DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27/2012
Much as this space would like to tackle the myriad of other issues bedeviling the nation, we are constantly dragged back to the electricity or power plunder that continues to ravage this country to this day. We have repeatedly highlighted the anomalous fact of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. and National Power Corp. (Napocor) debt staying at $18 billion despite over 10 years and almost 90 percent of the state’s power assets being “sold off” to the private sector since the start of the power privatization program under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001. It is as if money from the sales vanished into thin air.
Last week, one clue was given by the state agency that manages these assets. When its top honcho, Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., said, “Psalm is yet to collect $9.99 billion in additional proceeds from the transfer of IPP (independent power producer) contracts to private administrators as of September 2011,” what it says is that taxpayers and power consumers are to be charged what the IPPs should have paid for but didn’t.
As for the other half of that $18-billion debt, Ledesma claims it as “$8.44 billion in debts assumed from” Napocor. Now wasn’t the privatization of Napocor assets supposed to cover all these? Where did proceeds from the sale of diesel-fired to hydroelectric and geothermal power plants go? How about the latest $4-billion privatization of the TransCo (the erstwhile state-owned transmission grid) to the private sector operator, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), that has also not been collected after two years?
In June 2011, it was reported that “government may use the receivables from the concession contract of the NGCP” on the pretext that “selling the receivables ahead of the scheduled payment of NGCP may help in the efforts to reduce the universal charge (UC).”
Wait a minute: TransCo was earning P18 billion a year when it was sold off; now it’s not even paid while the NGCP is already earning; hence, we now even have to rediscount or sanla the receivables? What name can you give to such a deal if not “historic swindle?”
I am just aghast at the magnitude of this scam and the impunity with which it continues to be perpetrated before the eyes of 95 million Filipinos. With the silent blessings of four Edsa administrations (Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Gloria Arroyo, and now PeNoy), this national swindle rages on because of the silent consent of the entire Senate and Lower House of Congress, in collaboration with all government electricity agencies--from Psalm to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
What is the power behind these power plunderers that all government institutions are cowed into compliance, even as we ordinary folk see their dictates as an unconscionable swindle?
What are we, the people of this nation, to do when our supposed representatives in government stand idly by as our pockets are looted and our economy is systematically laid to waste by the garrote of high electricity prices and a progressively failing economy over years and years of power plunder?
The latest statements of the Psalm chief only reveal how helpless government authorities really are in the face of the IPPs and power plunderer-privateers. Instead of pressing for these companies to pay up what are clearly debt obligations to government and the Filipino people, our supposed leaders continue to find ways on how to unburden these companies--to the detriment of the public.
With deceitful intent, Psalm has been trying to pass on these debts of the privateers via piecemeal transfers: P140 billion to be paid from the national budget and assumed by taxpayers; P0.39 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as UC, shouldered again by power consumers over 20 years; with another bulk to be charged to Malampaya’s earnings; and only God knows what else.
If they were to pass these on as one lump sum to each electricity bill, it would amount to an additional P5/kWh over 20 years, which means up to 35 percent of added cost to each power consumer, who will fork out over P100 billion in power payments annually.
Congress has not approved such piecemeal schemes just yet because the ploy is too blatantly oppressive and dishonest; but it has done nothing to resolve the power plunder for the nation’s welfare either.
Malacañang, for its part, has only played deaf and dumb to the issue and the pleas of all sectors of society. At the rate the situation is developing, it is apparent that government has been made inutile, with the implication being that, at some point, all these debts will finally be transferred to us when we are at our most vulnerable--perhaps under another “revolutionary government” dictatorship a la Cory--so that the IPPs and power plunderers will never be made to pay the $18 billion anymore, thanks to Edsa I, Edsa II, and PeNoy.
Meanwhile, the power crisis in Mindanao is growing unabated despite an overabundance of capacity from hydroelectric dams that were deliberately sabotaged. The NGCP now projects an average shortfall there of 179 megawatts (MW) next month and a high 345 MW in April, even when just one facility, the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, already has 727 MW of installed capacity—this despite its production of only 467 MW today due to seemingly deliberate maintenance deficiencies.
Two Napocor power barges, 117 and 118, privatized to Aboitiz’ Therma Marine Corp. can, as well, generate 200 MW; but the rates are so high that the 33 Mindanao electric cooperatives refuse to buy from them.
Four power barges of Psalm, 101 to 104, lying idle in Luzon are being asked by the Mindanao Business Council to be deployed there to provide emergency power. But this cannot be done allegedly because it would violate the Epira’s ban on government from participating in power generation, even if it is just to help the people. How twisted, indeed, have our country’s laws become? Yet some twisted minds still have reason to celebrate Edsa?
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Defying debt and tax sins
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27-3/4/2012
In our previous issue we reported the spectacular performance of Argentina’s economy, which grew 94% over the 10 years since defaulting on over $100-billion debt in 2001. With its new economic vitality, Argentina has also emerged with a reinvigorated political will and, in the past month, rose to challenge Britain’s colonial claim on the islands of Malvinas off its coast.
Meanwhile, another country that defied the international “bankster” (banker-gangster) mafia is also doing very well today. Iceland voted several times to reject IMF and the Western banking community’s demand for its citizens to repay British and Dutch banks’ losses from deposits in Icesave, an Icelandic bank used by the banksters to hyper-leverage their Ponzi schemes that led to the global liquidity contraction in 2008 with the Wall Street crash.
As a response to the Icelanders’ vehement opposition to the dictates of the international financial mafia, Iceland’s financial authorities imposed currency controls, prohibited foreign exchange related to capital account transactions, and required domestic parties to submit all the foreign currency they acquire, either from the sale of goods and services or, in another manner, through a domestic financial institution. Despite this, the ratings agencies have upgraded Iceland’s credit rating, making it investment grade again, leading some to comment, “Iceland upgrade sure makes default look palatable” (www.creditwritedowns.com by Edward Harrison). That, too, is what we Filipinos need to learn from: Defy the IMF-WB and the global banksters; stare them down; and shrug off their financial goon tactics since they can’t do much about it anyway.
Iceland’s victory over the global financial mafia has prompted analysts to call the attention of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece to that Nordic island country’s example. The same should hold for the Philippines as we Filipinos have had to deal with our own “debt trap,” one that has been wrapped around us like a straight jacket, perennially being pulled tighter and tighter with tax demands left and right.
After the past two and a half decades of tax “reform” (code word for “deform”) in the guise of VAT and constantly expanding, new “sin taxes” being pressed on our legislature, and with the looming increase of this VAT from 12% to 15% that is being pitched to the media by top honchos of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who are just waiting for the opportune time to spring this on our people, the Philippines is practically suffering the same fate as hapless Greece, whose ruling politicians are allowing the financial oppression--but ours is only 10 times worse.
Filipinos should therefore no longer believe the “no new taxes” promise of PeNoy as his people are imposing new ones by hook or by crook--via direct taxes and/or higher rates from privatized public utilities.
Argentina and Iceland both defied the international banking cartel. Now look at the economic freedom and progress they gained from their resistance and revolt.
Unfortunately, Philippine mainstream media still choose not to be instrumental in making the nation understand the financial crisis and the need for Filipinos to stand together and shun continued servitude to foreign (and even domestic) debts without question. What most of our media practitioners do is to only highlight the opinions and commentaries of mainstream economists, such as those from the baby boom generation of the UP School of Economics, whose views are almost all co-opted by the international bankster mafia, which promote debt and more debt, as well as taxes and more taxes to service that debt.
These economists, like Ben Diokno and Filomeno Sta. Ana, praise the “tax reforms” without questioning the debt where these are geared for, and push for more “sin taxes.”
The “sin” tax proponents, by the way, argue that their proposal is good for tobacco farmers and consumers as it discourages the unhealthy practice of smoking and will force farmers to shift to other “more profitable” crops. But why is the tax collector so suddenly concerned with the welfare of the taxpayer?
And where is the support facility for the shift to other crops? Last I checked, tobacco farmers are only being assisted by companies such as Fortune Tobacco in constructing water impounding projects all over the tobacco growing regions.
And while Sta. Ana suggests a shift from tobacco to vegetables, peanuts, corn, and mungbeans, the fact is, these crops are not suitable for growing in the province of Ilocos.
Tobacco earns P70,000 to P120,000 per hectare per season. Sta. Ana’s crops certainly cannot earn that much. Just look at the galvanized roofs of tobacco farmers’ homes versus the ones made of nipa of vegetable farmers.
I have fought against these “sin” tax reforms since the 80s, arguing against the likes of Vic Abola of the corporatist University of Asia and Pacific and foreign think tanks. As they call for a standard rate for all tobacco products, denying any distinction among the different classes and price categories, which invariably discriminates against locally manufactured brands and consequently local tobacco farmers, their prescriptions have not changed. It is like pitting 140 lbs. welterweight Manny Pacquiao against 224 lbs. heavyweight Muhammad Ali during his prime.
The present tax on tobacco products is tiered on several classes and costs. It is thus clear that this new sin tax “reform” campaign is designed only to favor foreign interests.
Well, this isn’t surprising anymore since most of our so-called economists rely on these foreign entities for their bread and butter. So why should they care when our own farmers will suffer in the process?
I am told that tobacco farmers are now on the verge of revolt due to this new attempt to impose these unjust taxes on our tobacco products. As such, we Filipino taxpayers and tobacco players should jointly put up defiant media and popular campaigns against these foreign impositions that bedevil our economic liberty, progress, and prosperity.
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Education policies: Retrogression?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27-3/4/2012
In our previous issue we reported the spectacular performance of Argentina’s economy, which grew 94% over the 10 years since defaulting on over $100-billion debt in 2001. With its new economic vitality, Argentina has also emerged with a reinvigorated political will and, in the past month, rose to challenge Britain’s colonial claim on the islands of Malvinas off its coast.
Meanwhile, another country that defied the international “bankster” (banker-gangster) mafia is also doing very well today. Iceland voted several times to reject IMF and the Western banking community’s demand for its citizens to repay British and Dutch banks’ losses from deposits in Icesave, an Icelandic bank used by the banksters to hyper-leverage their Ponzi schemes that led to the global liquidity contraction in 2008 with the Wall Street crash.
As a response to the Icelanders’ vehement opposition to the dictates of the international financial mafia, Iceland’s financial authorities imposed currency controls, prohibited foreign exchange related to capital account transactions, and required domestic parties to submit all the foreign currency they acquire, either from the sale of goods and services or, in another manner, through a domestic financial institution. Despite this, the ratings agencies have upgraded Iceland’s credit rating, making it investment grade again, leading some to comment, “Iceland upgrade sure makes default look palatable” (www.creditwritedowns.com by Edward Harrison). That, too, is what we Filipinos need to learn from: Defy the IMF-WB and the global banksters; stare them down; and shrug off their financial goon tactics since they can’t do much about it anyway.
Iceland’s victory over the global financial mafia has prompted analysts to call the attention of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece to that Nordic island country’s example. The same should hold for the Philippines as we Filipinos have had to deal with our own “debt trap,” one that has been wrapped around us like a straight jacket, perennially being pulled tighter and tighter with tax demands left and right.
After the past two and a half decades of tax “reform” (code word for “deform”) in the guise of VAT and constantly expanding, new “sin taxes” being pressed on our legislature, and with the looming increase of this VAT from 12% to 15% that is being pitched to the media by top honchos of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who are just waiting for the opportune time to spring this on our people, the Philippines is practically suffering the same fate as hapless Greece, whose ruling politicians are allowing the financial oppression--but ours is only 10 times worse.
Filipinos should therefore no longer believe the “no new taxes” promise of PeNoy as his people are imposing new ones by hook or by crook--via direct taxes and/or higher rates from privatized public utilities.
Argentina and Iceland both defied the international banking cartel. Now look at the economic freedom and progress they gained from their resistance and revolt.
Unfortunately, Philippine mainstream media still choose not to be instrumental in making the nation understand the financial crisis and the need for Filipinos to stand together and shun continued servitude to foreign (and even domestic) debts without question. What most of our media practitioners do is to only highlight the opinions and commentaries of mainstream economists, such as those from the baby boom generation of the UP School of Economics, whose views are almost all co-opted by the international bankster mafia, which promote debt and more debt, as well as taxes and more taxes to service that debt.
These economists, like Ben Diokno and Filomeno Sta. Ana, praise the “tax reforms” without questioning the debt where these are geared for, and push for more “sin taxes.”
The “sin” tax proponents, by the way, argue that their proposal is good for tobacco farmers and consumers as it discourages the unhealthy practice of smoking and will force farmers to shift to other “more profitable” crops. But why is the tax collector so suddenly concerned with the welfare of the taxpayer?
And where is the support facility for the shift to other crops? Last I checked, tobacco farmers are only being assisted by companies such as Fortune Tobacco in constructing water impounding projects all over the tobacco growing regions.
And while Sta. Ana suggests a shift from tobacco to vegetables, peanuts, corn, and mungbeans, the fact is, these crops are not suitable for growing in the province of Ilocos.
Tobacco earns P70,000 to P120,000 per hectare per season. Sta. Ana’s crops certainly cannot earn that much. Just look at the galvanized roofs of tobacco farmers’ homes versus the ones made of nipa of vegetable farmers.
I have fought against these “sin” tax reforms since the 80s, arguing against the likes of Vic Abola of the corporatist University of Asia and Pacific and foreign think tanks. As they call for a standard rate for all tobacco products, denying any distinction among the different classes and price categories, which invariably discriminates against locally manufactured brands and consequently local tobacco farmers, their prescriptions have not changed. It is like pitting 140 lbs. welterweight Manny Pacquiao against 224 lbs. heavyweight Muhammad Ali during his prime.
The present tax on tobacco products is tiered on several classes and costs. It is thus clear that this new sin tax “reform” campaign is designed only to favor foreign interests.
Well, this isn’t surprising anymore since most of our so-called economists rely on these foreign entities for their bread and butter. So why should they care when our own farmers will suffer in the process?
I am told that tobacco farmers are now on the verge of revolt due to this new attempt to impose these unjust taxes on our tobacco products. As such, we Filipino taxpayers and tobacco players should jointly put up defiant media and popular campaigns against these foreign impositions that bedevil our economic liberty, progress, and prosperity.
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Education policies: Retrogression?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Getting nastier by the day
BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
2/25-26/2012
Things are getting nastier by the day for those raving hound dogs of Malacañang. Practically all their allegations have crumbled. It may not be a case of “losing the war, but not the battle”, but they already lost the war even before judgment came. They already lost much of their credibility, even the possibility of being re-elected or of their ambition for a higher office by their grandstanding that ended up in unexpected fiasco.
The perception is that it would be next to impossibility to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona. Doing that could even trigger an avalanche of possible backlash. Whatever will be their argument about the impeachment proceedings as political, criminal or civil no longer has value because that process has been shattered to bits. The biggest casualty is no less than the mastermind who would not mind the ethics of legality just to satisfy his lust for revenge. His credibility went down the drain by buffoonery of his cocker-spaniels in handling the impeachment trial.
In the case of Article 3, it was obvious the prosecution could not proceed to present and argue about that Platinum Card and the other privileges given by PAL to Corona, and for allegedly engaging in shopping spree at Rustan’s using the Judiciary Development Fund, and bringing along witnesses to testify, for as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pointed out, they were already imputing a crime of bribery which they failed to include in their complaint.
In their last ditch attempt to salvage that item, the prosecution insisted it is covered by their allegation of “betrayal of public trust.” Again, defense counsel Serafin Cuevas reminded them that betrayal of public trust is a conclusion of fact. Enrile has to trash their evidence and disallow their witnesses to testify because they would, in effect, be presenting evidence and witnesses testifying on something not included in the complaint.
