Manager Romeo Santos invited me to the birthday party of former Tarlac Congressman Jose “Peping” S. Cojuangco, Jr.. There, I managed to introduce myself to Noynoy as the campaign manager of the “Noynoy for Vice President Movement”.
With so many colleagues and friends from past battles, I became comfortable and confident with the movement and the organizations supporting Noynoy. I forgot that I was not confident and comfortable with the candidate for the position he was running for.
Way back in 1997, the same thing happened to me. My wife and I had made “paalam” to Miriam Defensor and Jun Santiago in December 1995. That was seven months after we had helped Miriam become a Senator and almost four years after I had left Speaker Mitra and the LDP to join Miriam and Jun in the PRP.
In 1996, we joined Erap thru Reli German and Robert Aventajado.
However, they did not bring me into the PMP or JEEP ni Erap. They assigned me to a special operation on my own.
A Heart like Erap’s
After a whole year of doing nothing, I tried to transfer to the PMP under Chairman Neptali Gonzales and Secretary General Benjamin Abalos.
However, they both resigned to be replaced by Orly Mercado and Lito Banayo. By then, nalipasan na ako ng gutom kay Erap (Not in the sense of food and money but rather mission and work.).
So I left Erap and went to GMA and Kampi in 1997. I supported GMA not due to her own worth but because of my colleagues of the past who were now with GMA and Kampi.
Almost a year after leaving him and his group, in September 2010, I was again invited to have lunch with Erap.
That has led to Wednesday lunches with Erap for the past 11 months.
Now, it is Wednesdays and Fridays.
It is not at all surprising for Erap to forgive and renew friendships with those who have left him.
What is surprising is that in my senior years, I developed many physical aches and pains during the year that I was not eating Erap’s rich cuisine.
They developed during the time that Noynoy was not nurturing comradeship, friendship and “pakikisama” with me and my comrades.
Sticker King
On December 30, 2002, the Philippine Daily Inquirer featured me on its front page holding a new black and white “Question Mark (?)” sticker.
That same day, at Rizal Day Ceremonies in Baguio, GMA promised not to run in May 2004.
On January 2, 2003, I blew the whistle on many anomalies at the PCSO where I was a member of the Board of Directors. To GMA’s credit, she said that she would not interfere. She did not replace me until January 16, 2004, a year and half a month later.
By that time I was well on the way to establishing myself as the Sticker King.
Eventually, I would produce more than a million stickers of about five hundred designs for FPJ and his organizations and supporters.
Noted: FPJ for President
In the following months after my PCSO expose , I frequented the 365 Club at the Jeepney Bar Coffee Shop of the Intercontinental Hotel.
There, I met again an old colleague from PDP Laban (1982-1985), Ver Tordera.
Together with former Makati Assemblyman Architect Gaite and others, Ver had organized the FPJ Volunteers Brigade. They were the Chairman and Secretary General.
I joined them and we worked first to convince FPJ to run for President. When FPJ agreed to do so in October, November and December 2003, we worked for his election.
We won but GMA stole the Presidency a second time.
The National Board of Canvassers, the Congress Majority just “Noted” us.
Last Saturday, August 20, FPJ’s birthday.
We went to the Poe Family burial plot at the Manila North Cemetery to honor the King who would have been President.
Anti-FM
For a detailed explanation of how his and our dreams were thwarted by GMA and her Garci, read my eldest brother, Mano’s (who died Sunday, July 24.) article “Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Elections” in the “Talk of the Town” section, pg. 14 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sunday, August 14.
Yesterday, August 21, was the 31st anniversary of the start of the bombing campaign of the April 6 Liberation Movement.
This campaign culminated in the bombing of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) convention at the PICC right after Marcos finished his speech.
The A6LM was the most cost effective violent anti-FM liberation movement.
It came into being after the earlier and older “Light a Fire” freedom fighters were caught and neutralized in late 1979.
P-Noy’s Ks
Tuesday, August 23, is not only the actual date of the first anniversary of OpinYon, it is also the first anniversary of the Luneta Hostage Massacre.
That grandmother of all “kapalpakans” is what reopened my eyes and opened my mouth about P Noy, his administration and his k’s...
From September 26, 2009 until August 22, 2010, I supported Noynoy.
After May 11, 2007 until August 22, 2010, I refrained from criticising P-Noy and his officials.
Sometime in June last year my suppressed feelings about P-Noy crossed paths with a would-be publisher of a weekly opinion paper.
The rest is history – of OpinYon’s Linggoy and “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/22-24/2011
Don’t ever make the mistake of inviting me to any of the above. I’m a joiner and a perennial supporter. And if nobody else wants to lead, I will always be available to do so. I might just honor your invitation.
Then you will have to feed my appetite for activism, adventure, advocacy, danger, defeat, excitement, helping lost causes and “talunans,” history, love of country and politics, passion to do good and bad, patriotism, romance, success, victory.
Seven years ago (around FPJ’s August 20, 2004 birthday), fellow OpinYon columnist Herman “Ka Mentong” Tiu Laurel invited me to have lunch with Erap in his Tanay farm resort. Accepting that one lunch invitation led to my having lunch with Erap in Tanay once a week for the next three years and two months.
And the rest of the week, I had lunch with Erap’s younger brother, Jesse, and Erap’s battle staff, at 409 Shaw Boulevard.
When Erap was released on Friday, October 26, 2007, it became daily weekday lunches at Erap’s clubhouse at 1 Polk Street, North Greenhills, San Juan.
More accurately, we would assemble at the office at # 15 Hayes Street and walk over to the clubhouse next door.
A Yellow Ghost
The day before Ondoy, Friday, September 25, the yellow ghosts made me say goodbye to Erap. That farewell showed me that there is no more gracious gentleman in the world than Erap.
Lunch with Erap had become my social, political and business routine for five years.
I gave that up for a Noynoy that I did not believe was prepared for the presidency. I had campaigned and lobbied from August 8 to September 9, 2009 for him to run for Vice President instead.
When my enlightened efforts failed, I joined the unenlightened mob and supported Noynoy for President. “Bahala na kung anong mangyari!”
Not just one, but several invitations plucked me away from Erap and thrust me back into the mess that the Aquino–Cojuangco clan is.
On Saturday, September 11, former QC Mayor Brigido “Jun” Simon hosted a small dinner for his friends and political colleagues.
Former QC District 2 Congressman Tony Aquino was to deliver the pitch for Noynoy. He would be assisted by former QC District I Councilor Emil Tamayo. At the end of the meeting, Tony invited Jun and me to a meeting of the 1987-92 batch of Congressmen at the BMW coffee shop along E. Rodriguez/C-5 in Libis, QC on Tuesday, September 14.
On Friday, September 17, I was invited to a reorganization meeting at the AIM lounge of the old FPJ Movement (2003) now to be called Sulong NOYNOY.
Later, it would be renamed Sulong NOY-MAR. Its chairman was Manny Portes.
Noynoy for VP
Finally, on Saturday, September 18, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIAA General Manager Romeo Santos invited me to the birthday party of former Tarlac Congressman Jose “Peping” S. Cojuangco, Jr.. There, I managed to introduce myself to Noynoy as the campaign manager of the “Noynoy for Vice President Movement”.
With so many colleagues and friends from past battles, I became comfortable and confident with the movement and the organizations supporting Noynoy. I forgot that I was not confident and comfortable with the candidate for the position he was running for.
Way back in 1997, the same thing happened to me. My wife and I had made “paalam” to Miriam Defensor and Jun Santiago in December 1995. That was seven months after we had helped Miriam become a Senator and almost four years after I had left Speaker Mitra and the LDP to join Miriam and Jun in the PRP.
In 1996, we joined Erap thru Reli German and Robert Aventajado.
However, they did not bring me into the PMP or JEEP ni Erap. They assigned me to a special operation on my own.
A Heart like Erap’s
After a whole year of doing nothing, I tried to transfer to the PMP under Chairman Neptali Gonzales and Secretary General Benjamin Abalos.
However, they both resigned to be replaced by Orly Mercado and Lito Banayo. By then, nalipasan na ako ng gutom kay Erap (Not in the sense of food and money but rather mission and work.).
So I left Erap and went to GMA and Kampi in 1997. I supported GMA not due to her own worth but because of my colleagues of the past who were now with GMA and Kampi.
Almost a year after leaving him and his group, in September 2010, I was again invited to have lunch with Erap.
That has led to Wednesday lunches with Erap for the past 11 months.
Now, it is Wednesdays and Fridays.
It is not at all surprising for Erap to forgive and renew friendships with those who have left him.
What is surprising is that in my senior years, I developed many physical aches and pains during the year that I was not eating Erap’s rich cuisine.
They developed during the time that Noynoy was not nurturing comradeship, friendship and “pakikisama” with me and my comrades.
Sticker King
On December 30, 2002, the Philippine Daily Inquirer featured me on its front page holding a new black and white “Question Mark (?)” sticker.
That same day, at Rizal Day Ceremonies in Baguio, GMA promised not to run in May 2004.
On January 2, 2003, I blew the whistle on many anomalies at the PCSO where I was a member of the Board of Directors. To GMA’s credit, she said that she would not interfere. She did not replace me until January 16, 2004, a year and half a month later.
By that time I was well on the way to establishing myself as the Sticker King.
Eventually, I would produce more than a million stickers of about five hundred designs for FPJ and his organizations and supporters.
