The Philippine Winter Storm

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/10-12/2011



The world now bears witness to the surging rage of the people all over the world as popular grassroots movements have begun to rise into action this year. From the Arab Spring (or at least its beginnings); to the European Summer demonstrations in Athens, London, Rome, Madrid, and Lisbon.

Now, it is the turn of the US Autumn as it blasts into New York’s financial district, with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement demanding an end to the tyranny of financial capitalism all over that country.

Such is the wave of millions of people all over the world rebelling against the failure of the prevailing political-financial and economic order, built on laissez-faire or (freewheeling) capitalism, that has left billions of people poorer than ever as rich people getting richer.

I believe that, in our country, we will soon begin to see a “Philippine Winter Storm” bringing in “Ber” month-political typhoons to Filipinos now ready to rise up against the severe exploitation that have put them out into the cold.

In our last OpinYon piece, we discussed the project that we in the anti-EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act), anti-PBR (Performance Based Rate) electricity price gouging crusade are proposing and organizing: A vigil to be held at the Freedom Park in front of Malacañang until the PBR is junked and the 12-percent RoRB (Return-on-Rate-Base) for our electricity prices is restored. It would be a jumping board for connecting our millions of electricity consumers to an even greater project, that of converting Meralco and the entire power sector into a consumer cooperative, where every consumer is an owner--since it is they who provide all the capital of power companies.

Since our announcement, we have received numerous inquiries on when and where the vigil would start. Encouraged as I am by the response, I’d still have to stress, as Sun Tzu would in going to war, that victory is all about “preparation, preparation, preparation.”

The past week, as we met with several activists and religious groups to lay out our proposal for the vigil, we were greeted with zealous enthusiasm. Also, last weekend, when I went to a parish of a very influential priest in Novaliches, who could bring in several Catholic bishops to support the project, the emphatic response given to us without any doubt was “(Since) that’s for the people, (and) our people are suffering from that problem, we’ll go all out. When do we start?”

I had to explain that we are still on the preparatory stage, such as getting enough mass support to ensure the vigil’s sustainability through weeks, months, and maybe even a year or more before the oligarchy-controlled Malacañang gives in.

This will be a fight to the finish. We have to consider of course all the logistical support we need like a nearby clean toilet facilities, sound system, adequate food for personalities, as well as media reporters covering the event.

In the coming week, we will be meeting with student groups within the University Belt area, which is just a stone’s throw away from Malacañang and an endless source of warm young bodies to keep the Philippine Winter Storm blistering up.

We will be discussing logistics, i.e. rice and “tuyo” for our people manning the vigil tents; a secretariat who will host press conferences at the site; as well as daily printed bulletins to update visitors on the progress of the struggle. We will be holding regular rallies there as well as seminars on the means by which the power industry can be “cooperativized,” thereby ensuring honest management.

We’ll need a sound system 24/7, together with standby power for some laptops and printers. We’ll also have to prepare protest tarpaulin signs, placards, and streamers.

While it sounds like a huge project, it is really nothing new. We’ve been doing this since the 70s. The problem is, the spirit of protest was lulled into complacency, which is why the oligarchs reared their ugly heads the past few years.

Even as we started the preparation for our anti-EPIRA, anti-PBR vigil, little did we know that there were others also gearing up to escalate the people’s struggle against the very same issue--and more. Sanlakas and Partido Laban ng Masa (PLM), with the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), announced a “Lights Out” for October 11, 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., which will happen in many communities, with others coming out into the streets to wage a “noise barrage.” On October 12, the same array of groups will be staging mass actions to drum up the issue. Before all these, there will be a conference on October 7 at the UP Bahay Kalinaw and a press conference at the Claret School with Rep. Tet Garcia, who’s raising the other issue of junking the VAT as well.

Within the next few days or so, the Anti-Power Pirates Task Force, consisting of individuals who have long been waging battles against the Energy Regulatory Commission and Meralco for their abuses, such as Mang Naro Lualhati, Bono Adaza, Alan Paguia, Jun Simon, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, Ferdie Pasion, Joy Camaro, Richard, and many others form the Sulo group, will be filing cases in court against those economic saboteurs. Watch out for it.

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 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 the “Power, Fuel, and VAT Revolt” with Rep. Tet Garcia; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)