In fact, nobody has yet attempted to cross their carefully crafted line to ask who among the “Goodfellas” in that division received a Platinum Card handed by PAL to a court where it has pending cases. As said, that now is water under the bridge because that issue has been shut off by their ineptness to charge Corona and company for the crime of bribery.
Likewise, the Senate impeachment court can never proceed to investigate the bank account of Corona, unless the court issues an order for the bank to do so. The irreparable snag came when suddenly Supreme Court granted the petition of the defense for a temporary restraining order reiterating the long-adhered principle of disallowing one from engaging in fishing expedition. The prosecution were bluntly forbidden from using the impeachment court, with the collusion of some hypocritical senator-judges, as their instrument to gather for them the evidence in support of their allegation, and not that they have at hand evidence to support their specific allegation.
Their insistence in letting the officials of PSBank, led by its president Pascual Garcia III, to testify based on spurious documents with one poppycock senator-judge insisting of just comparing those documents that were surreptitiously taken out from the bank without its certification, delivered the final coup de grace to that article. Most serious, it opened the Pandora’s Box of Malacañang’s complicity in prying into the bank account of depositors. That was clear in the admission made by Garcia that only Bangko Sentral and the Anti-Money Laundering Council have access to open the dollar and foreign accounts of their clients, including that of Justice Corona.
Surely, BSP and AMLC would have no interest in getting to know the dollar account of Corona had they not been ordered to get a copy with two silly congressmen, Reynaldo Umali and Jorge “Bolet” Banal, presenting them with all their pretensions of ignorance they were holding on to a stolen document.
In fact, the possible involvement of AMLC has put in line why that imperialist-dictated law was in the first place enacted. The role of AMLC would come in only if there was an illegal transfer of fund from the Philippines to other countries, and vice versa, with suspicion that said transfer is being used to erase all traces that the fund came from an illegal source. A mere dollar account without a movement, except that it was deposited by one not under suspicion of having committed any of those crimes enumerated in Section 3 (i) of R.A. No. 9160, necessitated the need to shred for good Article 2.
Finally, what good will it do to for the impeachment court to go along with those sycophants-turned-stupid clowns if that would mean the court’s involvement in a crime by their acceptance of evidence they know was illegally sourced? Should somebody point to PNoy as the one who ordered to prey on Corona’s account, that means, no less, he committed a culpable violation of the Constitution. Of course, PNoy can always rely on his bloated popularity injected by the Western media to show that the Filipino people are that stupid and contended in having a happy-go-lucky character like Bombolini in that old movie the “Secret of Santa Vittoria” govern them.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod P. Kapunan
2/25-26/2012
Things are getting nastier by the day for those raving hound dogs of Malacañang. Practically all their allegations have crumbled. It may not be a case of “losing the war, but not the battle”, but they already lost the war even before judgment came. They already lost much of their credibility, even the possibility of being re-elected or of their ambition for a higher office by their grandstanding that ended up in unexpected fiasco.
The perception is that it would be next to impossibility to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona. Doing that could even trigger an avalanche of possible backlash. Whatever will be their argument about the impeachment proceedings as political, criminal or civil no longer has value because that process has been shattered to bits. The biggest casualty is no less than the mastermind who would not mind the ethics of legality just to satisfy his lust for revenge. His credibility went down the drain by buffoonery of his cocker-spaniels in handling the impeachment trial.
In the case of Article 3, it was obvious the prosecution could not proceed to present and argue about that Platinum Card and the other privileges given by PAL to Corona, and for allegedly engaging in shopping spree at Rustan’s using the Judiciary Development Fund, and bringing along witnesses to testify, for as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pointed out, they were already imputing a crime of bribery which they failed to include in their complaint.
In their last ditch attempt to salvage that item, the prosecution insisted it is covered by their allegation of “betrayal of public trust.” Again, defense counsel Serafin Cuevas reminded them that betrayal of public trust is a conclusion of fact. Enrile has to trash their evidence and disallow their witnesses to testify because they would, in effect, be presenting evidence and witnesses testifying on something not included in the complaint.
In fact, nobody has yet attempted to cross their carefully crafted line to ask who among the “Goodfellas” in that division received a Platinum Card handed by PAL to a court where it has pending cases. As said, that now is water under the bridge because that issue has been shut off by their ineptness to charge Corona and company for the crime of bribery.
Likewise, the Senate impeachment court can never proceed to investigate the bank account of Corona, unless the court issues an order for the bank to do so. The irreparable snag came when suddenly Supreme Court granted the petition of the defense for a temporary restraining order reiterating the long-adhered principle of disallowing one from engaging in fishing expedition. The prosecution were bluntly forbidden from using the impeachment court, with the collusion of some hypocritical senator-judges, as their instrument to gather for them the evidence in support of their allegation, and not that they have at hand evidence to support their specific allegation.
Their insistence in letting the officials of PSBank, led by its president Pascual Garcia III, to testify based on spurious documents with one poppycock senator-judge insisting of just comparing those documents that were surreptitiously taken out from the bank without its certification, delivered the final coup de grace to that article. Most serious, it opened the Pandora’s Box of Malacañang’s complicity in prying into the bank account of depositors. That was clear in the admission made by Garcia that only Bangko Sentral and the Anti-Money Laundering Council have access to open the dollar and foreign accounts of their clients, including that of Justice Corona.
Surely, BSP and AMLC would have no interest in getting to know the dollar account of Corona had they not been ordered to get a copy with two silly congressmen, Reynaldo Umali and Jorge “Bolet” Banal, presenting them with all their pretensions of ignorance they were holding on to a stolen document.
In fact, the possible involvement of AMLC has put in line why that imperialist-dictated law was in the first place enacted. The role of AMLC would come in only if there was an illegal transfer of fund from the Philippines to other countries, and vice versa, with suspicion that said transfer is being used to erase all traces that the fund came from an illegal source. A mere dollar account without a movement, except that it was deposited by one not under suspicion of having committed any of those crimes enumerated in Section 3 (i) of R.A. No. 9160, necessitated the need to shred for good Article 2.
Finally, what good will it do to for the impeachment court to go along with those sycophants-turned-stupid clowns if that would mean the court’s involvement in a crime by their acceptance of evidence they know was illegally sourced? Should somebody point to PNoy as the one who ordered to prey on Corona’s account, that means, no less, he committed a culpable violation of the Constitution. Of course, PNoy can always rely on his bloated popularity injected by the Western media to show that the Filipino people are that stupid and contended in having a happy-go-lucky character like Bombolini in that old movie the “Secret of Santa Vittoria” govern them.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
A shameful economy
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/20-26/2012
The Argentine economy has grown 94% in the past decades since it defaulted on its debt to global bankers.
Those were years 2002-2011, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (which has Joseph Stiglitz on its board).
It was called the “fastest growth in the Western Hemisphere for the period.”
Argentina’s growth is seen as double that of Brazil, a country already much admired especially by the present Aquino III government which has been emulating its program like the CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) and the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships).
It is vital to note, on Brazil, that it does not borrow to fund its CCT and this is a world of difference from the disastrous Aquino III CCT here.
But back to Argentina. Compared to Argentina’s average annual growth of 8%, the Philippine’s average growth is Lilliputian 4.8% in the past 10 years, just a little over half of Argentina’s and shameful.
The Philippine Senate has made a mountain out of the molehill of the incident involving Argentine boxing fans that roughed up Filipino boxer John Riel Casimiro, making what was purely a fight incident into a diplomatic issue.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile wanted the Philippine ambassador to Argentina recalled, Sotto called the incident a “black eye” on Argentinians and Lito Lapid wanted to know what the weight class of Casimiro’s opponent, Jose Alberto Lazarte, as he may fight him.
The Argentine government, of course, had nothing to do with the incident and it was purely an “utak boksingero” outburst which often happens in emotionally charged fights – especially for Latin spirited South American cultures.
We’ve seen this happen before and such incidents will happen again but these do not reflect any government policy so why should it be treated as a diplomatic incident?
The Argentine ambassador has made the perfunctory apology after the Senate whipped up the imbroglio over it, but the Senate and its senators appear all smaller to me as I watched the incident put the pettiness of our senators on the spotlight.
The Senate has not expressed outrage over the growth in hunger that puts 26 million Filipino infants, children, mothers and grandparents and fathers to sleep with growling stomachs.
The Philippine Senate has never taken the step that new Argentine political leaders finally did in 2001 – default on the unjust, oppressive and destructive predatory debts imposed by the Western powers.
The Philippine Senate has not even tackled the biggest economic drag on the country, the “highest power rate in Asia” that beset our nation’s economic potential. They’ve spend two weeks on a pointless impeachment but not a second on these issues.
Argentina’s economy is projected to grow by 6% in 2012 its central bank announced and, Dow Jones reports “… a healthy pace but down from the blistering growth seen in recent years due to an expected downturn in the global economy”, the Philippines’ economic planning body Neda said in early February it saw a 3% to 5% growth rate for the country in 2012; a figure of 40% variance simply shows they do not know where this economy will be going.
The reason for this is that the Philippines does not plan its economy and waits for the economic winds blowing from the West to dictate where it goes – and out policy leaders in the Senate or anywhere else in government are not doing anything about this.
But they’ll have time to react to a boxing incident, and engage in the diarrhea of legalese in the impeachment hearing to impress the shallow public with court jargon while presiding over the unmitigated economic collapse now going on for over two decades.
Bernie Villegas, Cory Aquino’s “prophet of boom,” said at the Asia CEO Forum that the Philippine economy can grow “by 7 to 10%” in the next 10 years. Is he saying that it can grow by 7% to 10% annually, or did he mean that it will grow by that aggregate in the next 10 years?
Given the realities, he must mean the latter, and if that is what he means then let’s compare it with Argentina’s 94% aggregate growth from 2002 to 2011.
The difference is obvious, and the singular act that made Argentina achieve the “miracle” is the debt default its post-2001 revolt against the IMF and international predatory creditors.
If Villegas is right that the Philippines will only grow by 10% at the end of this decade, then we should see Zimbabwe catch up with the Philippines; and at the rate our Philippine national political, financial and economic leaders are conducting themselves, with “utak boksingero,” maybe we’ll even see Burkina Faso catch up with us. They are all shameless frauds and charlatans.
The Philippines still has to reach the heights of public and national outrage that Argentina saw in 2001 when it finally dawned on the people that their leaders at that time were simply taking them for a ride while serving as tools for the plunder of their economy.
The outrage and indignation were such that Argentines were spitting at their politicians when they were seen in public, such as restaurants, and the “caserolleros” (from casserola) banged their pots and pans everyday to oust those dirty politicians.
That’s the kind of politicians we have in our Congress these days, in both houses, as well as in Malacañang and the entire Cabinet.
While the people are still made by media to ooh and aah over the antics of these politicians at the Senate impeachment hearings and on such trivial incidents as the boxing brawl, we’ll not get to the point of building enough disgust to throw them all out and their corrupt system with them.
Let’s shout at these “utak boksingero” again: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS, new evidence? visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.comfor our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/20-26/2012
The Argentine economy has grown 94% in the past decades since it defaulted on its debt to global bankers.
Those were years 2002-2011, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (which has Joseph Stiglitz on its board).
It was called the “fastest growth in the Western Hemisphere for the period.”
Argentina’s growth is seen as double that of Brazil, a country already much admired especially by the present Aquino III government which has been emulating its program like the CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) and the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships).
It is vital to note, on Brazil, that it does not borrow to fund its CCT and this is a world of difference from the disastrous Aquino III CCT here.
But back to Argentina. Compared to Argentina’s average annual growth of 8%, the Philippine’s average growth is Lilliputian 4.8% in the past 10 years, just a little over half of Argentina’s and shameful.
The Philippine Senate has made a mountain out of the molehill of the incident involving Argentine boxing fans that roughed up Filipino boxer John Riel Casimiro, making what was purely a fight incident into a diplomatic issue.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile wanted the Philippine ambassador to Argentina recalled, Sotto called the incident a “black eye” on Argentinians and Lito Lapid wanted to know what the weight class of Casimiro’s opponent, Jose Alberto Lazarte, as he may fight him.
The Argentine government, of course, had nothing to do with the incident and it was purely an “utak boksingero” outburst which often happens in emotionally charged fights – especially for Latin spirited South American cultures.
We’ve seen this happen before and such incidents will happen again but these do not reflect any government policy so why should it be treated as a diplomatic incident?
The Argentine ambassador has made the perfunctory apology after the Senate whipped up the imbroglio over it, but the Senate and its senators appear all smaller to me as I watched the incident put the pettiness of our senators on the spotlight.
The Senate has not expressed outrage over the growth in hunger that puts 26 million Filipino infants, children, mothers and grandparents and fathers to sleep with growling stomachs.
The Philippine Senate has never taken the step that new Argentine political leaders finally did in 2001 – default on the unjust, oppressive and destructive predatory debts imposed by the Western powers.
The Philippine Senate has not even tackled the biggest economic drag on the country, the “highest power rate in Asia” that beset our nation’s economic potential. They’ve spend two weeks on a pointless impeachment but not a second on these issues.
Argentina’s economy is projected to grow by 6% in 2012 its central bank announced and, Dow Jones reports “… a healthy pace but down from the blistering growth seen in recent years due to an expected downturn in the global economy”, the Philippines’ economic planning body Neda said in early February it saw a 3% to 5% growth rate for the country in 2012; a figure of 40% variance simply shows they do not know where this economy will be going.
The reason for this is that the Philippines does not plan its economy and waits for the economic winds blowing from the West to dictate where it goes – and out policy leaders in the Senate or anywhere else in government are not doing anything about this.
But they’ll have time to react to a boxing incident, and engage in the diarrhea of legalese in the impeachment hearing to impress the shallow public with court jargon while presiding over the unmitigated economic collapse now going on for over two decades.
Bernie Villegas, Cory Aquino’s “prophet of boom,” said at the Asia CEO Forum that the Philippine economy can grow “by 7 to 10%” in the next 10 years. Is he saying that it can grow by 7% to 10% annually, or did he mean that it will grow by that aggregate in the next 10 years?
Given the realities, he must mean the latter, and if that is what he means then let’s compare it with Argentina’s 94% aggregate growth from 2002 to 2011.
The difference is obvious, and the singular act that made Argentina achieve the “miracle” is the debt default its post-2001 revolt against the IMF and international predatory creditors.
If Villegas is right that the Philippines will only grow by 10% at the end of this decade, then we should see Zimbabwe catch up with the Philippines; and at the rate our Philippine national political, financial and economic leaders are conducting themselves, with “utak boksingero,” maybe we’ll even see Burkina Faso catch up with us. They are all shameless frauds and charlatans.
The Philippines still has to reach the heights of public and national outrage that Argentina saw in 2001 when it finally dawned on the people that their leaders at that time were simply taking them for a ride while serving as tools for the plunder of their economy.
The outrage and indignation were such that Argentines were spitting at their politicians when they were seen in public, such as restaurants, and the “caserolleros” (from casserola) banged their pots and pans everyday to oust those dirty politicians.
That’s the kind of politicians we have in our Congress these days, in both houses, as well as in Malacañang and the entire Cabinet.
While the people are still made by media to ooh and aah over the antics of these politicians at the Senate impeachment hearings and on such trivial incidents as the boxing brawl, we’ll not get to the point of building enough disgust to throw them all out and their corrupt system with them.
Let’s shout at these “utak boksingero” again: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS, new evidence? visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.comfor our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Friday, February 24, 2012
Computing the oligarchy's plunder
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/24/2012
As I continued my pencil pushing on the power plunder that has raged on for over 10 years--now with a particularly renewed ferocity in Mindanao, I realize that the P80,000 per electricity consumer I computed in my last column speaks only half the story.