Noted: FPJ for President
In the following months after my PCSO expose , I frequented the 365 Club at the Jeepney Bar Coffee Shop of the Intercontinental Hotel.
There, I met again an old colleague from PDP Laban (1982-1985), Ver Tordera.
Together with former Makati Assemblyman Architect Gaite and others, Ver had organized the FPJ Volunteers Brigade. They were the Chairman and Secretary General.
I joined them and we worked first to convince FPJ to run for President. When FPJ agreed to do so in October, November and December 2003, we worked for his election.
We won but GMA stole the Presidency a second time.
The National Board of Canvassers, the Congress Majority just “Noted” us.
Last Saturday, August 20, FPJ’s birthday.
We went to the Poe Family burial plot at the Manila North Cemetery to honor the King who would have been President.
Anti-FM
For a detailed explanation of how his and our dreams were thwarted by GMA and her Garci, read my eldest brother, Mano’s (who died Sunday, July 24.) article “Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Elections” in the “Talk of the Town” section, pg. 14 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sunday, August 14.
Yesterday, August 21, was the 31st anniversary of the start of the bombing campaign of the April 6 Liberation Movement.
This campaign culminated in the bombing of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) convention at the PICC right after Marcos finished his speech.
The A6LM was the most cost effective violent anti-FM liberation movement.
It came into being after the earlier and older “Light a Fire” freedom fighters were caught and neutralized in late 1979.
P-Noy’s Ks
Tuesday, August 23, is not only the actual date of the first anniversary of OpinYon, it is also the first anniversary of the Luneta Hostage Massacre.
That grandmother of all “kapalpakans” is what reopened my eyes and opened my mouth about P Noy, his administration and his k’s...
From September 26, 2009 until August 22, 2010, I supported Noynoy.
After May 11, 2007 until August 22, 2010, I refrained from criticising P-Noy and his officials.
Sometime in June last year my suppressed feelings about P-Noy crossed paths with a would-be publisher of a weekly opinion paper.
The rest is history – of OpinYon’s Linggoy and “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
Monday, August 22, 2011
Of 'ratings' and 'news' agencies
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/22/2011
Ratings agencies are the financial world’s equivalent of today’s global “fashion dictators,” from Gucci, Dior, to Louis Vuitton, who decide what’s in and hot from the ramps of Paris or Milan. In the same way that fashion aficionados look to these luxury brands for the latest trends, presented in glossy sheen by the leading magazines, high-end department stores, boutiques, and celebrity “fashionistas,” ratings agencies are dutifully followed by the investment world’s big and small fund speculators, investors, and banks.
Down a rung or two, so-called “pirates” — both fashion and financial — from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shenzhen, or Manila always keep a close watch to get their new line of pirated designs or passed down prognoses of financial ratings agencies, which then enable them to partake of the “killing.”
For them to succeed in mesmerizing the masses whose pockets are the goal, the global mass media is indispensable. Day in and day out, this mass media churns out fashion and financial glitter to keep audiences in rapt embrace.
While I have not followed the fashion scene for quite some time, I get the impression that the dearth of new names making an impact both here and abroad may well be one of the signs of the times of declining economic fortunes and increasing misery.
As I have been following more closely the financial ratings agencies, I have helped in aggressively debunking the myth of their validity, reliability, and relevance for real financial and economic evaluation of the global and national economy. In fact, this space is only one of the very few critical of the so-called big three — Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings — which mainstream business media consider as the gods of their financial Mount Olympus.
In the past decade, we were among the few voices in the wilderness on this matter; but ever since the Global Financial Crash of ‘08, where these ratings agencies still spouted rosy prognoses of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, and other financial houses the day before the sky fell on them, the world’s view of them have already taken a negative turn.
For sure, Standard and Poor’s credit downgrade of the US a week ago while Obama and the Republican-dominated House were in the thick of their “debt cap” debates has not helped either, especially since Moody’s and Fitch weighed in with their positive ratings just a few days after American political and financial authorities raised their vehement objections.
As I have written before, both China and Europe have since reacted against these ratings agencies. China set up its own called Dagong after declaring the traditional ratings agencies as “unreliable,” whereas Europe threatened to establish its own after the big three downgraded Portugal and Spain’s credit-worthiness at a crucial moment of the EU (European Union)’s recovery economic efforts. As these ratings agencies are now in disarray, all we can say is “Good riddance!”
Similarly, we also want to call attention to the western “international” news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press (both British), and Agence France Presse (French). Like the top fashion houses, these major news wires practically dictate the world’s news trends and, when they choose, even the direction of national news stories.
Many Filipino newspapers, broadcast networks, and news writers take these major news wires’ reports as gospel truth and repeat whatever is fed to them over and over until every Juan, Pedro and Maria believe these to be gospel truth.
Let’s take the latest news from the Associated Press (AP) about Libya where its headline says, “Libyan rebels: Key city, oil terminal seized,” as well as Reuters’ “Libya rebels strategic town (Zawiyah) near Triopli” and Agence France Presse (AFP)’s “Fighting erupts in Tripoli as rebels say regime is doomed,” all of which are not balanced by news such as those coming from Russia Today (RT) on statements by the Libyan government’s official spokesman belying these claims, which are never reported by the three major Western news agencies.
Each morning, after perusing all the major national newspapers on the Internet, I shift to reading Press TV (official news wire of Iran), RT (Russian cable news), Prison Planet (a dissident Web site in the US), GlobalResearch or the Centre for Research on Globalization (an anti-globalist Web site), China Daily, and Asia Times. When I turn on my Destiny Cable, I go immediately to RT and CCTV 9, and only scan CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera briefly. You’d be surprised at the utter Western media bias. For example, it is only from RT that I get this report:
“Independent journalist Lizzie Phelan says the reports are an effort by Natp to create panic. ‘The only gunfire that we are hearing is celebratory gunfire,’ she said. ‘And the only explosions that we are hearing are Nato air strikes or Natp sound bombs, which are clearly designed to create a sense of panic in… Tripoli.’ Phelan said that the Libyan rebels created fake footage of themselves in Zawiyah and Tripoli, and were aided in disseminating the footage by, among other media outlets, Al Jazeera. The Qatar-based satellite television station… has been at the center of the media conspiracy against Libya. The Western mainstream media, she continued, in turn picked up these reports and repeated them, creating a sense of panic among the Libyan people. Later… a number of armed gangs emerged… sleeper cells of rebels… (which) began firing randomly and threatening ordinary people… ‘They then took footage of the empty streets, which created the sense that they were in the process of capturing the city.’”
Al Jazeera, financed by a Western-controlled potentate, the Emir of Qatar, has been at the forefront of the disinformation campaign against Libya, starting with the fake news of Gaddafi’s jets bombing demonstrators back in February — news which CNN and BBC then repeated endlessly. Like fashion czars and financial ratings agencies of the West, these major news wires are mere tools of foreign financial predators. Time for the public to wake up!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Coconut vs. Alzheimer’s”; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/22/2011
Ratings agencies are the financial world’s equivalent of today’s global “fashion dictators,” from Gucci, Dior, to Louis Vuitton, who decide what’s in and hot from the ramps of Paris or Milan. In the same way that fashion aficionados look to these luxury brands for the latest trends, presented in glossy sheen by the leading magazines, high-end department stores, boutiques, and celebrity “fashionistas,” ratings agencies are dutifully followed by the investment world’s big and small fund speculators, investors, and banks.
Down a rung or two, so-called “pirates” — both fashion and financial — from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shenzhen, or Manila always keep a close watch to get their new line of pirated designs or passed down prognoses of financial ratings agencies, which then enable them to partake of the “killing.”
For them to succeed in mesmerizing the masses whose pockets are the goal, the global mass media is indispensable. Day in and day out, this mass media churns out fashion and financial glitter to keep audiences in rapt embrace.
While I have not followed the fashion scene for quite some time, I get the impression that the dearth of new names making an impact both here and abroad may well be one of the signs of the times of declining economic fortunes and increasing misery.
As I have been following more closely the financial ratings agencies, I have helped in aggressively debunking the myth of their validity, reliability, and relevance for real financial and economic evaluation of the global and national economy. In fact, this space is only one of the very few critical of the so-called big three — Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings — which mainstream business media consider as the gods of their financial Mount Olympus.
In the past decade, we were among the few voices in the wilderness on this matter; but ever since the Global Financial Crash of ‘08, where these ratings agencies still spouted rosy prognoses of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, and other financial houses the day before the sky fell on them, the world’s view of them have already taken a negative turn.
For sure, Standard and Poor’s credit downgrade of the US a week ago while Obama and the Republican-dominated House were in the thick of their “debt cap” debates has not helped either, especially since Moody’s and Fitch weighed in with their positive ratings just a few days after American political and financial authorities raised their vehement objections.
As I have written before, both China and Europe have since reacted against these ratings agencies. China set up its own called Dagong after declaring the traditional ratings agencies as “unreliable,” whereas Europe threatened to establish its own after the big three downgraded Portugal and Spain’s credit-worthiness at a crucial moment of the EU (European Union)’s recovery economic efforts. As these ratings agencies are now in disarray, all we can say is “Good riddance!”
Similarly, we also want to call attention to the western “international” news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press (both British), and Agence France Presse (French). Like the top fashion houses, these major news wires practically dictate the world’s news trends and, when they choose, even the direction of national news stories.
Many Filipino newspapers, broadcast networks, and news writers take these major news wires’ reports as gospel truth and repeat whatever is fed to them over and over until every Juan, Pedro and Maria believe these to be gospel truth.
Let’s take the latest news from the Associated Press (AP) about Libya where its headline says, “Libyan rebels: Key city, oil terminal seized,” as well as Reuters’ “Libya rebels strategic town (Zawiyah) near Triopli” and Agence France Presse (AFP)’s “Fighting erupts in Tripoli as rebels say regime is doomed,” all of which are not balanced by news such as those coming from Russia Today (RT) on statements by the Libyan government’s official spokesman belying these claims, which are never reported by the three major Western news agencies.
Each morning, after perusing all the major national newspapers on the Internet, I shift to reading Press TV (official news wire of Iran), RT (Russian cable news), Prison Planet (a dissident Web site in the US), GlobalResearch or the Centre for Research on Globalization (an anti-globalist Web site), China Daily, and Asia Times. When I turn on my Destiny Cable, I go immediately to RT and CCTV 9, and only scan CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera briefly. You’d be surprised at the utter Western media bias. For example, it is only from RT that I get this report:
“Independent journalist Lizzie Phelan says the reports are an effort by Natp to create panic. ‘The only gunfire that we are hearing is celebratory gunfire,’ she said. ‘And the only explosions that we are hearing are Nato air strikes or Natp sound bombs, which are clearly designed to create a sense of panic in… Tripoli.’ Phelan said that the Libyan rebels created fake footage of themselves in Zawiyah and Tripoli, and were aided in disseminating the footage by, among other media outlets, Al Jazeera. The Qatar-based satellite television station… has been at the center of the media conspiracy against Libya. The Western mainstream media, she continued, in turn picked up these reports and repeated them, creating a sense of panic among the Libyan people. Later… a number of armed gangs emerged… sleeper cells of rebels… (which) began firing randomly and threatening ordinary people… ‘They then took footage of the empty streets, which created the sense that they were in the process of capturing the city.’”
Al Jazeera, financed by a Western-controlled potentate, the Emir of Qatar, has been at the forefront of the disinformation campaign against Libya, starting with the fake news of Gaddafi’s jets bombing demonstrators back in February — news which CNN and BBC then repeated endlessly. Like fashion czars and financial ratings agencies of the West, these major news wires are mere tools of foreign financial predators. Time for the public to wake up!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Coconut vs. Alzheimer’s”; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Monopolies and regulatory agencies
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
8/20-21/2011
All these years, we were made to believe that capitalism thrives on competition, and it is in that condition where we extracted the substance of freedom as the elan vital that makes that system work. Our belief was reinforced by the theories on comparative advantage forwarded by British economist David Ricardo and given refinement in a different perspective by the German economist Karl Marx. It is on this basis why traditional economists subscribe that competition helps bring down the prices of goods and services, although it is also the market application of the Darwinian precept of survival of the fittest.
However, this column is not about to judge capitalism as a carnivorous economic system, but would just state it as an imperfect system. This we say because not all that is allowed to operate under the rules of free competition would bring about the desired result of lower prices and an efficient service. Let alone, capitalism would end up in a bloody cutthroat competition. Like the hierarchical order in the animal kingdom where there is that what we call “alpha male” that leads the pack, capitalism too has its own “alpha industries.”
In that instance, those that fall into the category of “alpha industries,” are by necessity, accorded the privilege status of a monopoly or oligopoly, as the economic condition would warrant. But allowing that kind of arrangement would invariably cause us to react, much that it is contrary to the principle of free competition.
We say this because capitalism, for all its buntings of free competition, still needs a degree of monopoly as well as oligopoly in some sectors of our industries. They are in fact needed to ensure that fair competition would work among the numerous downstream industries, especially those engaged in the production of consumer goods. They could radically reduce the cost of production for our local manufacturers to fight back the onslaught of foreign competition.
Only by having a system of regulated monopoly and oligopoly industries could we possibly solve the perennial problem that has plagued most secondary and downstream industries. The grant of franchise is the contract that assures them of a fair return on their investment. This explains why a franchise is given to industries engaged in the generation and distribution of power and electricity, in the production and supply of oil, in water utilization and distribution, in telecommunications and transportation industries, and in the construction and operation of modern highways.
There was much wisdom in that decision to take over these industries, and that was evident in the US during the time of US President Franklin Roosevelt, and in Great Britain before the advent of Thatcherism. The need to own and control those industries stem from the logic that net profit earned by them is always bigger than revenue derived from taxes as hooted those seeking their privatization.
In fact, allowing several companies belonging to the same industry to compete and operate in one area would be ruinous and costly to their investment. That would not result in the reduction of their rates, fares, or toll because their concern is to safeguard their huge investment from unnecessary competition. This explains why regulatory agencies like the Energy Regulatory Board, the Oil Industry Commission, the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board, the Toll Regulatory Board, the Maritime Industry Authority and the Civil Aeronautics Administration were created. Their rightful role is to regulate profit and oversee that franchised monopoly and oligopoly industries conform to the standards required by the industry.
Unlike the non-monopoly market players where the invisible hand of competition is the one that regulates to bring down their prices, that mechanism does not exist or can operate in a monopoly or oligopoly situations. The grant of franchise is the government’s sort of guarantee to protect their investment. Despite that, our regulatory agencies, which we copied en toto from the US, do not know what their role is all about. Those in charge have no idea why their agency was created. Possibly none of them know that it was the US regulatory agencies that came out with the novel idea of fixing the return on investment or profit those companies are supposed to earn.
This explains why industries that enjoy a franchise cannot use as their argument for a rate increase plans to expand their operations, improve their services, or upgrade their facilities. To allow that would result in their captive customers putting up the investment, while they rake in profit with only their saliva as capital. Nonetheless, even if there is a legitimate need to expand, improve or upgrade, regulatory agencies in the US and Europe have already made it a principle in law that capital investment should come from savings generated from their profit, if that would not be enough for them to secure a loan.
“Technical consultants” sent by the World Bank, US-AID, EU, ODA to advice local operators of monopoly and oligopoly industries on the various schemes to deregulate their price like their substitution of the ROI with the so-called “return on rate base”, now called “performance-based rate”, and their recommendation to cut to pieces the National Power Corp. are all subterfuge to render useless the role of regulatory agencies. Effectively, the concept of franchise that was supposed to stand in lieu of all taxes could no longer be traced as to which of the dismembered companies should pay; whether it should be the generation company, the transmission company, the public utility distributor, etc.
Even in that, they succeeded in converting franchise tax as synonymous to value added tax, which reason why they were allowed to pass on the burden to the consumers. On top of it, they added the currency exchange rate or CERA, thus rendering the once fixed rate impose by regulatory agencies as entirely flexible.
This now explains why our regulatory agencies have lost track of their role. Instead of harmonizing competition, they have become the tool to destroy whatever comparative advantage that is left in our local industries. In the end, the deregulation effectively rendered meaningless the ratio decidendi why they were in the first place created.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
8/20-21/2011
All these years, we were made to believe that capitalism thrives on competition, and it is in that condition where we extracted the substance of freedom as the elan vital that makes that system work. Our belief was reinforced by the theories on comparative advantage forwarded by British economist David Ricardo and given refinement in a different perspective by the German economist Karl Marx. It is on this basis why traditional economists subscribe that competition helps bring down the prices of goods and services, although it is also the market application of the Darwinian precept of survival of the fittest.
However, this column is not about to judge capitalism as a carnivorous economic system, but would just state it as an imperfect system. This we say because not all that is allowed to operate under the rules of free competition would bring about the desired result of lower prices and an efficient service. Let alone, capitalism would end up in a bloody cutthroat competition. Like the hierarchical order in the animal kingdom where there is that what we call “alpha male” that leads the pack, capitalism too has its own “alpha industries.”
In that instance, those that fall into the category of “alpha industries,” are by necessity, accorded the privilege status of a monopoly or oligopoly, as the economic condition would warrant. But allowing that kind of arrangement would invariably cause us to react, much that it is contrary to the principle of free competition.
We say this because capitalism, for all its buntings of free competition, still needs a degree of monopoly as well as oligopoly in some sectors of our industries. They are in fact needed to ensure that fair competition would work among the numerous downstream industries, especially those engaged in the production of consumer goods. They could radically reduce the cost of production for our local manufacturers to fight back the onslaught of foreign competition.
Only by having a system of regulated monopoly and oligopoly industries could we possibly solve the perennial problem that has plagued most secondary and downstream industries. The grant of franchise is the contract that assures them of a fair return on their investment. This explains why a franchise is given to industries engaged in the generation and distribution of power and electricity, in the production and supply of oil, in water utilization and distribution, in telecommunications and transportation industries, and in the construction and operation of modern highways.
There was much wisdom in that decision to take over these industries, and that was evident in the US during the time of US President Franklin Roosevelt, and in Great Britain before the advent of Thatcherism. The need to own and control those industries stem from the logic that net profit earned by them is always bigger than revenue derived from taxes as hooted those seeking their privatization.
In fact, allowing several companies belonging to the same industry to compete and operate in one area would be ruinous and costly to their investment. That would not result in the reduction of their rates, fares, or toll because their concern is to safeguard their huge investment from unnecessary competition. This explains why regulatory agencies like the Energy Regulatory Board, the Oil Industry Commission, the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board, the Toll Regulatory Board, the Maritime Industry Authority and the Civil Aeronautics Administration were created. Their rightful role is to regulate profit and oversee that franchised monopoly and oligopoly industries conform to the standards required by the industry.