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. debt today stands at $18 billion (P800 billion), despite 10 years of privatizing National Power Corp. (Napocor) assets by almost 90 percent. As it is, authorities are now in a quandary as to how to charge this to us consumers without blowing the lid on the swindle of the century. Their latest attempt, therefore, is to charge 20 percent of this to government, which, of course, means the taxpayers. As for the rest, well, the shysters at Psalm are still working with Congress on passing this on to consumers via a so-called Universal Charge. In short, they will try to make 10 million electricity customers pay for all this by hook or by crook. But that’s not all.
The other half of the story involves the oligarchs who got these $18 billion worth of Napocor assets that we as taxpayers and power consumers paid for since the state power company was established by government in 1936.
What Filipino power consumers have really been plundered of is not only P80,000 per paying customer and, to a lesser extent, per individual taxpayer (as even the consumption of candies, diapers etc. have VAT included). Because we are being made to pay for P80,000 through the various surreptitious means that Psalm is devising with the corrupt bureaucracy, including Malacañang, the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the judiciary, the oligarchs on the other hand are already enjoying cash flow benefits and profits from collections on power generating assets they have taken over.
Since the private conglomerates now “owning” our erstwhile public assets took them over on credit, based on sovereign guarantees and guaranteed payments from consumers, we are also actually paying for those assets now in list of acquisitions. This is a classic lagaring Hapon on us as each consumer is actually going to pay double the amount at P180,000!
Some of these asset transfers--such as the national transmission grid that used to be under the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) but now in the hands of the private National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which was supposed to have brought in $4 billion for Psalm and the government--have not been paid since their turnover in January 2009.
In fact, we, the taxpayers, have had to foot the bill for Psalm’s operations to the tune of P75 billion to P85 billion each year since the state agency has had to borrow for its operational funds, with the approval of Congress.
You see, we are being cooked in our own fat while the oligarchs are fattening themselves, also on our monthly payments.
And while we are computing and discovering the mounting sums which the oligarchs and their corrupt political agents in government are plundering from the nation’s electricity consumers and taxpayers, Mindanaoans are at present beginning to feel the full force of the power swindle in their area.
“Power curtailment” of four to eight hour-brownouts regularly hit parts of Mindanao today. I have been receiving reports from our colleagues there, particularly Mr. Jojo Borja, early this week that Mindanaoans are now up in arms over the situation since the rains have not stopped and the hydro-electric plants that include the vast Agus-Pulangui complex should already be supplying enough power.
At the same time, Mindanaoans are well aware that there are four emergency power barges with Napocor that can immediately be deployed to supply emergency power there. Yet, the Department of Energy (DoE) and Psalm refuse to do so, as both await the privatization of these barges by March.
Confirming Borja’s report was the appeal aired last Sunday by the Mindanao business community and the island’s 33 electric cooperatives (led by the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives) to look into the region’s power crisis. They say that it is not only due to the reduced capacity of the hydro-electric plants which have not been maintained properly but also because of the “derating” or control of other power plants in Mindanao.
The two power barges privatized to the Aboitizes in 2009 are not generating power because the electric cooperatives (ECs) cannot buy from them through NGCP as the grid’s power rates are not affordable to Mindanao consumers. The ECs, thus, bear the brunt of power consumers’ anger when they pass on the generation charge from Therma Marine Corp., also of the Aboitiz Group.
Meanwhile, Malacañang, the Senate, and the House merely display their grandstanding antics in the Corona impeachment hearings.
When Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. came out with a bill against what he calls the negative typecasting of Philippine solons as crooks, I remembered asking: What was the vote of his fellow congressmen on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira)? Weren’t they reported to have each received a P500,000-payola for the onerous law’s approval, as exposed by Rep. Rene Magtubo in 2001? How about the P10-million National Electrification Administration (NEA) projects per congressman ordered released by Gloria Arroyo to those who voted favorably for the measure?
Another one of Gonzales’ harebrained colleagues, sadly, seconded him, saying there are many “crabs” among the public dragging the reputation of congressmen down out of envy. These legislators should instead look at themselves and see that they are the ones dragging the entire country down with their constant scrambling for huge scraps of pork and other large morsels from the national budget for themselves. We challenge these whining solons to a face-to-face debate anytime, anywhere on who the crabs really are--the public or their ilk--so that they can be put in their proper places.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/24/2012
As I continued my pencil pushing on the power plunder that has raged on for over 10 years--now with a particularly renewed ferocity in Mindanao, I realize that the P80,000 per electricity consumer I computed in my last column speaks only half the story.
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. debt today stands at $18 billion (P800 billion), despite 10 years of privatizing National Power Corp. (Napocor) assets by almost 90 percent. As it is, authorities are now in a quandary as to how to charge this to us consumers without blowing the lid on the swindle of the century. Their latest attempt, therefore, is to charge 20 percent of this to government, which, of course, means the taxpayers. As for the rest, well, the shysters at Psalm are still working with Congress on passing this on to consumers via a so-called Universal Charge. In short, they will try to make 10 million electricity customers pay for all this by hook or by crook. But that’s not all.
The other half of the story involves the oligarchs who got these $18 billion worth of Napocor assets that we as taxpayers and power consumers paid for since the state power company was established by government in 1936.
What Filipino power consumers have really been plundered of is not only P80,000 per paying customer and, to a lesser extent, per individual taxpayer (as even the consumption of candies, diapers etc. have VAT included). Because we are being made to pay for P80,000 through the various surreptitious means that Psalm is devising with the corrupt bureaucracy, including Malacañang, the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the judiciary, the oligarchs on the other hand are already enjoying cash flow benefits and profits from collections on power generating assets they have taken over.
Since the private conglomerates now “owning” our erstwhile public assets took them over on credit, based on sovereign guarantees and guaranteed payments from consumers, we are also actually paying for those assets now in list of acquisitions. This is a classic lagaring Hapon on us as each consumer is actually going to pay double the amount at P180,000!
Some of these asset transfers--such as the national transmission grid that used to be under the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) but now in the hands of the private National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which was supposed to have brought in $4 billion for Psalm and the government--have not been paid since their turnover in January 2009.
In fact, we, the taxpayers, have had to foot the bill for Psalm’s operations to the tune of P75 billion to P85 billion each year since the state agency has had to borrow for its operational funds, with the approval of Congress.
You see, we are being cooked in our own fat while the oligarchs are fattening themselves, also on our monthly payments.
And while we are computing and discovering the mounting sums which the oligarchs and their corrupt political agents in government are plundering from the nation’s electricity consumers and taxpayers, Mindanaoans are at present beginning to feel the full force of the power swindle in their area.
“Power curtailment” of four to eight hour-brownouts regularly hit parts of Mindanao today. I have been receiving reports from our colleagues there, particularly Mr. Jojo Borja, early this week that Mindanaoans are now up in arms over the situation since the rains have not stopped and the hydro-electric plants that include the vast Agus-Pulangui complex should already be supplying enough power.
At the same time, Mindanaoans are well aware that there are four emergency power barges with Napocor that can immediately be deployed to supply emergency power there. Yet, the Department of Energy (DoE) and Psalm refuse to do so, as both await the privatization of these barges by March.
Confirming Borja’s report was the appeal aired last Sunday by the Mindanao business community and the island’s 33 electric cooperatives (led by the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives) to look into the region’s power crisis. They say that it is not only due to the reduced capacity of the hydro-electric plants which have not been maintained properly but also because of the “derating” or control of other power plants in Mindanao.
The two power barges privatized to the Aboitizes in 2009 are not generating power because the electric cooperatives (ECs) cannot buy from them through NGCP as the grid’s power rates are not affordable to Mindanao consumers. The ECs, thus, bear the brunt of power consumers’ anger when they pass on the generation charge from Therma Marine Corp., also of the Aboitiz Group.
Meanwhile, Malacañang, the Senate, and the House merely display their grandstanding antics in the Corona impeachment hearings.
When Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. came out with a bill against what he calls the negative typecasting of Philippine solons as crooks, I remembered asking: What was the vote of his fellow congressmen on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira)? Weren’t they reported to have each received a P500,000-payola for the onerous law’s approval, as exposed by Rep. Rene Magtubo in 2001? How about the P10-million National Electrification Administration (NEA) projects per congressman ordered released by Gloria Arroyo to those who voted favorably for the measure?
Another one of Gonzales’ harebrained colleagues, sadly, seconded him, saying there are many “crabs” among the public dragging the reputation of congressmen down out of envy. These legislators should instead look at themselves and see that they are the ones dragging the entire country down with their constant scrambling for huge scraps of pork and other large morsels from the national budget for themselves. We challenge these whining solons to a face-to-face debate anytime, anywhere on who the crabs really are--the public or their ilk--so that they can be put in their proper places.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, February 20, 2012
The ‘dictatorial wimp’
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/20/2012
We were never confused. We had always known. Now, thanks to BS Aquino III, everyone now knows the naked truth: He is a wimp, and has always been a wimp. As the powers behind the exploitative political-economic establishment wanted to ensure that the Philippines would have a wimp of a president, this was the reason for his becoming the favorite of the elite, who poured in lots of media and money support to achieve this end.
Before long, the wimp was bestowed with power, and he brought in a whole set of wimps to share political power with him. From behind the scenes, the shadows most probably murmured, “What are we in power for?” and “You’ve got 75 percent popularity, don’t squander it,” into his wimpy ears. And soon, another dangerous thought was implanted: “Why not go for it? Uncle Sam’s giving us the chance. The Makati Business Club is behind us when we begin to terrorize the Supreme Court (SC). After that, we conquer all.” Thus, the dictator-wimp was born.
Addressing the colegialas of La Consolacion College, Manila, BS Aquino III lambasted SC Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona, and asserted his fearless forecast that the CJ will be convicted. He then lashed out at his critics, saying they are getting confused in their name-calling: “(You say) I’m a spoiled brat, immature. You have so many criticisms against me. In 2010 (you said) I am wimpy, very weak. In 2011, I am a dictator. In 2012, I am now a wimpy dictator…”
Well, have I got news for him: First of all, BS Aquino III, you are the one who is confused. Why, you even have your qualifier and noun reversed. Still, you are a wimp first and foremost, one who thinks he can build a new dictatorship to follow his mother’s revolutionary government. Gladly, few are following and even fewer are scared into submission. But because of that, you’ve gone even deeper into your wimp-ishness in hurling your threats and harangues before an audience of colegialas and not us--the genuine critical media.
You are not just “very weak.” After your antics against the SC, you have become even weaker. You also made yourself so much weaker after saddling the nation with a 3.7-percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2011 after your gross mismanagement of the economy.
By the end of 2012, you will most certainly collapse as even your own National Economic Development Authority (Neda) could only make out a 3 percent to 5 percent growth rate for the most critical year of 2012, and in its over wide statistical stretch, reflect a nervous, baseless guesswork, which only betrays a total absence of clear economic plans.
You claim that with Corona in the SC, it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible,” to pursue reforms. Yet, despite the pressing need for one reform most urgent for the people, the reform in the electricity sector to bring down the “highest power rate in Asia,” it was your appointee to the SC, Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who decided on a crucial consumer petition in favor of the power oligarchs and their captive Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In August of 2011, Sereno was ponente to an SC Second Division decision junking consumer protection groups’ petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the 26.9-centavo Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) rate increase and its overcharge beyond the 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) formula affirmed by the SC in 2003, on the basis of the ERC’s violation of the consumers’ right to due process in refusing consumers opportunity to present their opposition. Though the high court admitted that the ERC “prematurely” issued the assailed decision “since the period for the petitioners to file their comment/opposition had not lapsed then,” Sereno still decided against the consumer groups.
The worst part of it all was when Sereno chastised these groups for supposedly not being “vigilant enough,” despite the fact that they used their own time and resources, in contrast to Meralco, which the ERC allowed to charge consumers its two dozen lawyers at the hearing and its P2.2-billion “regulatory liaison” fund (for what, it was never explained).
Worse, Benigno Aquino III is a wimp in pretending not to see (and definitely not acting on) the electricity and power sector oligarchs’ plundering. As we speak, the power pirates are pushing for the transfer of the IPP (independent power producer) plunder debt from the Power Sector Asset and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. to taxpayers--part of a P140-billion component of the overall $18-billion debt left with Psalm despite 10 years of privatization of almost 90 percent of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s assets.
All these debts are supposed to be passed on to power consumers through the so-called Universal Charge, but with power rates already the “highest in Asia,” adding this $18 billion or P800 billion (roughly P80,000 per household--yes, that’s how much the Electric Power Industry Reform Act has cost us each) would make Philippine power rates the highest in the world even if spread out over the next 20 years.
Benigno Aquino III is a wimp for not acting to protect the nation and the people, particularly the nation’s small miners, and stopping global mining mega-corporations from gaining headway in controlling millions of hectares of our nation’s rich mineral deposits. The record of these mega-mining corporations’ destruction of million-hectare pristine areas with their collapsing tailings dams in at least 35 incidents all over the world is a matter of record.
Our water aquifers built up over eons will be poisoned, with threats of massive toxic tailings inundating hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural lands, condemning for eternity such areas with mercury and other chemical contamination, and with thousands of Filipino lives put in peril.
The list of BSA III’s wimp-ishness would not fit into this small space. So while his dictatorial tantrums are going out in a whimper fast, the nation should prepare a spanking for this little brat until he learns his lessons.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/20/2012
We were never confused. We had always known. Now, thanks to BS Aquino III, everyone now knows the naked truth: He is a wimp, and has always been a wimp. As the powers behind the exploitative political-economic establishment wanted to ensure that the Philippines would have a wimp of a president, this was the reason for his becoming the favorite of the elite, who poured in lots of media and money support to achieve this end.
Before long, the wimp was bestowed with power, and he brought in a whole set of wimps to share political power with him. From behind the scenes, the shadows most probably murmured, “What are we in power for?” and “You’ve got 75 percent popularity, don’t squander it,” into his wimpy ears. And soon, another dangerous thought was implanted: “Why not go for it? Uncle Sam’s giving us the chance. The Makati Business Club is behind us when we begin to terrorize the Supreme Court (SC). After that, we conquer all.” Thus, the dictator-wimp was born.
Addressing the colegialas of La Consolacion College, Manila, BS Aquino III lambasted SC Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona, and asserted his fearless forecast that the CJ will be convicted. He then lashed out at his critics, saying they are getting confused in their name-calling: “(You say) I’m a spoiled brat, immature. You have so many criticisms against me. In 2010 (you said) I am wimpy, very weak. In 2011, I am a dictator. In 2012, I am now a wimpy dictator…”
Well, have I got news for him: First of all, BS Aquino III, you are the one who is confused. Why, you even have your qualifier and noun reversed. Still, you are a wimp first and foremost, one who thinks he can build a new dictatorship to follow his mother’s revolutionary government. Gladly, few are following and even fewer are scared into submission. But because of that, you’ve gone even deeper into your wimp-ishness in hurling your threats and harangues before an audience of colegialas and not us--the genuine critical media.
You are not just “very weak.” After your antics against the SC, you have become even weaker. You also made yourself so much weaker after saddling the nation with a 3.7-percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2011 after your gross mismanagement of the economy.
By the end of 2012, you will most certainly collapse as even your own National Economic Development Authority (Neda) could only make out a 3 percent to 5 percent growth rate for the most critical year of 2012, and in its over wide statistical stretch, reflect a nervous, baseless guesswork, which only betrays a total absence of clear economic plans.
You claim that with Corona in the SC, it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible,” to pursue reforms. Yet, despite the pressing need for one reform most urgent for the people, the reform in the electricity sector to bring down the “highest power rate in Asia,” it was your appointee to the SC, Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who decided on a crucial consumer petition in favor of the power oligarchs and their captive Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In August of 2011, Sereno was ponente to an SC Second Division decision junking consumer protection groups’ petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the 26.9-centavo Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) rate increase and its overcharge beyond the 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) formula affirmed by the SC in 2003, on the basis of the ERC’s violation of the consumers’ right to due process in refusing consumers opportunity to present their opposition. Though the high court admitted that the ERC “prematurely” issued the assailed decision “since the period for the petitioners to file their comment/opposition had not lapsed then,” Sereno still decided against the consumer groups.