Unlike the non-monopoly market players where the invisible hand of competition is the one that regulates to bring down their prices, that mechanism does not exist or can operate in a monopoly or oligopoly situations. The grant of franchise is the government’s sort of guarantee to protect their investment. Despite that, our regulatory agencies, which we copied en toto from the US, do not know what their role is all about. Those in charge have no idea why their agency was created. Possibly none of them know that it was the US regulatory agencies that came out with the novel idea of fixing the return on investment or profit those companies are supposed to earn.
This explains why industries that enjoy a franchise cannot use as their argument for a rate increase plans to expand their operations, improve their services, or upgrade their facilities. To allow that would result in their captive customers putting up the investment, while they rake in profit with only their saliva as capital. Nonetheless, even if there is a legitimate need to expand, improve or upgrade, regulatory agencies in the US and Europe have already made it a principle in law that capital investment should come from savings generated from their profit, if that would not be enough for them to secure a loan.
“Technical consultants” sent by the World Bank, US-AID, EU, ODA to advice local operators of monopoly and oligopoly industries on the various schemes to deregulate their price like their substitution of the ROI with the so-called “return on rate base”, now called “performance-based rate”, and their recommendation to cut to pieces the National Power Corp. are all subterfuge to render useless the role of regulatory agencies. Effectively, the concept of franchise that was supposed to stand in lieu of all taxes could no longer be traced as to which of the dismembered companies should pay; whether it should be the generation company, the transmission company, the public utility distributor, etc.
Even in that, they succeeded in converting franchise tax as synonymous to value added tax, which reason why they were allowed to pass on the burden to the consumers. On top of it, they added the currency exchange rate or CERA, thus rendering the once fixed rate impose by regulatory agencies as entirely flexible.
This now explains why our regulatory agencies have lost track of their role. Instead of harmonizing competition, they have become the tool to destroy whatever comparative advantage that is left in our local industries. In the end, the deregulation effectively rendered meaningless the ratio decidendi why they were in the first place created.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: Franchising: Strengthening Filipino MSME's
Guests: Teresa Laurel and Tess L. Ngantian, President (2004-2005) of Association of Filipino Entrepeneurs, Inc (AFFI)
Guests: Teresa Laurel and Tess L. Ngantian, President (2004-2005) of Association of Filipino Entrepeneurs, Inc (AFFI)
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: SC, Kalbaryo ng Magniniyog
Guests: Atty. Alan Paguia, Oscar "Ka Oca" Santos and Joey Faustino, Secretary General of Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR)
Guests: Atty. Alan Paguia, Oscar "Ka Oca" Santos and Joey Faustino, Secretary General of Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR)
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: The Curse of Epira
Guests: Wilson Fortaleza, Former Vice-Chairman of Freedom from Debt Coalition and Butch Junia, columnist of OpinYon
Guests: Wilson Fortaleza, Former Vice-Chairman of Freedom from Debt Coalition and Butch Junia, columnist of OpinYon
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Cha-cha-FDI myth
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/19/2011
A massive campaign has been sustained in recent months to brainwash the public into thinking that the Philippines is wretchedly in need of foreign investments. Its proponents say that a Charter change (Cha-cha) scheme to open up our already globalized property, corporate and natural patrimony rights to foreigners is now of the essence. No less than our leading legislators have aggressively pushed this, with mainstream newspapers echoing their line.
The Philippine Star, in its Aug. 16 “Cha-cha can easily triple investments” story, for instance, quoted House committee on constitutional amendments chairman Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos as saying that “our FDIs (foreign direct investments) will TRIPLE (emphasis mine) from the current $2 billion to $3 billion once these constitutional reforms are implemented.” Well, looking at his faulty “math,” one could already conclude that Ocampos’ FDI projections will be massively off the mark, too.
In fact, the track record of “reforms” by the Philippine Congress for the past 25 years doesn’t inspire confidence at all. It is therefore quite scary that the term is being brandished again.
Consider some of the key “REFORM packages” since the Edsa I “People Power” government, beginning with the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) that supplanted the progressive income tax system with the regressive value added tax (VAT) set-up that transferred the tax burden to the vast majority of middle and low income consumers.
Consider the Trade Reform law passed in the early ’90s that introduced liberalization, deregulation and privatization, which are now a curse on the Philippine economy, spurring uncontrolled fuel and power rate hikes, debilitating peso fluctuations, as well as privatizations that socialize the debts but privatize the profits.
Consider, too, the so-called Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) that raised our electricity rates to the highest in Asia. Aren’t these alarming enough?
Unfortunately, those impervious Cha-cha for FDI campaigners continue to call for the grant of full ownership of any and all businesses — especially land — to foreigners, as well as allowing them unlimited access to our natural resources. They have even spread their sales pitch to the Internet, using as their bogeyman the “privileged, favored and protected abusive and exploitative Filipino oligarchs” who, they say, take advantage of the Constitution’s protectionist provisions to monopolize businesses and keep out foreign capital at the expense of free market competition. What they are silent on, however, is the obvious fact that in many of these oligarch-controlled companies, foreign capitalists are the major partners of local oligarchs and, in certain cases, the ones who actually control these companies through majority voting shares.
Moreover, as these Cha-cha for FDI proponents try to draw comparisons with countries that enjoy high FDIs — notably Vietnam, Thailand, and other Asian countries — to point out that we are lagging behind due to “restrictions,” the truth of the matter is that almost all Asian (including Asean) countries are still “restrictive” or protectionist. Land property rights, in the main, are still not given to foreigners — only long-term leases. Corporate ownership is still limited — such as in Thailand, where it is only up to 49 percent, notwithstanding its latest FDI in 2010 hitting $6 billion, or four times more than the Philippines. Although Singapore is vastly more liberal, the city-state of only 694 sq. km. (having not much land for others to own anyway with five million in population) is the only exception.
As in the Philippines since Marcos’ time, most Asian countries only allow 100-percent foreign-owned companies to do business in especially-designated hi-tech, export processing zones.
One just has to look at the Asean Web site with its bundled rice stalks logo under Foreign Equity Policies to get an overview of how liberal Philippine policy already is, which I quote: “100 percent foreign equity ownership is allowed in all areas except those in the negative list under the Foreign Investment Act of 1991 as amended.” For Thailand, it states: “The 1972 Alien Business Law grants foreigners permission to engage in certain business enterprises in Thailand only if more than 50 percent of the capital is owned by Thai Nationals. However, for BoI promoted companies, majority foreign ownership is permitted for projects that export not less than 50 percent of sales.”
And while the likes of AntiPinoy.com continuously hold up Vietnam’s apparently lax foreign equity rule to buttress their point, the truth is, a May 2011 US State Department investment climate evaluation states otherwise:
“There are ownership limitations for certain companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange and service sectors. Foreign ownership cannot exceed 49 percent of listed companies and 30 percent of listed companies in the financial sector. A foreign bank is allowed to establish a 100-percent foreign owned bank in Vietnam but may only own up to 20 percent of a local commercial bank. Individual foreign investors are usually limited to 15-percent ownership, though a single foreign investor may increase ownership to 20 percent through a strategic alliance with a local partner.”
Keep in mind that no sovereign nation will ever give away protection of its interests and concerns, and the privileges of its own people. Also know that other more important considerations, such as the cost of electricity, are what matter in a country’s investment climate.
Thus, Vietnam’s $0.05/kWh power rate is one of its main attractions; same with Thailand’s $0.15/kWh, which are a far cry from the Philippines’ $0.21/kWh. Even Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo was forced to admit to a select audience that “the most difficult challenge for the national government and the private sector (is) addressing the high cost of power in the country.”
But as he and the rest of RP’s political players who are behind the extant campaign don’t say this out loud to explain why FDIs are shying away from the Philippines, they are simply pulling wool over the people’s eyes as they lie about the real reason for Cha-cha: The sell-out of the country through their many swindles.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “More Power Outrages”; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/19/2011
A massive campaign has been sustained in recent months to brainwash the public into thinking that the Philippines is wretchedly in need of foreign investments. Its proponents say that a Charter change (Cha-cha) scheme to open up our already globalized property, corporate and natural patrimony rights to foreigners is now of the essence. No less than our leading legislators have aggressively pushed this, with mainstream newspapers echoing their line.
The Philippine Star, in its Aug. 16 “Cha-cha can easily triple investments” story, for instance, quoted House committee on constitutional amendments chairman Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos as saying that “our FDIs (foreign direct investments) will TRIPLE (emphasis mine) from the current $2 billion to $3 billion once these constitutional reforms are implemented.” Well, looking at his faulty “math,” one could already conclude that Ocampos’ FDI projections will be massively off the mark, too.
In fact, the track record of “reforms” by the Philippine Congress for the past 25 years doesn’t inspire confidence at all. It is therefore quite scary that the term is being brandished again.
Consider some of the key “REFORM packages” since the Edsa I “People Power” government, beginning with the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) that supplanted the progressive income tax system with the regressive value added tax (VAT) set-up that transferred the tax burden to the vast majority of middle and low income consumers.