The worst part of it all was when Sereno chastised these groups for supposedly not being “vigilant enough,” despite the fact that they used their own time and resources, in contrast to Meralco, which the ERC allowed to charge consumers its two dozen lawyers at the hearing and its P2.2-billion “regulatory liaison” fund (for what, it was never explained).
Worse, Benigno Aquino III is a wimp in pretending not to see (and definitely not acting on) the electricity and power sector oligarchs’ plundering. As we speak, the power pirates are pushing for the transfer of the IPP (independent power producer) plunder debt from the Power Sector Asset and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. to taxpayers--part of a P140-billion component of the overall $18-billion debt left with Psalm despite 10 years of privatization of almost 90 percent of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s assets.
All these debts are supposed to be passed on to power consumers through the so-called Universal Charge, but with power rates already the “highest in Asia,” adding this $18 billion or P800 billion (roughly P80,000 per household--yes, that’s how much the Electric Power Industry Reform Act has cost us each) would make Philippine power rates the highest in the world even if spread out over the next 20 years.
Benigno Aquino III is a wimp for not acting to protect the nation and the people, particularly the nation’s small miners, and stopping global mining mega-corporations from gaining headway in controlling millions of hectares of our nation’s rich mineral deposits. The record of these mega-mining corporations’ destruction of million-hectare pristine areas with their collapsing tailings dams in at least 35 incidents all over the world is a matter of record.
Our water aquifers built up over eons will be poisoned, with threats of massive toxic tailings inundating hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural lands, condemning for eternity such areas with mercury and other chemical contamination, and with thousands of Filipino lives put in peril.
The list of BSA III’s wimp-ishness would not fit into this small space. So while his dictatorial tantrums are going out in a whimper fast, the nation should prepare a spanking for this little brat until he learns his lessons.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Bungled by hypocrisy
BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
2/18-19/2012
Hypocrisy has contributed much to bungle the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona. This is obvious. One could see how President Aquino has been carried away by emotions and misled by his sycophants into singling out Corona. They forget that in their charge against him on the case of Flight Attendants and Stewardess Association of PAL against Philippine Airlines, what happened was a collective act of the justices that concurred to give due course to the third motion for reconsideration that has become final, notwithstanding that it was filed more than twelve years ago.
Logic will tell that they can never grab the neck of Corona without doing the same to his accomplices who made a f*rt at our judicial system. Obviously, the prosecution crafted its complaint to single out Corona, while sanitizing his peers now playing possum in not knowing what happened. In fact, both the prosecution and the defense collaborated to canalize the questioning to avoid mentioning the name of the lawyer who wrote that third motion for reconsideration, notwithstanding that what Corona and his gang in that Division did was a clear violation of the basic canon on judicial ethics.
Had former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza been an ordinary lawyer, it would have cost him his license. Corruption need not be proven in that case because the action to reverse their final order is beyond doubt indicative of corruption. This I hasten to say, for how many lawyers have been unjustly punished for being persistent or makulit?
Some suspect they purposely did not mention him fearing it might spill over to drag PAL owner Lucio Tan, a name familiar as one of the country’s leading political broker. Doing that could result in the magistrates doing some finger-pointing of who from among their fellow hypocrites colluded in reviving a case that have long decomposed to expose the maggots of immorality and corruption contaminating the system.
The same issue was raised against the defense when they went to the Supreme Court seeking for the issuance of a temporary restraining order to prevent the opening of Chief Justice Corona’s foreign currency deposit. As usual, grandstanding politicians led by Senator Franklin Drilon made their self-serving but discordant argument that the restraining order was violative of the Constitution. The argument of Senator Drilon was way off mark, but he has to play that pesky role as duty, and not to act as a cold and impartial judge in that reformatted “tabernacle for justice.”
To repeat, the contested issue is not about the elevation of the Senate impeachment court as above the Supreme Court, but on the basic issue that nobody is above the law. That reminded me of that unchaffed slogan by one politician which says: “The law applies to all, or none at all.” The issue raised by Drilon and his cabal unfortunately metamorphosed to nonsense when they began citing foreign jurisprudence in support of their wayward arguments.
Knowing Drilon as an ardent apologist of foreign interest groups in this country, he would be eclectic in insisting to examine Corona’s dollar bank account, while allowing foreign banks to keep secret their loot without him violating Corona’s right to invoke the equal protection clause. The hypocrites need to abrogate first that imperialist-dictated law. Even that, it would still not work against Corona because no law is supposed to retroact against one whose act was not yet punishable when he committed it.
From an incredible alibi made by Rep. Reynaldo Umali, who said the bank account record was just handed to him by somebody he did not know and could not identify, to the testimony of that self-righteous congressman by the name of Jorge Banal, who now concocts an even sillier fantasy claiming the documents were tossed inside their compound, the evidence the prosecution relies on most as crucial becomes dimmer than ever.
Even if we are to take it that the Supreme Court did not issue a restraining order to allow the hypocrites to make a travesty on somebody’s bank account, they should have known better, they as people used to pocketing much money, that a demand by a court to release the bank account records of a depositor accused of a crime involving fraud is always certified and duly signed by the manager or authorized bank officer attesting that said account was released upon specific orders of the court.
Without said certification, the issue cannot revolve on the genuineness or validity of the bank account, but on whether it can be presented as legal and valid evidence in court. The exclusionary rule these people are hankering are pure nonsense. The basic rule remains that illegally sourced evidence can never be presented or much more accepted in court. The wily strategy of Drilon to compare the spurious records at hand with the ones kept by the bank is his clever way of skirting the prohibition.
Otherwise, that court becomes a party to a crime. It is psychiatric and mental for somebody to say that the Senate impeachment court is above the law because the theory why they are there is precisely for them to enforce that precept in government that nobody is above the law, or in Latin “nemo est supra legis.”
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod P. Kapunan
2/18-19/2012
Hypocrisy has contributed much to bungle the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona. This is obvious. One could see how President Aquino has been carried away by emotions and misled by his sycophants into singling out Corona. They forget that in their charge against him on the case of Flight Attendants and Stewardess Association of PAL against Philippine Airlines, what happened was a collective act of the justices that concurred to give due course to the third motion for reconsideration that has become final, notwithstanding that it was filed more than twelve years ago.
Logic will tell that they can never grab the neck of Corona without doing the same to his accomplices who made a f*rt at our judicial system. Obviously, the prosecution crafted its complaint to single out Corona, while sanitizing his peers now playing possum in not knowing what happened. In fact, both the prosecution and the defense collaborated to canalize the questioning to avoid mentioning the name of the lawyer who wrote that third motion for reconsideration, notwithstanding that what Corona and his gang in that Division did was a clear violation of the basic canon on judicial ethics.
Had former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza been an ordinary lawyer, it would have cost him his license. Corruption need not be proven in that case because the action to reverse their final order is beyond doubt indicative of corruption. This I hasten to say, for how many lawyers have been unjustly punished for being persistent or makulit?
Some suspect they purposely did not mention him fearing it might spill over to drag PAL owner Lucio Tan, a name familiar as one of the country’s leading political broker. Doing that could result in the magistrates doing some finger-pointing of who from among their fellow hypocrites colluded in reviving a case that have long decomposed to expose the maggots of immorality and corruption contaminating the system.
The same issue was raised against the defense when they went to the Supreme Court seeking for the issuance of a temporary restraining order to prevent the opening of Chief Justice Corona’s foreign currency deposit. As usual, grandstanding politicians led by Senator Franklin Drilon made their self-serving but discordant argument that the restraining order was violative of the Constitution. The argument of Senator Drilon was way off mark, but he has to play that pesky role as duty, and not to act as a cold and impartial judge in that reformatted “tabernacle for justice.”
To repeat, the contested issue is not about the elevation of the Senate impeachment court as above the Supreme Court, but on the basic issue that nobody is above the law. That reminded me of that unchaffed slogan by one politician which says: “The law applies to all, or none at all.” The issue raised by Drilon and his cabal unfortunately metamorphosed to nonsense when they began citing foreign jurisprudence in support of their wayward arguments.
Knowing Drilon as an ardent apologist of foreign interest groups in this country, he would be eclectic in insisting to examine Corona’s dollar bank account, while allowing foreign banks to keep secret their loot without him violating Corona’s right to invoke the equal protection clause. The hypocrites need to abrogate first that imperialist-dictated law. Even that, it would still not work against Corona because no law is supposed to retroact against one whose act was not yet punishable when he committed it.
From an incredible alibi made by Rep. Reynaldo Umali, who said the bank account record was just handed to him by somebody he did not know and could not identify, to the testimony of that self-righteous congressman by the name of Jorge Banal, who now concocts an even sillier fantasy claiming the documents were tossed inside their compound, the evidence the prosecution relies on most as crucial becomes dimmer than ever.
Even if we are to take it that the Supreme Court did not issue a restraining order to allow the hypocrites to make a travesty on somebody’s bank account, they should have known better, they as people used to pocketing much money, that a demand by a court to release the bank account records of a depositor accused of a crime involving fraud is always certified and duly signed by the manager or authorized bank officer attesting that said account was released upon specific orders of the court.
Without said certification, the issue cannot revolve on the genuineness or validity of the bank account, but on whether it can be presented as legal and valid evidence in court. The exclusionary rule these people are hankering are pure nonsense. The basic rule remains that illegally sourced evidence can never be presented or much more accepted in court. The wily strategy of Drilon to compare the spurious records at hand with the ones kept by the bank is his clever way of skirting the prohibition.
Otherwise, that court becomes a party to a crime. It is psychiatric and mental for somebody to say that the Senate impeachment court is above the law because the theory why they are there is precisely for them to enforce that precept in government that nobody is above the law, or in Latin “nemo est supra legis.”
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The national plundering goes on
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/17/2012
It is a news item that gets little notice as it does not relate to the impeachment hearings. But if the government and media were truly alert, they would have spotted it right from the get-go.
The claimed “uprating” of the Agus VI hydroelectric plant in Mindanao, to be undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), is geared toward increasing the facility’s “output to augment limited supply on the island.” This was the official announcement from Josefina Patricia Asirit, undersecretary of the Department of Energy (DoE), who said that the “uprating… needs to be presented to the Neda (National Economic Development Authority) Board.”
Simply put, uprating means Agus VI will soon be able to produce 62 megawatts (MW) from its present 50. The question is: Why only now when it could have been done much earlier?
They, of course, allege that Mindanao is short of power today. And with the scheduled brownouts causing massive economic displacement in the island, this has been turned into another reason for the private sector to be given new independent power producer (IPP) contracts that will double Mindanao’s generation cost.
The Agus VI uprating confirms our charge these past decades that authorities delayed rehabilitation deliberately to create an opportunity for electricity plunder. It confirms the conspiracy led by multilateral financial institutions in tandem with the Philippine oligarchy and its corrupt political class.
We have time and again seen through these conspirators’ modus operandi: Create power shortages; announce actions (though delayed) to justify government expenditure for “rush jobs;” then announce the privatization of a particular facility once its rehabilitation is completed and its systems are fully operational.
In this instance, the pressure for the privatization of the entire Agus-Pulangui hydroelectric complex has been on for years now. Only opposition from many crusading Mindanao power sector NGOs, civic leaders, and political leaders, such as Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, has stopped them so far. Sooner or later, though, the multinationals and multilaterals will descend upon Malacañang to get their way.
It is therefore important to keep refreshing the historical memory of our people about the pressure exerted by, say, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through its dangling of a $300 million standby loan on our politicians in 2001 to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), a law that caused, among other things, the onerous and devastating privatization of power, the creation of the administrative and corrupt monster that is the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as well as its Satanic offspring, the Performance Based Regulation, which pushed the country’s power rates to become “the highest in Asia,” if not the world.
For the swift enactment of that law, which allegedly cost P500,000 per congressman plus millions in electricity projects, Gloria Arroyo back then was hailed by the foreign chambers of commerce, the Makati Business Club, and other oligarchs. It is not surprising then that these very same people are now showing all their love for PeNoy for providing the impeachment distraction as their power plunder continues.
As Agus and Pulangui supply the vast majority of hydro power in Mindanao, the same report last Monday also stated that the DoE is similarly pushing the dredging by government of the Lanao River that supplies water to Pulangui VI. Our question again is: Why only now?
Mindanaoans have demanded the dredging of these facilities years ago. But, as no action was taken, the power crisis started allowing the DoE, Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.), and the NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) to issue ”red alert” bulletins of power shortages to justify their call for more privatization and new emergency projects (e.g., power plants and transmission connections).
The caveat is, every time new projects are approved, new capex (capital expenditure) requirements are submitted, which are added to the power bills consumers pay for.
When will Congress and Malacañang do something about this — only after a genuine political revolution sweeps these corrupt ruling classes away?
On another related note, we have this item on the “wholesale savings” being stored with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for 4.25 percent interest and used as a tool for managing the country’s money and currency, called the Special Deposit Account (SDA): It has already grown to P1.721 trillion the past month. UP Economics professor Ben Diokno explains: “(The high level of funds in SDAs) indicated still weak demand for loans, suggesting lack of investment opportunities or banks still careful in extending loans… SDAs are short-term while PPP (Public-Private Partnership) financing requirements are extremely long-term…”
Really? But why do I see strong demand for loans from coconut and dairy, as well as other small manufacturing import-substitution sectors? Ah, but these are genuine industries that are not encouraged by the present economic planners.
Financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani even contends that what this fund shows is that we are indeed a relatively rich nation. The only fly in the ointment is that lowering the rates and releasing it could create havoc due to the fact that we have no strong State that sets its own economic goals by directing the huge fund for our own productive developmental investments.
Reflecting further on Vaswani’s analysis, it dawned on me that the PPP program is but a concession to global capital, which, in fine, involves highly financially leveraged “rentier” projects (just like apartments and market stalls that are built and rented out to the public) with government guarantees that are not directly productive.
Although these may support some productivity in agriculture and industry, the fees and rates are just too high, making such an exploitative set-up work against productivity in the long run.
Taking note of the impact of such high toll and harbor fees, not to mention the high cost of energy projects being entered into, the PPP may very well stand for “Private Plunder Projects.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The evils of corporate mining behemoths;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/17/2012
It is a news item that gets little notice as it does not relate to the impeachment hearings. But if the government and media were truly alert, they would have spotted it right from the get-go.
The claimed “uprating” of the Agus VI hydroelectric plant in Mindanao, to be undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), is geared toward increasing the facility’s “output to augment limited supply on the island.” This was the official announcement from Josefina Patricia Asirit, undersecretary of the Department of Energy (DoE), who said that the “uprating… needs to be presented to the Neda (National Economic Development Authority) Board.”
Simply put, uprating means Agus VI will soon be able to produce 62 megawatts (MW) from its present 50. The question is: Why only now when it could have been done much earlier?
They, of course, allege that Mindanao is short of power today. And with the scheduled brownouts causing massive economic displacement in the island, this has been turned into another reason for the private sector to be given new independent power producer (IPP) contracts that will double Mindanao’s generation cost.
The Agus VI uprating confirms our charge these past decades that authorities delayed rehabilitation deliberately to create an opportunity for electricity plunder. It confirms the conspiracy led by multilateral financial institutions in tandem with the Philippine oligarchy and its corrupt political class.
We have time and again seen through these conspirators’ modus operandi: Create power shortages; announce actions (though delayed) to justify government expenditure for “rush jobs;” then announce the privatization of a particular facility once its rehabilitation is completed and its systems are fully operational.