Consider the Trade Reform law passed in the early ’90s that introduced liberalization, deregulation and privatization, which are now a curse on the Philippine economy, spurring uncontrolled fuel and power rate hikes, debilitating peso fluctuations, as well as privatizations that socialize the debts but privatize the profits.
Consider, too, the so-called Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) that raised our electricity rates to the highest in Asia. Aren’t these alarming enough?
Unfortunately, those impervious Cha-cha for FDI campaigners continue to call for the grant of full ownership of any and all businesses — especially land — to foreigners, as well as allowing them unlimited access to our natural resources. They have even spread their sales pitch to the Internet, using as their bogeyman the “privileged, favored and protected abusive and exploitative Filipino oligarchs” who, they say, take advantage of the Constitution’s protectionist provisions to monopolize businesses and keep out foreign capital at the expense of free market competition. What they are silent on, however, is the obvious fact that in many of these oligarch-controlled companies, foreign capitalists are the major partners of local oligarchs and, in certain cases, the ones who actually control these companies through majority voting shares.
Moreover, as these Cha-cha for FDI proponents try to draw comparisons with countries that enjoy high FDIs — notably Vietnam, Thailand, and other Asian countries — to point out that we are lagging behind due to “restrictions,” the truth of the matter is that almost all Asian (including Asean) countries are still “restrictive” or protectionist. Land property rights, in the main, are still not given to foreigners — only long-term leases. Corporate ownership is still limited — such as in Thailand, where it is only up to 49 percent, notwithstanding its latest FDI in 2010 hitting $6 billion, or four times more than the Philippines. Although Singapore is vastly more liberal, the city-state of only 694 sq. km. (having not much land for others to own anyway with five million in population) is the only exception.
As in the Philippines since Marcos’ time, most Asian countries only allow 100-percent foreign-owned companies to do business in especially-designated hi-tech, export processing zones.
One just has to look at the Asean Web site with its bundled rice stalks logo under Foreign Equity Policies to get an overview of how liberal Philippine policy already is, which I quote: “100 percent foreign equity ownership is allowed in all areas except those in the negative list under the Foreign Investment Act of 1991 as amended.” For Thailand, it states: “The 1972 Alien Business Law grants foreigners permission to engage in certain business enterprises in Thailand only if more than 50 percent of the capital is owned by Thai Nationals. However, for BoI promoted companies, majority foreign ownership is permitted for projects that export not less than 50 percent of sales.”
And while the likes of AntiPinoy.com continuously hold up Vietnam’s apparently lax foreign equity rule to buttress their point, the truth is, a May 2011 US State Department investment climate evaluation states otherwise:
“There are ownership limitations for certain companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange and service sectors. Foreign ownership cannot exceed 49 percent of listed companies and 30 percent of listed companies in the financial sector. A foreign bank is allowed to establish a 100-percent foreign owned bank in Vietnam but may only own up to 20 percent of a local commercial bank. Individual foreign investors are usually limited to 15-percent ownership, though a single foreign investor may increase ownership to 20 percent through a strategic alliance with a local partner.”
Keep in mind that no sovereign nation will ever give away protection of its interests and concerns, and the privileges of its own people. Also know that other more important considerations, such as the cost of electricity, are what matter in a country’s investment climate.
Thus, Vietnam’s $0.05/kWh power rate is one of its main attractions; same with Thailand’s $0.15/kWh, which are a far cry from the Philippines’ $0.21/kWh. Even Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo was forced to admit to a select audience that “the most difficult challenge for the national government and the private sector (is) addressing the high cost of power in the country.”
But as he and the rest of RP’s political players who are behind the extant campaign don’t say this out loud to explain why FDIs are shying away from the Philippines, they are simply pulling wool over the people’s eyes as they lie about the real reason for Cha-cha: The sell-out of the country through their many swindles.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “More Power Outrages”; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A Zarzuela of Past Errors
CONSUMER'S DEMAND
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/15-21/2011
Finger-pointing is again the order of the day.
Not long after Senator Tito Sotto challenged his colleagues Kiko Pangilinan and Franklin Drilon, believed to be two of the original collaborators of Gloria Arroyo in the cheating of 2004, to finally come clean by dropping their pretensions, was his subsequent collaboration with the alleged cheating mastermind to partake of the corrupt system also laid bare.
Similarly acting blameless while lambasting the cheats today, many of those in media were themselves part of the propaganda blitz that sustained the series of cheating and cover-ups well into 2007 and 2010.
This pattern of holding elections suffused with cheating, then eventually making an exposé out of them, has become a deftly-staged zarzuela of focusing only on the subsidiary corruption in politics to distract the people from a totally debased political-economic order.
As a result, the economic and financial corruption, particularly of the parasitic elite, is missed by many.
The past months, we built up a case against the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Finance (DoF) for their seriously corrupt financial policies of keeping the country in debt despite the financial surplus afforded by our decades-long OFW remittances.
Such an anomaly was gleaned from the Special Deposit Account (SDA) amounting to P1.5 to 1.7 trillion and the Gross International Reserves (GIR) which total $70 billion today.
Purisima affirmation
After some controversy with BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo over the issue, an unexpected affirmation of our position came from none other than Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima who publicly favored “the unwinding of the SDA,” which entails the reduction of interest rates to facilitate the fund’s release for domestic investments.
In fact, an Aug. 3, 2011 Manila Bulletin news story by Chino S. Leyco reported that “Purisima, who is also a member of the central bank’s Monetary Board, said… the Aquino government would be happy to accommodate (any unwinding of the SDA). He explained that by unwinding the P1.44-trillion deposits at the BSP’s special deposit accounts, it may cut the borrowing costs of the government.”
“Furthermore, the report noted, “Deposits by banks to the special deposit account facility of the BSP continued to increase in the past few years, a scenario which critics said… could have been more useful for the economy if it were invested in lending.”
Actually, when we were having consultations with former National Treasurer Norma Lasala way back in 2004-2005, she already insisted that the management of our national reserves had gone awry and, thus, wasted billions.
At that time, Purisima was already finance secretary and Amando Tetangco, the BSP chief.
Despite this, the continuity in the financial mafia remains unbroken.
Tetangco has gotten his second term for the same post while Purisima got back the Finance portfolio after a hiatus courtesy of “Hyatt 10.”
So the question is: why is Purisima only now beginning to admit the wisdom of “unwinding” the gargantuan SDA (and, in all probability, later proclaim that we can indeed mobilize a greater part of our GIR)?
Liberating step
For sure, achieving this would be a first step toward liberating ourselves from the chains that have shackled us for the past five decades. But that’s just the beginning.
The next stage is to free ourselves from ALL debt and all private bankers’ traps.
Since all credit and money is guaranteed by the taxpayer, there is absolutely no reason why the people, through the State, should borrow from any private party.
The nation should instead set up a “Peoples’ Bank” where creation of credit and money will be subject to referendum.
Now, we ask: Why was there no fanfare when Aquino III reappointed Tetangco to his BSP post when this is one of the most important jobs in the whole government?
Independent BSP
Undoubtedly, the answer lies in the fact that the BSP, as it is set up today, is actually “independent,” with the presidential appointment merely ceremonial.
And with a board dominated by private bankers, the bank decides on monetary policy, possessed of an “independent” character institutionalized by Cory Aquino’s handpicked Constitutional Commission – whose members claim is a relic of the 1973 Constitution even without basis.
Being a private bank, the BSP actually follows the workings of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) where both have a public façade but with private bankers at the core (see “The Tower of Basel: The World’s Biggest Central Bank Has Private shareholders,” Global Research, July 29, 2011).
National Errors
Is there any wonder then why today the People’s Republic of China is the leading nation and economy in the world in terms of growth and stability? Its banking system is based on the concept of the “People’s Bank”, with its credit policies designed for national development and public welfare.
Of course, this is not the case for the US and its satellites--such as Europe’s PIGS (Portugal, Italy/Ireland, Greece, Spain)--now reeling from the greed and machinations of so-called “banksters.”
But sadly, our Senate, House, and financial bureaucracy – from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Bureau of Customs et al. – all follow the diktats of Wall Street, IMF-WB, ADB, and Basel in keeping the Philippines perpetually in debt; in taxing us more to pay it off, and in privatizing public services to create more debt (like the call for P110 billion more borrowings after 10 years of privatizing the state’s power assets).
Our past national errors, such as the ten years of fraud under Gloria Arroyo, should offer us concrete lessons in our nation’s political-economic history.
Our decision now should be to turn a completely new leaf--starting with a deeper understanding of our financial system.
(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, on “Hello Garci: A Complete History,” with Atty. Alan Paguia, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/15-21/2011
Finger-pointing is again the order of the day.
Not long after Senator Tito Sotto challenged his colleagues Kiko Pangilinan and Franklin Drilon, believed to be two of the original collaborators of Gloria Arroyo in the cheating of 2004, to finally come clean by dropping their pretensions, was his subsequent collaboration with the alleged cheating mastermind to partake of the corrupt system also laid bare.
Similarly acting blameless while lambasting the cheats today, many of those in media were themselves part of the propaganda blitz that sustained the series of cheating and cover-ups well into 2007 and 2010.
This pattern of holding elections suffused with cheating, then eventually making an exposé out of them, has become a deftly-staged zarzuela of focusing only on the subsidiary corruption in politics to distract the people from a totally debased political-economic order.
As a result, the economic and financial corruption, particularly of the parasitic elite, is missed by many.