In this instance, the pressure for the privatization of the entire Agus-Pulangui hydroelectric complex has been on for years now. Only opposition from many crusading Mindanao power sector NGOs, civic leaders, and political leaders, such as Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, has stopped them so far. Sooner or later, though, the multinationals and multilaterals will descend upon Malacañang to get their way.
It is therefore important to keep refreshing the historical memory of our people about the pressure exerted by, say, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through its dangling of a $300 million standby loan on our politicians in 2001 to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), a law that caused, among other things, the onerous and devastating privatization of power, the creation of the administrative and corrupt monster that is the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as well as its Satanic offspring, the Performance Based Regulation, which pushed the country’s power rates to become “the highest in Asia,” if not the world.
For the swift enactment of that law, which allegedly cost P500,000 per congressman plus millions in electricity projects, Gloria Arroyo back then was hailed by the foreign chambers of commerce, the Makati Business Club, and other oligarchs. It is not surprising then that these very same people are now showing all their love for PeNoy for providing the impeachment distraction as their power plunder continues.
As Agus and Pulangui supply the vast majority of hydro power in Mindanao, the same report last Monday also stated that the DoE is similarly pushing the dredging by government of the Lanao River that supplies water to Pulangui VI. Our question again is: Why only now?
Mindanaoans have demanded the dredging of these facilities years ago. But, as no action was taken, the power crisis started allowing the DoE, Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.), and the NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) to issue ”red alert” bulletins of power shortages to justify their call for more privatization and new emergency projects (e.g., power plants and transmission connections).
The caveat is, every time new projects are approved, new capex (capital expenditure) requirements are submitted, which are added to the power bills consumers pay for.
When will Congress and Malacañang do something about this — only after a genuine political revolution sweeps these corrupt ruling classes away?
On another related note, we have this item on the “wholesale savings” being stored with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for 4.25 percent interest and used as a tool for managing the country’s money and currency, called the Special Deposit Account (SDA): It has already grown to P1.721 trillion the past month. UP Economics professor Ben Diokno explains: “(The high level of funds in SDAs) indicated still weak demand for loans, suggesting lack of investment opportunities or banks still careful in extending loans… SDAs are short-term while PPP (Public-Private Partnership) financing requirements are extremely long-term…”
Really? But why do I see strong demand for loans from coconut and dairy, as well as other small manufacturing import-substitution sectors? Ah, but these are genuine industries that are not encouraged by the present economic planners.
Financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani even contends that what this fund shows is that we are indeed a relatively rich nation. The only fly in the ointment is that lowering the rates and releasing it could create havoc due to the fact that we have no strong State that sets its own economic goals by directing the huge fund for our own productive developmental investments.
Reflecting further on Vaswani’s analysis, it dawned on me that the PPP program is but a concession to global capital, which, in fine, involves highly financially leveraged “rentier” projects (just like apartments and market stalls that are built and rented out to the public) with government guarantees that are not directly productive.
Although these may support some productivity in agriculture and industry, the fees and rates are just too high, making such an exploitative set-up work against productivity in the long run.
Taking note of the impact of such high toll and harbor fees, not to mention the high cost of energy projects being entered into, the PPP may very well stand for “Private Plunder Projects.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The evils of corporate mining behemoths;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Electric eel's fishy tales gain
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/13-19/2012
The top “electrocutioner” of the country sitting as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced on February 9, 2012 that “Meralco sees higher 2012 income” compared to its P 14.5-billion of 2011.
In one report, the electrifyingly good news for Meralco was attributed by the big electrophorus electricus of Meralco thus,
“The utility firm’s chief executive mainly hinged such forecast on recent increase in their sales volume, which to his assessment signals green shoots of recovery in the economy.”
We heard this old fish wives’ tales before, that Meralco’s huge profit increase in 2009 of 114% or P6 billion from its 2008’s P2.8 billion, and surged 74% in 2010 to P 12.2 billion and P 14.5 billion in 2011 or around 25% more on what Meralco itself declares as 2% growth in volume sales.
Even Meralco, however, cannot lie all the time as it admits in several news reports in a very attenuated one-sentence statement that a significant portion of the profit is from rate increases.
“Significant” would be the understatement of the century. How Meralco gets these whopping rate increases is the subject of our many columns – Meralco-llusions with ERC.
The Electrocutor also explains that they expect a rise in profit due to projected “growth drivers” such as the “commercial and highly industrialized sectors.”
But as our regular power sector analyst Butch Junia reports “… based on Meralco’s RY 2012 average monthly expected revenues filed with ERC, residential customers will contribute 63.3% of the P3.96 nillion revenues.”
The non-residentials, i.e. the industrial and commercial customers, account for a mere 35.2%.
In terms of consumption, residential customers will get or use only 37% of total energy sales of P2.495 billion kwh.
While the lion’s share of 61% will be delivered to industrial and commercial customers, it is a “clear case of their paying less for more…”
Hence, the driver of Meralco’s profits is really the residential consumers who pay as high as P4.00/kwh versus the biggest commercial/industrial consumers which can pay as low as P0.10/kwh.
Now, who’s subsidizing what and filling Meralco’s money bag? If readers remember the late comedian Pugo’s one-liner, “Das a lotta nonsense,” now referring to the evil eye of Meralco propaganda.
“Growth” as the wool to pull over the public eye and spirit in the power plunder scheme has been used time and again.
It was at its height during Fidel V. Ramos’ time when surplus IPP (Independent Power Producer) capacity was contracted on the projected economic growth of Ramos’ Philippines 2000.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) ritually warned FVR that contracted capacity was already exceeding even the best demand projection.
However, the pen on then multi-billion contracts was mightier than the words of warning.
The past decade when the Philippine power rates were challenging Mt. Everest, there were continuing voices warning of power shortages because of “growth” like Raul Concepcion, but the growth that came literally in trickles.
Even 6% growth is a standstill rate and it is a truism that at least 7% growth is needed for tangible results.
The disastrous 3.7% growth for 2011 does not auger well for rosy projection for 2011 which even the best International Monetary Fund (IMF) view is only 4.2% while other financial agencies like J.P. Morgan see only 4%.
Where is Meralco going to get a dramatic uptick in demand with such figures?
The country’s installed and so-called dependable generating capacity is total installed, 16,359 MW; and dependable, around13,500.
Of course, the first question that should arise is why not make all that power dependable? That’s over 20% to fill any growth in demand.
And then there’s this report from Jon Poquis in August of 2010 in a daily entitled “Power demand grows slower than GDP:”
…As an economy grows, consumption of electricity also grows, and usually at a faster clip.
That used to be the case: the more goods and services were produced, more electricity was consumed.
Now, it is different. Data from the Department of Energy show that power demand is growing slower than the national output.
About a decade ago, every percentage growth in gross domestic product was accompanied by a 2.8 percent growth in power consumption.
Now, the ratio is one percentage point to 0.68 percentage point. In effect, it now takes about a fifth less power to increase GDP by a percentage point.
Mylene Capungcol, director of the energy department’s electric power industry management bureau, said the steady drop in energy elasticity could be attributed to a shift in the focus of the Philippines to a more service-oriented economy.
Because of this, a sustained growth in GDP will not lead to a rapid surge in power demand, she added. “This implies that even if the economy sustains or increases its current growth, the demand for electricity will not necessarily follow at the same pace.”
The latest data on the economy show a contracting export sector declining for 13 straight months and the last, the worst in 18 months.
And the challenges are not abating as the U.S. and European Union (EU) situation (notwithstanding the rosy mainstream U.S. jobs figures which we can show in future articles to be touch-up jobs) continues to worsen.
Likewise, the Middle East markets even for our OFWs.
With these traditional markets in turmoil, the Asian markets are also affected.
The oil situation is the most worrying as threats around the Straits of Hormuz are already raising Brent crude prices which will dampen economic activity the world over.
So, we can sum up the prospects for real growth in Philippine power demand for 2012 – another 2% at best and certainly not anywhere near enough to justify another 20% increase in profits on alleged increase of volume of sales.
And the DoE’s similar myth spinning as the Electrocutioner? Almendras is obviously sucking up to the oligarchs who want to set up new, exorbitant IPPs for the entire country.
One example is the “re-powering” of the Sucat power plant mothballed to create the shortages before and now to be revived to a private operator.
People should learn by now that the fishy electric eels are only good for Unagi at a Japanese restaurant, not for the home. It’s about time we take Meralco’s gigantus electrophopous electricus to the Gaisujin-sama (chef), and prepare smaller ones like DoE’s Almendras for sashimi.
More about Almendras, including apparent senatorial plans that as in kissing babies and yielding concessionary statement such as “President Aquino promises to look into power crisis” in next columns.
(Tune to 1098AM, Mon. to Fri.; 5 to 6pm; watch GNN, Destiny Cable, Saturday 8:15pm Struggle against the Rule of Farce”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/13-19/2012
The top “electrocutioner” of the country sitting as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced on February 9, 2012 that “Meralco sees higher 2012 income” compared to its P 14.5-billion of 2011.
In one report, the electrifyingly good news for Meralco was attributed by the big electrophorus electricus of Meralco thus,
“The utility firm’s chief executive mainly hinged such forecast on recent increase in their sales volume, which to his assessment signals green shoots of recovery in the economy.”
We heard this old fish wives’ tales before, that Meralco’s huge profit increase in 2009 of 114% or P6 billion from its 2008’s P2.8 billion, and surged 74% in 2010 to P 12.2 billion and P 14.5 billion in 2011 or around 25% more on what Meralco itself declares as 2% growth in volume sales.
Even Meralco, however, cannot lie all the time as it admits in several news reports in a very attenuated one-sentence statement that a significant portion of the profit is from rate increases.
“Significant” would be the understatement of the century. How Meralco gets these whopping rate increases is the subject of our many columns – Meralco-llusions with ERC.
The Electrocutor also explains that they expect a rise in profit due to projected “growth drivers” such as the “commercial and highly industrialized sectors.”
But as our regular power sector analyst Butch Junia reports “… based on Meralco’s RY 2012 average monthly expected revenues filed with ERC, residential customers will contribute 63.3% of the P3.96 nillion revenues.”
The non-residentials, i.e. the industrial and commercial customers, account for a mere 35.2%.
In terms of consumption, residential customers will get or use only 37% of total energy sales of P2.495 billion kwh.
While the lion’s share of 61% will be delivered to industrial and commercial customers, it is a “clear case of their paying less for more…”
Hence, the driver of Meralco’s profits is really the residential consumers who pay as high as P4.00/kwh versus the biggest commercial/industrial consumers which can pay as low as P0.10/kwh.
Now, who’s subsidizing what and filling Meralco’s money bag? If readers remember the late comedian Pugo’s one-liner, “Das a lotta nonsense,” now referring to the evil eye of Meralco propaganda.
“Growth” as the wool to pull over the public eye and spirit in the power plunder scheme has been used time and again.
It was at its height during Fidel V. Ramos’ time when surplus IPP (Independent Power Producer) capacity was contracted on the projected economic growth of Ramos’ Philippines 2000.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) ritually warned FVR that contracted capacity was already exceeding even the best demand projection.
However, the pen on then multi-billion contracts was mightier than the words of warning.
The past decade when the Philippine power rates were challenging Mt. Everest, there were continuing voices warning of power shortages because of “growth” like Raul Concepcion, but the growth that came literally in trickles.
Even 6% growth is a standstill rate and it is a truism that at least 7% growth is needed for tangible results.
The disastrous 3.7% growth for 2011 does not auger well for rosy projection for 2011 which even the best International Monetary Fund (IMF) view is only 4.2% while other financial agencies like J.P. Morgan see only 4%.
Where is Meralco going to get a dramatic uptick in demand with such figures?
The country’s installed and so-called dependable generating capacity is total installed, 16,359 MW; and dependable, around13,500.
Of course, the first question that should arise is why not make all that power dependable? That’s over 20% to fill any growth in demand.
And then there’s this report from Jon Poquis in August of 2010 in a daily entitled “Power demand grows slower than GDP:”
…As an economy grows, consumption of electricity also grows, and usually at a faster clip.
That used to be the case: the more goods and services were produced, more electricity was consumed.
Now, it is different. Data from the Department of Energy show that power demand is growing slower than the national output.
About a decade ago, every percentage growth in gross domestic product was accompanied by a 2.8 percent growth in power consumption.
Now, the ratio is one percentage point to 0.68 percentage point. In effect, it now takes about a fifth less power to increase GDP by a percentage point.
Mylene Capungcol, director of the energy department’s electric power industry management bureau, said the steady drop in energy elasticity could be attributed to a shift in the focus of the Philippines to a more service-oriented economy.
Because of this, a sustained growth in GDP will not lead to a rapid surge in power demand, she added. “This implies that even if the economy sustains or increases its current growth, the demand for electricity will not necessarily follow at the same pace.”
The latest data on the economy show a contracting export sector declining for 13 straight months and the last, the worst in 18 months.
And the challenges are not abating as the U.S. and European Union (EU) situation (notwithstanding the rosy mainstream U.S. jobs figures which we can show in future articles to be touch-up jobs) continues to worsen.
Likewise, the Middle East markets even for our OFWs.
With these traditional markets in turmoil, the Asian markets are also affected.
The oil situation is the most worrying as threats around the Straits of Hormuz are already raising Brent crude prices which will dampen economic activity the world over.
So, we can sum up the prospects for real growth in Philippine power demand for 2012 – another 2% at best and certainly not anywhere near enough to justify another 20% increase in profits on alleged increase of volume of sales.
And the DoE’s similar myth spinning as the Electrocutioner? Almendras is obviously sucking up to the oligarchs who want to set up new, exorbitant IPPs for the entire country.
One example is the “re-powering” of the Sucat power plant mothballed to create the shortages before and now to be revived to a private operator.
People should learn by now that the fishy electric eels are only good for Unagi at a Japanese restaurant, not for the home. It’s about time we take Meralco’s gigantus electrophopous electricus to the Gaisujin-sama (chef), and prepare smaller ones like DoE’s Almendras for sashimi.
More about Almendras, including apparent senatorial plans that as in kissing babies and yielding concessionary statement such as “President Aquino promises to look into power crisis” in next columns.
(Tune to 1098AM, Mon. to Fri.; 5 to 6pm; watch GNN, Destiny Cable, Saturday 8:15pm Struggle against the Rule of Farce”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
People Power reversed!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
2/13-19/2012
Fifteen days, four weeks, a month, have passed of the Impeachment Trial of Chief Justice Renato “Rene” Coronado Corona at the Senate.
In the period between the railroading of the Impeachment by the Lower House on December 12, 2011 and the January 16, 2012 opening of the trial, Corona had already been convicted by the majority in both media and public opinion.
However, by the third week of the trial, due mainly to the incompetence of the prosecution, the mood had swung.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s survey two weekends ago, the majority of those surveyed now believed that Corona would be acquitted.
We had been predicting that the initiators of the Impeachment, PNoy, the Liberal Party, Evil Society and the Lower House, would be hard put to secure 16 votes from among the 20 – three sitting Senators to convict Corona.
We believe that if 12 to 15 senators vote for conviction, there would be a moral conviction by a simple majority of the senators and at the same time a legal and echnical acquittal.
Sixteen votes or two – thirds of the total number of 20 – four seats are required under the 1987 Constitution to impeach an impeachable official.
We have been saying that PNoy, the LP, Evil Society and the Lower House will not accept defeat in the form of an acquittal. Therefore, they have been planning a Plan “B.”
Plan B is akin to and based on Edsa Uno and Dos where the Plan A or original plans were:
(a) To defeat President Marcos and Senator Tolentino in the Friday, February 7, 1986 snap presidential and vice presidential elections. However, Marcos allegedly cheated Cory and Doy;
(b) To oust President Estrada by impeaching and convicting him from the October 2000 “jueteng” expose, to the Speaker Manny Villar impeachment prayer express until the end of the impeachment trial. However, on January 16, 2001 the prosecutors in the impeachment trial walked out.
The first plan in the present situation was to quickly impeach Corona and either:
(a) Scare him into resigning before the Trial started or;
(b) Proceed with the trial and present enough evidence and generate enough political reasons to secure a conviction by the Constitutional requirement of 16 votes.
Thus, while the Lower House prosecutes the case in the Senate impeachment court, its spokesmen persecute the impeached Chief Justice in a trial by publicity.
The Plan B in all three situations involves:
(a) A critical situation that has captured the attention and imagination of the entire country, reaches a climax or a very high point;
(b) A trigger occurs at the highest and most opportune point;
(c) A call is made to assemble at a significant and symbolic place;
(d) The mobilization of a big number of demonstrators reaches a critical point;
(e) A faction of the AFP, PNP and civilian bureaucracy withdraws support from the top official being ousted. In the case of the February 7, 1986 snap elections and the February 22 – 25 People Power at Edsa I, this occurred before the Civilian Mobilization; and finally,
(f) The official concerned abandons his post.
In the Corona trial, the high point has been reached several times. However, it is the series of failures of the prosecution panel that has also depressed the situation from the high point to a mediocre level.
The trigger could have been any of the following:
(a) A TRO from the SC stopping the impeachment process just as the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gurierrez had been temporarily stopped;
(b) A decision by the Senate impeachment court not to subpoena the bank records of Corona; and now
(c) A TRO from the SC stopping the opening of the FCD accounts.
So far presiding officer Senator Juan Ponce Enrile has been very careful not to provide any of the two sides the opportunity to walkout and bring the issue exclusively to the streets.
However, the Supreme Court’s preliminary injunction with TRO issued last Thursday afternoon will come to a head this Monday afternoon during and after the Senate caucus regarding the said SC order.
We should also note that a big anti-impeachment rally was staged during the en banc session last Thursday at the Supreme Court. The TRO and the rally confirm to us that Corona continues to fight.
On the other hand the anti-Corona rally at the Senate was much smaller. This is an indication that the impeachment issue has a very difficult time achieving a climax. We will see next whether the TRO can heat up the situation to a boiling point.
If the Senate decides to obey the TRO, tensions will subside. The situation is not at such a level that the conspirators including the Executive Branch and half of the Legislative Branch can mobilize against both the Supreme Court and the Senate combined.
However, if the Senate decides otherwise, a Constitutional crisis will ensue. Both sides will mobilize in the streets. However, what we will see will not be a lopsided mobilization like Edsa I, II and III.
Alongside the street confrontations will be the spectre of civil war.
As I have pointed out repeatedly, there are some major differences between the present situation and EDSA’s I & II:
(a) Unlike at the time of both EDSA’s I & II, there is no more Cardinal Sin;
(b) The Archdiocese of Manila has been broken up into one Archdiocese and several Dioceses.
(c) The perception before was that the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila was the leader of the entire Philippine Catholic Church.
The nine and a half years of the GMA Presidency educated us on the leadership dynamics of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.
(d) The Church leaders who have been the most vocal against or about Impeachment are those who were the most vocal against GMA. The pro – GMA bishops have been relatively quiet;
(e) The Catholic Church is at odds with PNoy and the Lower House over the RH bill. It is still hurting from the PCSO’s SUV expose which turned out to be a big lie;
(f) Both EDSA’s I & II were against an incumbent president. Now, they are trying to oust a Supreme Court Chief Justice who does not command an AFP or PNP. He heads a Judiciary that is by design relatively passive but which has become uncustomarily active.
In both Edsa I and II, the INK was aligned with the ousted presidents, Marcos and Estrada. Now, it is perceived to be sympathetic to Corona.
The decision of the Senate impeachment court on whether to obey or disobey the TRO will be very crucial.
If PS Bank President Garcia is crucified this afternoon, a trigger may be provided for the other side. The paradigm of People Power may change from ouster and replacement to one of stalling, stopping and gridlock.
On top of a Constitutional crisis, we may have economic depression and stagnation.
Let our politicians beware! Those who grandstanded will earn the ire of the people as well as be blamed by the organized churches. The 2013 elections are just around the corner!
Linggoy Alcuaz
2/13-19/2012
Fifteen days, four weeks, a month, have passed of the Impeachment Trial of Chief Justice Renato “Rene” Coronado Corona at the Senate.
In the period between the railroading of the Impeachment by the Lower House on December 12, 2011 and the January 16, 2012 opening of the trial, Corona had already been convicted by the majority in both media and public opinion.
However, by the third week of the trial, due mainly to the incompetence of the prosecution, the mood had swung.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s survey two weekends ago, the majority of those surveyed now believed that Corona would be acquitted.
We had been predicting that the initiators of the Impeachment, PNoy, the Liberal Party, Evil Society and the Lower House, would be hard put to secure 16 votes from among the 20 – three sitting Senators to convict Corona.
We believe that if 12 to 15 senators vote for conviction, there would be a moral conviction by a simple majority of the senators and at the same time a legal and echnical acquittal.
Sixteen votes or two – thirds of the total number of 20 – four seats are required under the 1987 Constitution to impeach an impeachable official.
We have been saying that PNoy, the LP, Evil Society and the Lower House will not accept defeat in the form of an acquittal. Therefore, they have been planning a Plan “B.”
Plan B is akin to and based on Edsa Uno and Dos where the Plan A or original plans were:
(a) To defeat President Marcos and Senator Tolentino in the Friday, February 7, 1986 snap presidential and vice presidential elections. However, Marcos allegedly cheated Cory and Doy;
(b) To oust President Estrada by impeaching and convicting him from the October 2000 “jueteng” expose, to the Speaker Manny Villar impeachment prayer express until the end of the impeachment trial. However, on January 16, 2001 the prosecutors in the impeachment trial walked out.
The first plan in the present situation was to quickly impeach Corona and either:
(a) Scare him into resigning before the Trial started or;
(b) Proceed with the trial and present enough evidence and generate enough political reasons to secure a conviction by the Constitutional requirement of 16 votes.
Thus, while the Lower House prosecutes the case in the Senate impeachment court, its spokesmen persecute the impeached Chief Justice in a trial by publicity.
The Plan B in all three situations involves:
(a) A critical situation that has captured the attention and imagination of the entire country, reaches a climax or a very high point;
(b) A trigger occurs at the highest and most opportune point;
(c) A call is made to assemble at a significant and symbolic place;
(d) The mobilization of a big number of demonstrators reaches a critical point;
(e) A faction of the AFP, PNP and civilian bureaucracy withdraws support from the top official being ousted. In the case of the February 7, 1986 snap elections and the February 22 – 25 People Power at Edsa I, this occurred before the Civilian Mobilization; and finally,
(f) The official concerned abandons his post.
In the Corona trial, the high point has been reached several times. However, it is the series of failures of the prosecution panel that has also depressed the situation from the high point to a mediocre level.
The trigger could have been any of the following:
(a) A TRO from the SC stopping the impeachment process just as the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gurierrez had been temporarily stopped;
(b) A decision by the Senate impeachment court not to subpoena the bank records of Corona; and now
(c) A TRO from the SC stopping the opening of the FCD accounts.
So far presiding officer Senator Juan Ponce Enrile has been very careful not to provide any of the two sides the opportunity to walkout and bring the issue exclusively to the streets.
However, the Supreme Court’s preliminary injunction with TRO issued last Thursday afternoon will come to a head this Monday afternoon during and after the Senate caucus regarding the said SC order.
We should also note that a big anti-impeachment rally was staged during the en banc session last Thursday at the Supreme Court. The TRO and the rally confirm to us that Corona continues to fight.
On the other hand the anti-Corona rally at the Senate was much smaller. This is an indication that the impeachment issue has a very difficult time achieving a climax. We will see next whether the TRO can heat up the situation to a boiling point.
If the Senate decides to obey the TRO, tensions will subside. The situation is not at such a level that the conspirators including the Executive Branch and half of the Legislative Branch can mobilize against both the Supreme Court and the Senate combined.
However, if the Senate decides otherwise, a Constitutional crisis will ensue. Both sides will mobilize in the streets. However, what we will see will not be a lopsided mobilization like Edsa I, II and III.
Alongside the street confrontations will be the spectre of civil war.
As I have pointed out repeatedly, there are some major differences between the present situation and EDSA’s I & II:
(a) Unlike at the time of both EDSA’s I & II, there is no more Cardinal Sin;
(b) The Archdiocese of Manila has been broken up into one Archdiocese and several Dioceses.
(c) The perception before was that the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila was the leader of the entire Philippine Catholic Church.
The nine and a half years of the GMA Presidency educated us on the leadership dynamics of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.
(d) The Church leaders who have been the most vocal against or about Impeachment are those who were the most vocal against GMA. The pro – GMA bishops have been relatively quiet;
(e) The Catholic Church is at odds with PNoy and the Lower House over the RH bill. It is still hurting from the PCSO’s SUV expose which turned out to be a big lie;
(f) Both EDSA’s I & II were against an incumbent president. Now, they are trying to oust a Supreme Court Chief Justice who does not command an AFP or PNP. He heads a Judiciary that is by design relatively passive but which has become uncustomarily active.
In both Edsa I and II, the INK was aligned with the ousted presidents, Marcos and Estrada. Now, it is perceived to be sympathetic to Corona.
The decision of the Senate impeachment court on whether to obey or disobey the TRO will be very crucial.
If PS Bank President Garcia is crucified this afternoon, a trigger may be provided for the other side. The paradigm of People Power may change from ouster and replacement to one of stalling, stopping and gridlock.
On top of a Constitutional crisis, we may have economic depression and stagnation.
Let our politicians beware! Those who grandstanded will earn the ire of the people as well as be blamed by the organized churches. The 2013 elections are just around the corner!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sadness
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/13/2012
Reviewing the economic and political news of the past week only brings out a wave of sadness in me. It is not just that the decade-long major economic downturn will continue to worsen this year; it is because the present government still has no credible response to it, which can only mean more suffering for the nation.
That the Philippines has fallen so far behind its Asean neighbors today is no longer in dispute. But looking back, even in the wake of the destabilization of the early ’80s by the US, our country still had the infrastructure to bounce back. All that, however, was destroyed by the Yellow counter-revolution of 1986 and the ensuing 25 years that saw the dismantling of the nation’s agro-industrial foundation, making it an import-dependent globalized economy.
Then, as the series of globalization-induced crises came, starting with the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, followed by the 2000 Dot-com and 2008 Wall Street crash, the backward Philippine economy sank even deeper, even as our countrymen continued to try their darndest to keep their noses above water.
Many are sadly unaware that Filipinos are drowning from the Western economies that are propping themselves up on our backs through our debt payments and the repatriation of profits by transnationals.
Still, the fate of Filipinos is in the hands of politicians and financial-economic mangers (led by Malacañang) who, instead of addressing the crises, stoke internal strife by firing up sound and fury signifying nothing.
Listening to the likes of that Ilocos solon, who seems hell-bent on driving the country into national political suicide with a mindless threat to impeach all Supreme Court (SC) justices who choose not to toe the administration line, or his colleague who went into a melodrama on the whereabouts of an alleged “leaker” of the chief magistrate’s bank documents, but without asking any lawful authority to ferret her out, one would no longer need any explanation as to why this country, with such “leaders,” is in dire straits.
Last Friday I chanced upon the GNN show of Ray Orosa who had the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Diwa Guinigundo as guest. The BSP deputy-governor, as usual, effused over the performance of the Philippine economy and its alleged financial gains. Thinking perhaps that the audience did not have the tools necessary for analyzing or dissecting his presentation of the ratings agencies’ upgrade of our country, copious amounts of financial jargon flowed through his lips.
There’s no problem with a strong peso, he said, as import prices will go down; there’s no problem with inflation as wages will go up; and there’s no problem with hunger and poverty as these are just consumer basket benchmarking. Makes you think of the Philippines as a paradise courtesy of the BSP, doesn’t it?
But as the hard questions from the texters came in, such as, “When have salaries kept abreast of prices?” or “Why do import prices still go up despite a strengthening peso?,” the polite host had no recourse but to allow his guest to wriggle out of these as fast as possible.
As the Philippine gross international reserves (GIRs) have grown to $77 billion, BSP officials like Guinigundo, who beat their chests on their self-proclaimed financial management prowess, still say that covering 11 months worth of imports is necessary when only four months worth of cover is needed.
Similarly, these officials gush over increasing portfolio investments when the fact is such “hot money” or short-time “motel investments” are opportunistic funds from the US (where interest is almost zero) that cash in on higher Philippine yields, taking profits from the stock market and then leaving just as quickly.
Moreover, financial ratings agencies such as S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch’s that are now praising the Philippines and are tied to banking interests that want the Philippines to keep on borrowing — now that many countries have stopped doing so or will be defaulting — have all been discredited by now.
In saying that Western economies are standing on our backs as props to keep their head above the financial floodwaters, I refer primarily to the role of the BSP in keeping us indebted when we can already start paying off our debt.
Thanks to the BSP and the “PeNoy-chio” government, our national debt already grew to P5 trillion of late. Thus, when Orosa asked, “Why don’t we use our growing reserves more productively instead of lending it out (referring to “investments” in US T-bills and the like)?,” a visibly stumped Guinigundo could only give a spiel that goes, “We need to accumulate the dollars in case of a “currency attack.’”
My dear readers, history has shown that the best defense against any currency attack is what Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad did in 1997 for his country —currency controls. But since that is taboo for the minions of the global and local financial mafia, Guinigundo had to resort to his “currency attack” yarn and the necessity of sleeping GIRs.
With the combined inanities of politicians and financial managers, we should no longer shake our heads at these headlines last week: “Exports fall worse than expected” (BusinessWorld); “Building construction starts drop 80 percent to P575B in 2011” (Philippine Star); “2011 export earnings dip to $47-Billion” (Manila Times); “Neda sees 2012 growth at 3 percent to 5 percent (Manila Times); ad nausea.
Although my fearless forecast about BS Aquino III getting even lower grades than Gloria Arroyo’s mid-term ratings by the end of 2012 has never dampened my mood, what fills me now with sadness are the lost years that we would have to endure anew as we wait for this inane, incompetent, and ill willed administration to fade away — hopefully soon.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New evidence;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/13/2012
Reviewing the economic and political news of the past week only brings out a wave of sadness in me. It is not just that the decade-long major economic downturn will continue to worsen this year; it is because the present government still has no credible response to it, which can only mean more suffering for the nation.
That the Philippines has fallen so far behind its Asean neighbors today is no longer in dispute. But looking back, even in the wake of the destabilization of the early ’80s by the US, our country still had the infrastructure to bounce back. All that, however, was destroyed by the Yellow counter-revolution of 1986 and the ensuing 25 years that saw the dismantling of the nation’s agro-industrial foundation, making it an import-dependent globalized economy.
Then, as the series of globalization-induced crises came, starting with the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, followed by the 2000 Dot-com and 2008 Wall Street crash, the backward Philippine economy sank even deeper, even as our countrymen continued to try their darndest to keep their noses above water.
Many are sadly unaware that Filipinos are drowning from the Western economies that are propping themselves up on our backs through our debt payments and the repatriation of profits by transnationals.
Still, the fate of Filipinos is in the hands of politicians and financial-economic mangers (led by Malacañang) who, instead of addressing the crises, stoke internal strife by firing up sound and fury signifying nothing.