The past months, we built up a case against the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Finance (DoF) for their seriously corrupt financial policies of keeping the country in debt despite the financial surplus afforded by our decades-long OFW remittances.
Such an anomaly was gleaned from the Special Deposit Account (SDA) amounting to P1.5 to 1.7 trillion and the Gross International Reserves (GIR) which total $70 billion today.
Purisima affirmation
After some controversy with BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo over the issue, an unexpected affirmation of our position came from none other than Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima who publicly favored “the unwinding of the SDA,” which entails the reduction of interest rates to facilitate the fund’s release for domestic investments.
In fact, an Aug. 3, 2011 Manila Bulletin news story by Chino S. Leyco reported that “Purisima, who is also a member of the central bank’s Monetary Board, said… the Aquino government would be happy to accommodate (any unwinding of the SDA). He explained that by unwinding the P1.44-trillion deposits at the BSP’s special deposit accounts, it may cut the borrowing costs of the government.”
“Furthermore, the report noted, “Deposits by banks to the special deposit account facility of the BSP continued to increase in the past few years, a scenario which critics said… could have been more useful for the economy if it were invested in lending.”
Actually, when we were having consultations with former National Treasurer Norma Lasala way back in 2004-2005, she already insisted that the management of our national reserves had gone awry and, thus, wasted billions.
At that time, Purisima was already finance secretary and Amando Tetangco, the BSP chief.
Despite this, the continuity in the financial mafia remains unbroken.
Tetangco has gotten his second term for the same post while Purisima got back the Finance portfolio after a hiatus courtesy of “Hyatt 10.”
So the question is: why is Purisima only now beginning to admit the wisdom of “unwinding” the gargantuan SDA (and, in all probability, later proclaim that we can indeed mobilize a greater part of our GIR)?
Liberating step
For sure, achieving this would be a first step toward liberating ourselves from the chains that have shackled us for the past five decades. But that’s just the beginning.
The next stage is to free ourselves from ALL debt and all private bankers’ traps.
Since all credit and money is guaranteed by the taxpayer, there is absolutely no reason why the people, through the State, should borrow from any private party.
The nation should instead set up a “Peoples’ Bank” where creation of credit and money will be subject to referendum.
Now, we ask: Why was there no fanfare when Aquino III reappointed Tetangco to his BSP post when this is one of the most important jobs in the whole government?
Independent BSP
Undoubtedly, the answer lies in the fact that the BSP, as it is set up today, is actually “independent,” with the presidential appointment merely ceremonial.
And with a board dominated by private bankers, the bank decides on monetary policy, possessed of an “independent” character institutionalized by Cory Aquino’s handpicked Constitutional Commission – whose members claim is a relic of the 1973 Constitution even without basis.
Being a private bank, the BSP actually follows the workings of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) where both have a public façade but with private bankers at the core (see “The Tower of Basel: The World’s Biggest Central Bank Has Private shareholders,” Global Research, July 29, 2011).
National Errors
Is there any wonder then why today the People’s Republic of China is the leading nation and economy in the world in terms of growth and stability? Its banking system is based on the concept of the “People’s Bank”, with its credit policies designed for national development and public welfare.
Of course, this is not the case for the US and its satellites--such as Europe’s PIGS (Portugal, Italy/Ireland, Greece, Spain)--now reeling from the greed and machinations of so-called “banksters.”
But sadly, our Senate, House, and financial bureaucracy – from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Bureau of Customs et al. – all follow the diktats of Wall Street, IMF-WB, ADB, and Basel in keeping the Philippines perpetually in debt; in taxing us more to pay it off, and in privatizing public services to create more debt (like the call for P110 billion more borrowings after 10 years of privatizing the state’s power assets).
Our past national errors, such as the ten years of fraud under Gloria Arroyo, should offer us concrete lessons in our nation’s political-economic history.
Our decision now should be to turn a completely new leaf--starting with a deeper understanding of our financial system.
(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, on “Hello Garci: A Complete History,” with Atty. Alan Paguia, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
August, the Ghost Month
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/15-21/2011
I heard it before but it did not stick. To Chinese-Filipinos, August is the month of ghosts. However, I always thought that the week where October 31 to November 2 fell was the very short season of ghosts.
And so, we were pleasantly surprised when researchers of a mass media organization came last week to survey our Balete Drive (Baranggay Mariana, QC) home to research on the White Lady of Balete Drive.
It used to be that ABS-CBN and GMA would come and shoot ghost scenes in our eighty-five year old house and garden as well as in the surrounding streets – Balete, Campanilla and Sampaguita – in October.
These were intended for their Halloween shows.
White Lady of Balete Drive
In fact, the lady researcher had heard about my column, “The Lady of Balete Drive” in the November 1-7 issue, # 11 of our weekly OpinYon.
She was also able to get the name of the most popular ghost in the whole Philippines, Leni Recto Garchitorena.
When I could still see and talk with former Batangas Vice Governor Ricky Recto, he confirmed to me that she was their cousin. Her mother was Maria Cristina Recto married to a Garchitorena from Tigaon, Camarines Sur.
Ricky’s father, former IBP Assemblyman Raffy Recto, owned the house that she lived in.
My friend, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIA General Manager Romeo Santos, is married to Magdalena “Meg” Garchitorena whose family used to own thousands of hectares of land in Tigaon and neighboring towns.
Former DAR Undersecretary Pejo confirmed to us that he knew the parents of the White Lady.
We hope soon to interview someone who knew Leni when she was still alive or was related to her.
Different versions
I have heard two versions of how and why she died.
In both she met a vehicular accident.
In one she escaped from her home just to join her friends for a joy ride.
In the other she was eloping with her boyfriend. In both versions, her parents did not allow her to go out.
The story goes that she owed money to the class fund and that was why she could not rest. When her parents settled the debt, she went to rest.
Well, things are happening earlier this year. Usually, radio stations start playing Christmas carols in September.
Even that is too early for me when I‘m broke. They remind one of the bigger expenses during the Christmas Season.
Last month they started playing them already. It’s good that I’ve gotten insensitive to fears of going broke.
Ghosts and Death
Our family is also insensitive to fear of ghosts.
We consider and feel that the ghosts that reside in our home or nearby are friendly to us.
In fact, my brother Mano, who died last July 24, and I experienced the same kind of kindness from the ghost.
It opened our garden gate for us. What was the difference? He saw her. I did not, because it was raining very hard when I came home.
Other families have different experiences with ghosts and death. The Sumulong-Cojuangco clan just last month saw brother Don Pedro “Pete” Sumulong Cojuangco and sister Josephine Sumulong Cojuangco Reyes died in rapid succession.
The latter collapsed at the funeral mass of the former.
August 21
Their father, Don Jose, and Josephine’s husband, Narciso Reyes (one of the owners of the Far Eastern University) both died on the same month and day as “Ninoy”, August 21.
Ninoy had originally planned to come home on August 7, 1983.
However, then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, through then Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile requested Ninoy to delay his arrival by a month due to security reasons.
Ninoy complied halfway. He postponed his homecoming by only two weeks and not a month. That is why we have August 21 to commemorate.
Worst day
In 1980 (November), 1981 (September) and 1982 (March), I visited Ninoy three times.
Twice, I went to Boston. Once, I met him in his sister, Lupita A. Kashiwahara’s, townhouse in Pacifica, southwest of San Francisco.
During one of these trips, I saw a Vendo machine that analyzes your luck for any given day based on your birthday. I inputted Ninoy’s November 27 birthday paired with three dates, August 7 and 21 and September 5. Of the three, the best day was the 7th.
The worst was the 21st. The 5th was midway between the 7th and the 21st.
We can only imagine what would have happened if Ninoy had come home on the day he had originally planned.
Instead, he came home at the worst possible time. Marcos was in the middle of a kidney transplant. If Marcos had been in command and control of his senses, Ninoy might not have been assassinated at the NAIA.
He could have been jailed again, assassinated elsewhere or even allowed to go free.
Most probably, the situation would not have developed into EDSA I.
Without Ninoy as martyr, there would be no President Cory. Without martyr Ninoy and saint Cory, there would be no P-Noy today. Good or Bad? Without a Noynoy candidacy, we are not sure that GMA would not steal the presidency a third time. However, without a President Cory, there would not be a President GMA either. It’s getting too complicated. Let’s drop it. Let’s look for other ghosts of years past.
Another ghost
I noticed that the PNP celebrated its anniversary last Monday, August 8. I thought that the foundation day of the PNP was in January 1991, when the Local Autonomy Act was passed. This law created both the DILG and the PNP.
August 8 is the foundation day of the old Philippine Constabulary. This reminds us of another ghost from the past.
On August 8, 1970 or 1971, as Operation Bantay, under the sponsorship of the Christian Social Movement, we went to visit the burned out sitio of Ora Este, baranggay Ora, municipality of Bantay, Ilocos Sur.
In the November 1969 elections, Liberals Sergio Osmena, Jr. and Genaro Magsaysay challenged re-electionist Nacionalistas Ferdinand Marcos and Fernando Lopez and lost.
Crisologos and Singsons
At the provincial level, the Crisologos ruled Ilocos Sur. Carmeling was the governor. Floro was a ranking congressman.
Now Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson dared challenge the Crisologo monolith in the 1969 elections.
The Bulletin captured on camera a tense arms-drawn physical confrontation between Bingbong Crisologo and Chavit.
Bingbong’s goons, called saka-sakas, burned the sitio of Ora Este, Chavit’s bailiwick.
My classmate and National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) president Edgar Jopson evacuated the residents turned refugees to the Ateneo de Manila Prep School near Gate 1 of the Loyola Heights campus.
Among their PC security then was future NPA rebel Lt. Victor Corpus.
After the summer vacation, we brought them back to Ora Este.
Periodically, we visited them. When necessary, we escorted them. The 554th PC Company of the 55th PC Battalion was assigned to secure them. The Supreme Court granted a change of venue of the trial to Baguio City.
Eventually, Bingbong and his cohorts were convicted and sentenced. They were sent to Muntinlupa.
Forgotten victims
However, in August 1971, the crime, the victims and the accused seemed forgotten.
To bring attention to them and bring them back to mainstage, we planned a mini rally at each of the two main political parties’ proclamation Rallies.
I was the head of Operation Bantay. On the night of Saturday, August 22, I was late arriving at our assembly place at the Plaza Lawton (now Liwasang Bonifacio).
I went ahead of our main party of about 50-100 people to cross over to Plaza Miranda. Just then two grenades exploded.
Fortunately, I was running late.
On the way to Plaza Lawton, I had stopped by the house of my colleague, Raymundo Accas Tan at Unang Hakbang in Balic-Balic, Quezon City.
I was doing some coordination and preparations for KASAPI’s first anniversary celebration on the next day, Sunday, August 22.
If I had been on time, I might have been behind the stage.
Or worse, our mini-rally might have served as a diversion and helped the grenade throwers do a better job.
Radicals and Moderates
KASAPI stood for Kapulungan ng mga Sandigan ng Pilipinas.
We had been formally organized the year before in Santa Mesa.
However, our core group had been in existence much longer. I had been recruited four years before when I started college in 1966 by Fr. Jose Blanco, S.J. and Ateneo History Professor Rolando Quintos.
Since then, we had spread out to the University Belt. We had an office in front of UST.
Almost every weekend we had live-in general orientation seminars. It was obvious we were competing with the Communist Youth and Student Organizations. They were Radicals. We were Moderates.
We were also called Christian Democrats/Socialists, Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats.
In August 1970, I had been elected the chairman.
In September 1972, I resigned in order to focus and prepare for the November 1973 national elections. These, however, would be interrupted by the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972.
(To be continued)
Linggoy Alcuaz
8/15-21/2011
I heard it before but it did not stick. To Chinese-Filipinos, August is the month of ghosts. However, I always thought that the week where October 31 to November 2 fell was the very short season of ghosts.
And so, we were pleasantly surprised when researchers of a mass media organization came last week to survey our Balete Drive (Baranggay Mariana, QC) home to research on the White Lady of Balete Drive.
It used to be that ABS-CBN and GMA would come and shoot ghost scenes in our eighty-five year old house and garden as well as in the surrounding streets – Balete, Campanilla and Sampaguita – in October.
These were intended for their Halloween shows.
White Lady of Balete Drive
In fact, the lady researcher had heard about my column, “The Lady of Balete Drive” in the November 1-7 issue, # 11 of our weekly OpinYon.
She was also able to get the name of the most popular ghost in the whole Philippines, Leni Recto Garchitorena.
When I could still see and talk with former Batangas Vice Governor Ricky Recto, he confirmed to me that she was their cousin. Her mother was Maria Cristina Recto married to a Garchitorena from Tigaon, Camarines Sur.
Ricky’s father, former IBP Assemblyman Raffy Recto, owned the house that she lived in.
My friend, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIA General Manager Romeo Santos, is married to Magdalena “Meg” Garchitorena whose family used to own thousands of hectares of land in Tigaon and neighboring towns.
Former DAR Undersecretary Pejo confirmed to us that he knew the parents of the White Lady.
We hope soon to interview someone who knew Leni when she was still alive or was related to her.
Different versions
I have heard two versions of how and why she died.
In both she met a vehicular accident.
In one she escaped from her home just to join her friends for a joy ride.
In the other she was eloping with her boyfriend. In both versions, her parents did not allow her to go out.
The story goes that she owed money to the class fund and that was why she could not rest. When her parents settled the debt, she went to rest.
Well, things are happening earlier this year. Usually, radio stations start playing Christmas carols in September.
Even that is too early for me when I‘m broke. They remind one of the bigger expenses during the Christmas Season.
Last month they started playing them already. It’s good that I’ve gotten insensitive to fears of going broke.
Ghosts and Death
Our family is also insensitive to fear of ghosts.
We consider and feel that the ghosts that reside in our home or nearby are friendly to us.
In fact, my brother Mano, who died last July 24, and I experienced the same kind of kindness from the ghost.
It opened our garden gate for us. What was the difference? He saw her. I did not, because it was raining very hard when I came home.
Other families have different experiences with ghosts and death. The Sumulong-Cojuangco clan just last month saw brother Don Pedro “Pete” Sumulong Cojuangco and sister Josephine Sumulong Cojuangco Reyes died in rapid succession.
The latter collapsed at the funeral mass of the former.
August 21
Their father, Don Jose, and Josephine’s husband, Narciso Reyes (one of the owners of the Far Eastern University) both died on the same month and day as “Ninoy”, August 21.
Ninoy had originally planned to come home on August 7, 1983.
However, then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, through then Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile requested Ninoy to delay his arrival by a month due to security reasons.
Ninoy complied halfway. He postponed his homecoming by only two weeks and not a month. That is why we have August 21 to commemorate.
Worst day
In 1980 (November), 1981 (September) and 1982 (March), I visited Ninoy three times.
Twice, I went to Boston. Once, I met him in his sister, Lupita A. Kashiwahara’s, townhouse in Pacifica, southwest of San Francisco.
During one of these trips, I saw a Vendo machine that analyzes your luck for any given day based on your birthday. I inputted Ninoy’s November 27 birthday paired with three dates, August 7 and 21 and September 5. Of the three, the best day was the 7th.
The worst was the 21st. The 5th was midway between the 7th and the 21st.
We can only imagine what would have happened if Ninoy had come home on the day he had originally planned.
Instead, he came home at the worst possible time. Marcos was in the middle of a kidney transplant. If Marcos had been in command and control of his senses, Ninoy might not have been assassinated at the NAIA.
He could have been jailed again, assassinated elsewhere or even allowed to go free.
Most probably, the situation would not have developed into EDSA I.
Without Ninoy as martyr, there would be no President Cory. Without martyr Ninoy and saint Cory, there would be no P-Noy today. Good or Bad? Without a Noynoy candidacy, we are not sure that GMA would not steal the presidency a third time. However, without a President Cory, there would not be a President GMA either. It’s getting too complicated. Let’s drop it. Let’s look for other ghosts of years past.
Another ghost
I noticed that the PNP celebrated its anniversary last Monday, August 8. I thought that the foundation day of the PNP was in January 1991, when the Local Autonomy Act was passed. This law created both the DILG and the PNP.
August 8 is the foundation day of the old Philippine Constabulary. This reminds us of another ghost from the past.
On August 8, 1970 or 1971, as Operation Bantay, under the sponsorship of the Christian Social Movement, we went to visit the burned out sitio of Ora Este, baranggay Ora, municipality of Bantay, Ilocos Sur.
In the November 1969 elections, Liberals Sergio Osmena, Jr. and Genaro Magsaysay challenged re-electionist Nacionalistas Ferdinand Marcos and Fernando Lopez and lost.
Crisologos and Singsons
At the provincial level, the Crisologos ruled Ilocos Sur. Carmeling was the governor. Floro was a ranking congressman.
Now Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson dared challenge the Crisologo monolith in the 1969 elections.
The Bulletin captured on camera a tense arms-drawn physical confrontation between Bingbong Crisologo and Chavit.
Bingbong’s goons, called saka-sakas, burned the sitio of Ora Este, Chavit’s bailiwick.
My classmate and National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) president Edgar Jopson evacuated the residents turned refugees to the Ateneo de Manila Prep School near Gate 1 of the Loyola Heights campus.
Among their PC security then was future NPA rebel Lt. Victor Corpus.
After the summer vacation, we brought them back to Ora Este.
Periodically, we visited them. When necessary, we escorted them. The 554th PC Company of the 55th PC Battalion was assigned to secure them. The Supreme Court granted a change of venue of the trial to Baguio City.
Eventually, Bingbong and his cohorts were convicted and sentenced. They were sent to Muntinlupa.
Forgotten victims
However, in August 1971, the crime, the victims and the accused seemed forgotten.
To bring attention to them and bring them back to mainstage, we planned a mini rally at each of the two main political parties’ proclamation Rallies.
I was the head of Operation Bantay. On the night of Saturday, August 22, I was late arriving at our assembly place at the Plaza Lawton (now Liwasang Bonifacio).
I went ahead of our main party of about 50-100 people to cross over to Plaza Miranda. Just then two grenades exploded.
Fortunately, I was running late.
On the way to Plaza Lawton, I had stopped by the house of my colleague, Raymundo Accas Tan at Unang Hakbang in Balic-Balic, Quezon City.
I was doing some coordination and preparations for KASAPI’s first anniversary celebration on the next day, Sunday, August 22.
If I had been on time, I might have been behind the stage.
Or worse, our mini-rally might have served as a diversion and helped the grenade throwers do a better job.
Radicals and Moderates
KASAPI stood for Kapulungan ng mga Sandigan ng Pilipinas.