Listening to the likes of that Ilocos solon, who seems hell-bent on driving the country into national political suicide with a mindless threat to impeach all Supreme Court (SC) justices who choose not to toe the administration line, or his colleague who went into a melodrama on the whereabouts of an alleged “leaker” of the chief magistrate’s bank documents, but without asking any lawful authority to ferret her out, one would no longer need any explanation as to why this country, with such “leaders,” is in dire straits.
Last Friday I chanced upon the GNN show of Ray Orosa who had the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Diwa Guinigundo as guest. The BSP deputy-governor, as usual, effused over the performance of the Philippine economy and its alleged financial gains. Thinking perhaps that the audience did not have the tools necessary for analyzing or dissecting his presentation of the ratings agencies’ upgrade of our country, copious amounts of financial jargon flowed through his lips.
There’s no problem with a strong peso, he said, as import prices will go down; there’s no problem with inflation as wages will go up; and there’s no problem with hunger and poverty as these are just consumer basket benchmarking. Makes you think of the Philippines as a paradise courtesy of the BSP, doesn’t it?
But as the hard questions from the texters came in, such as, “When have salaries kept abreast of prices?” or “Why do import prices still go up despite a strengthening peso?,” the polite host had no recourse but to allow his guest to wriggle out of these as fast as possible.
As the Philippine gross international reserves (GIRs) have grown to $77 billion, BSP officials like Guinigundo, who beat their chests on their self-proclaimed financial management prowess, still say that covering 11 months worth of imports is necessary when only four months worth of cover is needed.
Similarly, these officials gush over increasing portfolio investments when the fact is such “hot money” or short-time “motel investments” are opportunistic funds from the US (where interest is almost zero) that cash in on higher Philippine yields, taking profits from the stock market and then leaving just as quickly.
Moreover, financial ratings agencies such as S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch’s that are now praising the Philippines and are tied to banking interests that want the Philippines to keep on borrowing — now that many countries have stopped doing so or will be defaulting — have all been discredited by now.
In saying that Western economies are standing on our backs as props to keep their head above the financial floodwaters, I refer primarily to the role of the BSP in keeping us indebted when we can already start paying off our debt.
Thanks to the BSP and the “PeNoy-chio” government, our national debt already grew to P5 trillion of late. Thus, when Orosa asked, “Why don’t we use our growing reserves more productively instead of lending it out (referring to “investments” in US T-bills and the like)?,” a visibly stumped Guinigundo could only give a spiel that goes, “We need to accumulate the dollars in case of a “currency attack.’”
My dear readers, history has shown that the best defense against any currency attack is what Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad did in 1997 for his country —currency controls. But since that is taboo for the minions of the global and local financial mafia, Guinigundo had to resort to his “currency attack” yarn and the necessity of sleeping GIRs.
With the combined inanities of politicians and financial managers, we should no longer shake our heads at these headlines last week: “Exports fall worse than expected” (BusinessWorld); “Building construction starts drop 80 percent to P575B in 2011” (Philippine Star); “2011 export earnings dip to $47-Billion” (Manila Times); “Neda sees 2012 growth at 3 percent to 5 percent (Manila Times); ad nausea.
Although my fearless forecast about BS Aquino III getting even lower grades than Gloria Arroyo’s mid-term ratings by the end of 2012 has never dampened my mood, what fills me now with sadness are the lost years that we would have to endure anew as we wait for this inane, incompetent, and ill willed administration to fade away — hopefully soon.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New evidence;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Pinoys sentenced to electrocution
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/6-12/2012
The mother of the country’s democracy, Corazon C. Aquino is also gave birth to unabated rise in cost of utility services, making the cost of electricity in the Philippines the most expensive in Asia and among highest in the world.
Philippine consumers are in a constant state of electrocution, says consumer groups fighting Meralco and its accomplices in the government occupying high positions at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The rise in cost of electricity was started by former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino. After EDSA 1, Aquino dismantled all energy projects including the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Power development took low priority in the middle of celebrations for the recaptured democracy after the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Pres. Fidel V. Ramos faced the consequences of neglect on power development that have plunged the country into outbreaks of blackouts. His solution was the infamous 32 IPP contracts in addition to the nine IPPs signed up by Pres. Cory. Pres. GMA signed up one IPP in her administration.
The second phase of the electrocution that revved up the electric rate shock began in the wake of the 2001 Edsa II power shift to Gloria Arroyo, that’s when her first IPP contract IMPSA was signed around 10 days after her Edsa Shrine swearing in.
The worse part came in May of that year when Congress, prodded by the ADB, demand for passage of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) in exchange for a $ 300-million standby loan, was lobbied through the lame duck Congress smoothened by a P 500,000 “payola” per solon – which party list congressman Magtubo exposed but was suppressed.
EPIRA created a new, quasi-judicial, independent (literally its own republic in practice) ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) which two years later, in 2003, will challenge by circumvention even the constitutional and legal authority and orders of the Supreme Court increasing allowable profit margin of Meralco from 12% to over 16% and defied the EPIRA itself in exempting Meralco from bidding for its billions of pesos of purchases.
We can divide our electricity to BC and AD, “Before Cory” when the electricity generation, transmission and distribution business were primarily the business of government and the public could protest and complain and expect the government agencies to respond to public pressure.
The came the “Aquino Decades” when a power oligarch was appointed as head the Napocor in the person of Ernesto Aboitiz and the posthaste power crises started which coincidentally was a boon to the Aboitiz Corporation’s power unit importing and selling power generators.
Privatization of power generation with contracts of Cory Aquino with IPPs started in the early year of this A.D. but the really onerous IPPs came in the Fidel Ramos era when contracts were signd with wild abandon exceeding even power projection requirement made by ADB which warned against over-contracting power supply.
Ramos was so bullish on his Philippines 2000, but the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis crashed that had stuck the government with IPP contracts.
For over a decade now, Filipino power consumers have been paying IPP contract power supply that it has never used, but since these contracts were BOT and most are now transferred to state ownership, the opportunity for government to use these generating assets to produce cheap should have come, but it cannot be so.
The EPIRA forbids government from entering into power generation, transmission and distribution ever again, so we have a ridiculous situation today that IPP operators before turning over their power plants to government are now buying those same power plants 10 times less than acquisition cost which they will turn around again and revalue 10 times higher to generate and sell high priced electricity.
This is happening today for instance in Mindanao, as our fellow power consumer crusader and one of the owners of Iligan Light and Power reports, where four former Alcantara IPPs now owned by government will be sold dirt cheap and bought by the Alcantara group itself.
Many power consumers take their power bills for granted and just pay up every month after some grumbling. Even the desire to understand how the rates are charged by studying the breakdown of charges on the bill boggles many minds, what more the 35 pages of the EPIRA and thousands of pages of ERC rule and regulations, decisions, rulings, and thousands of pages of applications for rate base increases from power companies such as Meralco.
To understand the whole caboodle the consumer must simplify the issues and this begins with the power rate.
We can find the bottom line in the EPIRA committing in Chapter I, Sec. 2 (b) Declaration of Policy, to “ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power.
The word “affordable” is a clear statement in favor of the poorest consumers’ interest. EPIRA also states in the same section the promise to “…ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electricity.” So the question is what are “reasonable prices?”
The EPIRA sets the basis for setting a very high rate in the RORB (Return-On-Rate-Base) of 12% for a captive market.
Mr. Jojo Borja, a second generation power plant and distributor entrepreneur, says their business makes money even on as low a rate-of-return of 5%, and 12% is already more than sufficient.
The Puno Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the RORB of 12% in 2003 as part of a decision that also refunded the consumers the P 30-billion Meralco overcharge from a decade past.
As if in vengeance, the ERC went around this EPIRA and SC principle of “affordability” and “reasonable price” and formulated a new rate setting mechanism called PBR (Performance Based Rate) and required rate-of-return for power companies under the PBR to be “comparable to rates-of-return in investment source countries” and raised the rate-of-return to variously reported 15.6% but can reach 17% due to the “performance incentives” ERC gives.
Jojo Borja explains that under PBR, what their power company could earn in three months under the RORB, it would now take them a year: 4% to over 5% additional margin compounded every month.
This system, Borja explains, makes it shameful to be in the power enterprices because it is no longer hard earned money but a racket.
But the PBR is just the tip of the iceberg and underneath it are worse anomalies and one of them is the Capex (capital expenditure, such a transformers, substations, poles etc.).
Meralco claims it is necessary in order to provide and deliver the power to the public. This is where octagenarion Mr. Genaro “Gene” Lualhati (a.k.a. fondly as Mang Naro who helped win consumers’ P30-billion Meralco refund before) crusades, disputing Meralco’s capex claims approved by the ERC without question, raising the maximum average price (MAP) to almost 70% higher than it should be.
Lualhati saw the anomaly emanating from Meralco figures themselves. Lualhati recently stood before the ERC again and protested in the hearing.
The best account comes from another power crusader Butch Junia:
“Lualhati questioned the capital expense claims of Meralco in its ARR, citing the testimony of Meralco’s expert witness, a Michael Emmerton of PB Consultants and Asian Appraisal Inc., who confirmed under oath that the assets of Meralco are only 50% utilized.
Under PBR, customers pay in advance for all equipment and assets of Meralco, including some that are not used for power distribution services.
The 2012 capex of Meralco was bloated by P31.7 billion, Lualhati told ERC. That amount will eventually be added to Meralco’s Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) of P126 billion, which was also questioned by consumers for being bloated.
This RAB is funded directly from rate increases under capex but becomes the basis for Meralco’s return on capital set by ERC at 14.8% under PBR, higher than the 12% cap under RORB or Return on Rate Base. This resulted in a Meralco ROI of P19 b illion for 2012, plus a separate or additional P5.2 billion regulatory depreciation on the same asset base.
Junia, himself a consumer-oppositor and former columnist of this paper too, added another factor, that “Meralco’s operating expense (opex) requirement for 2012 is P13.9 billion, which means that the provision for its earnings and profits will cost consumers P5.1 billion more than the opex or actual cost of the service.
Junia pointed out that consistently for all the four years of the 3rd regulatory period (20011-2015) under PBR, the provision for Meralco’s return on investment and capital is higher than its cost of operations.
Proceeding from these excesses, power advocate group Nasecore, in a separate action filed last December at the Office of the Ombudsman, accused Meralco of “earning profits at the average of 56.3% per annum for years 2003 to 2009, which is 369% more than the reasonable return of 12%.”
The Ombudsman complaint against the entire ERC, which is based on a Commission on Audit review ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007, includes two commissioners who recently retired, and Ivanna dela Pena of Meralco,, Junia reported.
Junia, himself another consumer-oppositor and former columnist of this paper too, added that “Meralco’s operating expense (opex) requirement for 2012 is P13.9 billion, which means that the provision for its earnings and profits will cost consumers P5.1 billion more than the opex or actual cost of the service.”
Junia pointed out that consistently for all the four years of the 3rd regulatory period (20011-2015) under PBR, the provision for Meralco’s return on investment and capital is higher than its cost of operations.
Proceeding from these excesses, power advocate group Nasecore, in a separate action filed last December at the Office of the Ombudsman, accused Meralco of “earning profits at the average of 56.3% per annum for years 2003 to 2009, which is 369% more than the reasonable return of 12%”.
This Ombudsman complaint against the entire ERC, which is based on a Commission on Audit review ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007, includes two commissioners who recently retired, and Ivanna dela Pena of Meralco.
Here’s more. Under the PBR tip of the iceberg from Jojo Borja, whose family operates Iligan Light and Power, the asset claims of Meralco which it buys from a sister company, and approved by ERC, are astronomically overpriced.
Borja is filing a joint affidavit that will prove the overstating and overpricing by Meralco. The other signatories include yours truly and aided by lawyers Bono Adaza and Alan Paguia,
To be submitted are pieces of evidence such as the “’Asset Valuation Subject to Performance Based Regulation of Meralco’… dated March 31, 2010 which was prepared by Asian Appraisal Company, Inc. (AACI).
It points to the overstating/overpricing by Meralco of its purchase of poles in the amount of P2.605 billion (overprice) and overhead conductors and devices in the amount of P520 million (overprice) or a total overprice of P3.125 billion.
The overstating/overpricing of equipment purchases was committed by Meralco and allowed by ERC in order to increase the asset base of Meralco which will be the basis for setting the rate/price of electricity …”
Borja, being a hands-on excutive of a power company, deals directly with OEM manufacturers of power equipment.
One ubiquitous component of power distribution systems is the power transformer which is installed in every electric post we see and this numbers to the tens of thousands.
Borja has visited the Taiwanese manufacturer of Meralco’s supplies and its sister company Philec where the real bottom price of transformers cost P250,000.00/MVA (megavolt amperes), but when it is sold by the distributor in the Philippines it is already P600,000.00/MVA.
The ERC-approved price for Meralco is P1.6 million MVA for an overprice of over 500%. This forms part of the asset base Meralco uses to submit its Capex.
This overpricing has been going on for decades now but under the PBR, with the high allowable rate-of-return and five year pre-approved power rates collected in advance, this magnifies the overprice even more.
And then there’s more to boggle the mind of the most electric-shocked consumers, the Meralco exemption from bidding for its purchases since 2006.
In Resolution No. 13, Series of 2006 signed by Commissioners Albano, Alcordo and Baric entitled “A Resolution Adopting the Guidelines to Govern the Submission, Evaluation, and Approval of Electric Capital Projects” on March 8 the ERC, our complaint states:
“…amended existing laws on bidding and usurping the power of Congress to legislate by effectively exempting from the bidding process the purchases of capital equipment of ‘Utilities who (sic) are under the Performance Based Rate (PBR) setting methodology thereby violating EPIRA’s “…(b) Sub-Section c of Section 2 which mandates the State ‘To ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electricity in a regime of free and fair competition and full public accountability … and (c) Sub-section f of Section 2 …’To protect the public interest as is it is affected by the rates and services of electric utilities and other providers of electric power’”, among others.
So, the oveprircing of Meralco approved by the ERC will never be discovered as there will be no open, competitive bid to surface the costs of Meralco asset acquisitions.
Three last items among many more our present space does not allow us to lay out fully: Rate Translation and its discriminatory rates, Regulatory Liaison P 2.2-B item in the Capex application of Meralco that ERC granted,:
When the ERC approved the P 1.60/kwH for 2011 it does not mean that all Meralco consumers will now be charged for its distribution services, this is still translated into customer classes consisting of industrial/commercial and residential categories and furthermore classified under the kwH consumption categories: 99 kwh and below,199 kwh and below, 299 kwh and below and 400 and above.
According to Junia’s report which I quote here:
“For distribution services alone, he said, residential customers using over 400 kwh per month will be charged as much as P2.30 pkwh while industrial users will pay as low as P0.04 pkwh and P0.10 pkwh, or barely a fraction of the residential rate. This rate distortion will even be magnified further when the supply and metering charges are factored in because residential customers shoulder 91% and 85% of those costs, respectively…”
The impact of this rate translation is seen in the sales and consumption share, again from Junia:
“Residential customers will contribute 63.3% of the P3.96 billion revenues, with the non-residentials, i.e. the industrial and commercial customers, accounting for a mere 35.2%.
“In terms of consumption, residential customers will get or use only 37% of total energy sales of P2.495 billion kwh, while the lion’s share of 61% will be delivered to industrial and commercial customers, a clear case of their paying less for more.”
“As for the “Regulatory Liaison” budget, what kind of animal is this? ERC and Meralco have not explained its details to the public, which leads us to believe it is for “dangerous liaisons,” Juania asks:”
For 2012 alone, Meralco applied for P392.8 million under this item, but ERC awarded Meralco P438.5 million, or P47.6 million more.
All told, ERC added P146.8 milion to Meralco’s original application of P2.060 billion for regulatory liaison, Junia pointed out. The original amount is not explained in detail; the additional P146 million is also a mystery.”
(More in a future Part II.)