We had been formally organized the year before in Santa Mesa.
However, our core group had been in existence much longer. I had been recruited four years before when I started college in 1966 by Fr. Jose Blanco, S.J. and Ateneo History Professor Rolando Quintos.
Since then, we had spread out to the University Belt. We had an office in front of UST.
Almost every weekend we had live-in general orientation seminars. It was obvious we were competing with the Communist Youth and Student Organizations. They were Radicals. We were Moderates.
We were also called Christian Democrats/Socialists, Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats.
In August 1970, I had been elected the chairman.
In September 1972, I resigned in order to focus and prepare for the November 1973 national elections. These, however, would be interrupted by the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972.
(To be continued)
Monday, August 15, 2011
Economic saboteurs
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/15/2011
With the US financial system reeling from its asymmetrically exploding fiscal crisis; with Europe staggering amid socio-economic upheaval; and with Japan dimming in the dark cloud of its tectonic and nuclear disaster, local business news reported the inevitable: “Exports down 10.2 percent in June” from $4.557 to $4.092 billion year-on-year, or a loss of almost P25.2 billion. On top of that, the prevailing currency issue has caused the Philippine economy to suffer heavy losses. For our largest dollar-earning sectors alone — the OFWs and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms — every appreciation of the peso to the US dollar already costs billions. And we have not seen the worst of it yet.
Regrettably, even as Filipino entrepreneurs, workers and consumers are hit with these whammies, a Big Business conglomerate is, by contrast, expecting core profits to grow nearly 25 percent, with 31 percent coming from its power unit’s earnings which have grown up to 87 percent annually from 2008 to 2010. Why, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) CEO Manuel Pangilinan has even forecast Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)’s profits as growing “modestly” to P14 billion in 2011, which, judging from the results midway, the company seems ready to exceed by year-end.
Reports state that in the first half of 2011 alone, “Meralco’s core net income increased 35 percent to P7.82 billion on higher distribution tariffs despite the slightly lower volume of electricity sold because of the cooler weather and lower industrial consumption of power…” Hence, Meralco sold less electricity but got higher profits.
Similarly, another major component of MPIC’s profit this year — which was a surprise despite my constant monitoring of the utilities sector — has been water.
Again, on higher rates, as well as tax holidays, MWSI contributed 41 percent of MPIC’s profits.
Just the same, of all the utility services under the MPIC empire, it is still power that draws the greatest attention.
A February 2011 study by the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation Inc. (PhilExport) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) entitled, “The Impact of High Energy Costs on Exports,” already named the Philippines as having the “highest power cost in Asia.” Citing an October 2010 study by independent think tank International Energy Consultants, it explained that RP’s “average retail rate of electricity of 18.1 US cents per kilowatthour… has eased out Japan at the top… at 17.9 US cents per kilowatthour,” adding, “The high cost of electricity in the Philippines was traced by the group to the fact that all costs — from producing power to distribution and taxes — are passed on to consumers… (And as) the Philippines is the only country in the region that has privatized its electric power sector and has no state subsidy on rates… (with) domestic natural gas coming from the Malampaya gas deposits in offshore Palawan… priced so high… (it is) suggested that the Philippine government renegotiate the Malampaya contract…”
Notwithstanding that, other rate hikes in power also bubbled up this past month: First, with the Supreme Court (SC) siding with both the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Meralco on a 2009 P0.29/kWh rate hike petition on purely technical procedural grounds, it makes everyone wonder whether PeNoy’s first SC appointee, Justice Lourdes Sereno, really appreciates the substantive issue of Salus populi est suprema lex (The welfare of the people is the supreme law) when she, as ponente, faulted consumers, saying, “They should be more vigilant in protecting their rights.”
And since consumer advocates have to pay for their own fares; solicit volunteer legal representation; and plod through deliberately obfuscated ERC rules and rulings, how can Sereno still claim that we consumers have been remiss? We, therefore, have to ask this of the SC, the supposed last bastion of the people’s hope for justice, which championed public welfare in 2003 by confirming the Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB), as well as vetoed the charging of corporate income tax to consumers and ordered the Commission on Audit (CoA) to sift through the books of the power giant: Has it now been captured, too?
Second, as Congress has extended the lifeline rate to consumers using 99/kWh per month or less, it means that this doleout will be exacted once again from consumers using upwards of 100 kWh per month, most of whom are also equally poor; this, despite the fact that a bleeding heart such as House energy committee chairman Rep. Dina Abad refuses to shell out a single centavo from her P380-million pork barrel.
Clearly, despite the claim that the wretched 10-year-old Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was going to bring down rates by competition via the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm), what happened was the exact opposite: It more than doubled charges! In fact, privatization has not reduced the $18-billion National Power Corp. (Napocor) debt at all.
Then, as if these were not enough, we still have to contend with the ERC’s approval of a P4.5-billion Napocor petition for increase of P0.07/kWh starting August to cover for “losses” from its 2003 to 2009 “missionary” electrification operations.
With such economic saboteurs, the destruction of our economy and the people’s welfare is sure to never cease — that is, until the nation revolts against the entire system.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/15/2011
With the US financial system reeling from its asymmetrically exploding fiscal crisis; with Europe staggering amid socio-economic upheaval; and with Japan dimming in the dark cloud of its tectonic and nuclear disaster, local business news reported the inevitable: “Exports down 10.2 percent in June” from $4.557 to $4.092 billion year-on-year, or a loss of almost P25.2 billion. On top of that, the prevailing currency issue has caused the Philippine economy to suffer heavy losses. For our largest dollar-earning sectors alone — the OFWs and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms — every appreciation of the peso to the US dollar already costs billions. And we have not seen the worst of it yet.
Regrettably, even as Filipino entrepreneurs, workers and consumers are hit with these whammies, a Big Business conglomerate is, by contrast, expecting core profits to grow nearly 25 percent, with 31 percent coming from its power unit’s earnings which have grown up to 87 percent annually from 2008 to 2010. Why, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) CEO Manuel Pangilinan has even forecast Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)’s profits as growing “modestly” to P14 billion in 2011, which, judging from the results midway, the company seems ready to exceed by year-end.
Reports state that in the first half of 2011 alone, “Meralco’s core net income increased 35 percent to P7.82 billion on higher distribution tariffs despite the slightly lower volume of electricity sold because of the cooler weather and lower industrial consumption of power…” Hence, Meralco sold less electricity but got higher profits.
Similarly, another major component of MPIC’s profit this year — which was a surprise despite my constant monitoring of the utilities sector — has been water.
Again, on higher rates, as well as tax holidays, MWSI contributed 41 percent of MPIC’s profits.
Just the same, of all the utility services under the MPIC empire, it is still power that draws the greatest attention.
A February 2011 study by the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation Inc. (PhilExport) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) entitled, “The Impact of High Energy Costs on Exports,” already named the Philippines as having the “highest power cost in Asia.” Citing an October 2010 study by independent think tank International Energy Consultants, it explained that RP’s “average retail rate of electricity of 18.1 US cents per kilowatthour… has eased out Japan at the top… at 17.9 US cents per kilowatthour,” adding, “The high cost of electricity in the Philippines was traced by the group to the fact that all costs — from producing power to distribution and taxes — are passed on to consumers… (And as) the Philippines is the only country in the region that has privatized its electric power sector and has no state subsidy on rates… (with) domestic natural gas coming from the Malampaya gas deposits in offshore Palawan… priced so high… (it is) suggested that the Philippine government renegotiate the Malampaya contract…”
Notwithstanding that, other rate hikes in power also bubbled up this past month: First, with the Supreme Court (SC) siding with both the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Meralco on a 2009 P0.29/kWh rate hike petition on purely technical procedural grounds, it makes everyone wonder whether PeNoy’s first SC appointee, Justice Lourdes Sereno, really appreciates the substantive issue of Salus populi est suprema lex (The welfare of the people is the supreme law) when she, as ponente, faulted consumers, saying, “They should be more vigilant in protecting their rights.”
And since consumer advocates have to pay for their own fares; solicit volunteer legal representation; and plod through deliberately obfuscated ERC rules and rulings, how can Sereno still claim that we consumers have been remiss? We, therefore, have to ask this of the SC, the supposed last bastion of the people’s hope for justice, which championed public welfare in 2003 by confirming the Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB), as well as vetoed the charging of corporate income tax to consumers and ordered the Commission on Audit (CoA) to sift through the books of the power giant: Has it now been captured, too?
Second, as Congress has extended the lifeline rate to consumers using 99/kWh per month or less, it means that this doleout will be exacted once again from consumers using upwards of 100 kWh per month, most of whom are also equally poor; this, despite the fact that a bleeding heart such as House energy committee chairman Rep. Dina Abad refuses to shell out a single centavo from her P380-million pork barrel.
Clearly, despite the claim that the wretched 10-year-old Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was going to bring down rates by competition via the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm), what happened was the exact opposite: It more than doubled charges! In fact, privatization has not reduced the $18-billion National Power Corp. (Napocor) debt at all.
Then, as if these were not enough, we still have to contend with the ERC’s approval of a P4.5-billion Napocor petition for increase of P0.07/kWh starting August to cover for “losses” from its 2003 to 2009 “missionary” electrification operations.
With such economic saboteurs, the destruction of our economy and the people’s welfare is sure to never cease — that is, until the nation revolts against the entire system.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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