2/6-12/2012
The mother of the country’s democracy, Corazon C. Aquino is also gave birth to unabated rise in cost of utility services, making the cost of electricity in the Philippines the most expensive in Asia and among highest in the world.
Philippine consumers are in a constant state of electrocution, says consumer groups fighting Meralco and its accomplices in the government occupying high positions at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The rise in cost of electricity was started by former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino. After EDSA 1, Aquino dismantled all energy projects including the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Power development took low priority in the middle of celebrations for the recaptured democracy after the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Pres. Fidel V. Ramos faced the consequences of neglect on power development that have plunged the country into outbreaks of blackouts. His solution was the infamous 32 IPP contracts in addition to the nine IPPs signed up by Pres. Cory. Pres. GMA signed up one IPP in her administration.
The second phase of the electrocution that revved up the electric rate shock began in the wake of the 2001 Edsa II power shift to Gloria Arroyo, that’s when her first IPP contract IMPSA was signed around 10 days after her Edsa Shrine swearing in.
The worse part came in May of that year when Congress, prodded by the ADB, demand for passage of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) in exchange for a $ 300-million standby loan, was lobbied through the lame duck Congress smoothened by a P 500,000 “payola” per solon – which party list congressman Magtubo exposed but was suppressed.
EPIRA created a new, quasi-judicial, independent (literally its own republic in practice) ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) which two years later, in 2003, will challenge by circumvention even the constitutional and legal authority and orders of the Supreme Court increasing allowable profit margin of Meralco from 12% to over 16% and defied the EPIRA itself in exempting Meralco from bidding for its billions of pesos of purchases.
We can divide our electricity to BC and AD, “Before Cory” when the electricity generation, transmission and distribution business were primarily the business of government and the public could protest and complain and expect the government agencies to respond to public pressure.
The came the “Aquino Decades” when a power oligarch was appointed as head the Napocor in the person of Ernesto Aboitiz and the posthaste power crises started which coincidentally was a boon to the Aboitiz Corporation’s power unit importing and selling power generators.
Privatization of power generation with contracts of Cory Aquino with IPPs started in the early year of this A.D. but the really onerous IPPs came in the Fidel Ramos era when contracts were signd with wild abandon exceeding even power projection requirement made by ADB which warned against over-contracting power supply.
Ramos was so bullish on his Philippines 2000, but the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis crashed that had stuck the government with IPP contracts.
For over a decade now, Filipino power consumers have been paying IPP contract power supply that it has never used, but since these contracts were BOT and most are now transferred to state ownership, the opportunity for government to use these generating assets to produce cheap should have come, but it cannot be so.
The EPIRA forbids government from entering into power generation, transmission and distribution ever again, so we have a ridiculous situation today that IPP operators before turning over their power plants to government are now buying those same power plants 10 times less than acquisition cost which they will turn around again and revalue 10 times higher to generate and sell high priced electricity.
This is happening today for instance in Mindanao, as our fellow power consumer crusader and one of the owners of Iligan Light and Power reports, where four former Alcantara IPPs now owned by government will be sold dirt cheap and bought by the Alcantara group itself.
Many power consumers take their power bills for granted and just pay up every month after some grumbling. Even the desire to understand how the rates are charged by studying the breakdown of charges on the bill boggles many minds, what more the 35 pages of the EPIRA and thousands of pages of ERC rule and regulations, decisions, rulings, and thousands of pages of applications for rate base increases from power companies such as Meralco.
To understand the whole caboodle the consumer must simplify the issues and this begins with the power rate.
We can find the bottom line in the EPIRA committing in Chapter I, Sec. 2 (b) Declaration of Policy, to “ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power.
The word “affordable” is a clear statement in favor of the poorest consumers’ interest. EPIRA also states in the same section the promise to “…ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electricity.” So the question is what are “reasonable prices?”
The EPIRA sets the basis for setting a very high rate in the RORB (Return-On-Rate-Base) of 12% for a captive market.
Mr. Jojo Borja, a second generation power plant and distributor entrepreneur, says their business makes money even on as low a rate-of-return of 5%, and 12% is already more than sufficient.
The Puno Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the RORB of 12% in 2003 as part of a decision that also refunded the consumers the P 30-billion Meralco overcharge from a decade past.
As if in vengeance, the ERC went around this EPIRA and SC principle of “affordability” and “reasonable price” and formulated a new rate setting mechanism called PBR (Performance Based Rate) and required rate-of-return for power companies under the PBR to be “comparable to rates-of-return in investment source countries” and raised the rate-of-return to variously reported 15.6% but can reach 17% due to the “performance incentives” ERC gives.
Jojo Borja explains that under PBR, what their power company could earn in three months under the RORB, it would now take them a year: 4% to over 5% additional margin compounded every month.
This system, Borja explains, makes it shameful to be in the power enterprices because it is no longer hard earned money but a racket.
But the PBR is just the tip of the iceberg and underneath it are worse anomalies and one of them is the Capex (capital expenditure, such a transformers, substations, poles etc.).
Meralco claims it is necessary in order to provide and deliver the power to the public. This is where octagenarion Mr. Genaro “Gene” Lualhati (a.k.a. fondly as Mang Naro who helped win consumers’ P30-billion Meralco refund before) crusades, disputing Meralco’s capex claims approved by the ERC without question, raising the maximum average price (MAP) to almost 70% higher than it should be.
Lualhati saw the anomaly emanating from Meralco figures themselves. Lualhati recently stood before the ERC again and protested in the hearing.
The best account comes from another power crusader Butch Junia:
“Lualhati questioned the capital expense claims of Meralco in its ARR, citing the testimony of Meralco’s expert witness, a Michael Emmerton of PB Consultants and Asian Appraisal Inc., who confirmed under oath that the assets of Meralco are only 50% utilized.
Under PBR, customers pay in advance for all equipment and assets of Meralco, including some that are not used for power distribution services.
The 2012 capex of Meralco was bloated by P31.7 billion, Lualhati told ERC. That amount will eventually be added to Meralco’s Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) of P126 billion, which was also questioned by consumers for being bloated.
This RAB is funded directly from rate increases under capex but becomes the basis for Meralco’s return on capital set by ERC at 14.8% under PBR, higher than the 12% cap under RORB or Return on Rate Base. This resulted in a Meralco ROI of P19 b illion for 2012, plus a separate or additional P5.2 billion regulatory depreciation on the same asset base.
Junia, himself a consumer-oppositor and former columnist of this paper too, added another factor, that “Meralco’s operating expense (opex) requirement for 2012 is P13.9 billion, which means that the provision for its earnings and profits will cost consumers P5.1 billion more than the opex or actual cost of the service.
Junia pointed out that consistently for all the four years of the 3rd regulatory period (20011-2015) under PBR, the provision for Meralco’s return on investment and capital is higher than its cost of operations.
Proceeding from these excesses, power advocate group Nasecore, in a separate action filed last December at the Office of the Ombudsman, accused Meralco of “earning profits at the average of 56.3% per annum for years 2003 to 2009, which is 369% more than the reasonable return of 12%.”
The Ombudsman complaint against the entire ERC, which is based on a Commission on Audit review ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007, includes two commissioners who recently retired, and Ivanna dela Pena of Meralco,, Junia reported.
Junia, himself another consumer-oppositor and former columnist of this paper too, added that “Meralco’s operating expense (opex) requirement for 2012 is P13.9 billion, which means that the provision for its earnings and profits will cost consumers P5.1 billion more than the opex or actual cost of the service.”
Junia pointed out that consistently for all the four years of the 3rd regulatory period (20011-2015) under PBR, the provision for Meralco’s return on investment and capital is higher than its cost of operations.
Proceeding from these excesses, power advocate group Nasecore, in a separate action filed last December at the Office of the Ombudsman, accused Meralco of “earning profits at the average of 56.3% per annum for years 2003 to 2009, which is 369% more than the reasonable return of 12%”.
This Ombudsman complaint against the entire ERC, which is based on a Commission on Audit review ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007, includes two commissioners who recently retired, and Ivanna dela Pena of Meralco.
Here’s more. Under the PBR tip of the iceberg from Jojo Borja, whose family operates Iligan Light and Power, the asset claims of Meralco which it buys from a sister company, and approved by ERC, are astronomically overpriced.
Borja is filing a joint affidavit that will prove the overstating and overpricing by Meralco. The other signatories include yours truly and aided by lawyers Bono Adaza and Alan Paguia,
To be submitted are pieces of evidence such as the “’Asset Valuation Subject to Performance Based Regulation of Meralco’… dated March 31, 2010 which was prepared by Asian Appraisal Company, Inc. (AACI).
It points to the overstating/overpricing by Meralco of its purchase of poles in the amount of P2.605 billion (overprice) and overhead conductors and devices in the amount of P520 million (overprice) or a total overprice of P3.125 billion.
The overstating/overpricing of equipment purchases was committed by Meralco and allowed by ERC in order to increase the asset base of Meralco which will be the basis for setting the rate/price of electricity …”
Borja, being a hands-on excutive of a power company, deals directly with OEM manufacturers of power equipment.
One ubiquitous component of power distribution systems is the power transformer which is installed in every electric post we see and this numbers to the tens of thousands.
Borja has visited the Taiwanese manufacturer of Meralco’s supplies and its sister company Philec where the real bottom price of transformers cost P250,000.00/MVA (megavolt amperes), but when it is sold by the distributor in the Philippines it is already P600,000.00/MVA.
The ERC-approved price for Meralco is P1.6 million MVA for an overprice of over 500%. This forms part of the asset base Meralco uses to submit its Capex.
This overpricing has been going on for decades now but under the PBR, with the high allowable rate-of-return and five year pre-approved power rates collected in advance, this magnifies the overprice even more.
And then there’s more to boggle the mind of the most electric-shocked consumers, the Meralco exemption from bidding for its purchases since 2006.
In Resolution No. 13, Series of 2006 signed by Commissioners Albano, Alcordo and Baric entitled “A Resolution Adopting the Guidelines to Govern the Submission, Evaluation, and Approval of Electric Capital Projects” on March 8 the ERC, our complaint states:
“…amended existing laws on bidding and usurping the power of Congress to legislate by effectively exempting from the bidding process the purchases of capital equipment of ‘Utilities who (sic) are under the Performance Based Rate (PBR) setting methodology thereby violating EPIRA’s “…(b) Sub-Section c of Section 2 which mandates the State ‘To ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electricity in a regime of free and fair competition and full public accountability … and (c) Sub-section f of Section 2 …’To protect the public interest as is it is affected by the rates and services of electric utilities and other providers of electric power’”, among others.
So, the oveprircing of Meralco approved by the ERC will never be discovered as there will be no open, competitive bid to surface the costs of Meralco asset acquisitions.
Three last items among many more our present space does not allow us to lay out fully: Rate Translation and its discriminatory rates, Regulatory Liaison P 2.2-B item in the Capex application of Meralco that ERC granted,:
When the ERC approved the P 1.60/kwH for 2011 it does not mean that all Meralco consumers will now be charged for its distribution services, this is still translated into customer classes consisting of industrial/commercial and residential categories and furthermore classified under the kwH consumption categories: 99 kwh and below,199 kwh and below, 299 kwh and below and 400 and above.
According to Junia’s report which I quote here:
“For distribution services alone, he said, residential customers using over 400 kwh per month will be charged as much as P2.30 pkwh while industrial users will pay as low as P0.04 pkwh and P0.10 pkwh, or barely a fraction of the residential rate. This rate distortion will even be magnified further when the supply and metering charges are factored in because residential customers shoulder 91% and 85% of those costs, respectively…”
The impact of this rate translation is seen in the sales and consumption share, again from Junia:
“Residential customers will contribute 63.3% of the P3.96 billion revenues, with the non-residentials, i.e. the industrial and commercial customers, accounting for a mere 35.2%.
“In terms of consumption, residential customers will get or use only 37% of total energy sales of P2.495 billion kwh, while the lion’s share of 61% will be delivered to industrial and commercial customers, a clear case of their paying less for more.”
“As for the “Regulatory Liaison” budget, what kind of animal is this? ERC and Meralco have not explained its details to the public, which leads us to believe it is for “dangerous liaisons,” Juania asks:”
For 2012 alone, Meralco applied for P392.8 million under this item, but ERC awarded Meralco P438.5 million, or P47.6 million more.
All told, ERC added P146.8 milion to Meralco’s original application of P2.060 billion for regulatory liaison, Junia pointed out. The original amount is not explained in detail; the additional P146 million is also a mystery.”
(More in a future Part II.)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Abandoning the petrodollar
BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
2/11-12/2012
The US either has to accept a nuclear-power Iran or go to war to stop it from producing its own nuclear weapon. Such is the premise being floated by those policy makers in Washington, Tel Aviv and London. This observation has come to surface for although all are eager to wage war against Iran, their interests are not really identical.
For one, Israel wants to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran from completing its alleged nuclear weapons development program. Destroying them before they could be stored in deep and hardened silos is a better option. The focus of Israel’s concern is on Iran’s becoming a full-fledged member of the nuclear club with the capacity to inflict massive damage to its territory.
The US, on the other hand, wants to punish it for threatening to drop the US dollar in the sale of its oil exports. For Iran to make good that threat to shift to other currencies and precious metals, like gold, could set a precedent for other countries to abandon the dollar as their international medium of exchange that has fattened the US economy by their purchase of treasury bills, securities, bonds and assets all denominated in US dollars
Abandonment from that de facto economic monopoly imposed by the US after President Nixon detached the dollar from its gold reserve in 1974 could trigger a steep devaluation of its currency. Such could trigger hyper-inflation to an economy that has been wracked by trade deficit and artificially kept afloat beyond its actual value. It is for this why tension now grips the Strait of Hormuz with the international media drumming up on Iran’s nuclear threat.
But as tension heightens to generate volatility in the price of oil in the international market, their policy towards Iran has been going through some kind of crystalline revision with both the Israelis and the US seeking to redefine their respective interests to warrant their going to war with the international public opinion to back them up. It is for this why observers say that US-Israeli relation is now at the crossword.
It is from this realization that has put a hinge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eagerness to go to war at the earliest possible time. The Zionists know that war with Iran could effectively erase their differences to bare the truth that it is not the threat of nuclear weapon that bugs them, but on their chauvinism to prevent any country from contesting their military dominance that allowed them to dictate the course of events in the Middle East.
The US has become Israel’s unwilling conduit. Trying get along on the issue of Iran’s denuclearization appears reasonable than going to war just to stave off that country’s plan to drop the US dollar. Even if it could snowball to seriously affect its international economic standing that could not hide its imperialistic motivation which might not be acceptable to the American public. Right now the majority of the American public see the present US policy in the Middle East as the result of intense Jewish lobby, and not borne out of any historical link.
It is for this that many patriotic Americans are beginning to ask whether the purposeful link of US interest to Israel’s interest, vis-à-vis its alleged survival, is anchored on that usual jingoistic posturing of not allowing the creation of a Palestinian state. Surely, the American public could not bear to see a war drag on, while sapping both their economic resources and the precious blood of their young boys that is the result of intense Jewish lobby that has found collaborative allies in Wall Street and in Congress.
In fact, many Americans are now questioning the wisdom of the massive economic aid running to about $13 billion annually, just for Israel to effectively play the role of America’s proxy mugger in the Middle East. US banks and oil companies now take cover in that Zionist propaganda to hide the truth that it would be a war to save their own skin consequent to their bungling of the US economy. This is asked because the premise of securing Israel’s existence could no longer be justified by the current military edge it enjoy against the Arab countries.
Rather, US support stands as supplementary to Israeli expansionism to a point that it has become parasitic to US aid all at the expense of the American taxpayers. Its record of atrocities against the Palestinian people is incomparable that they have become the source of American embarrassment domestically and abroad. On the other hand, Iran is fully aware that it was Iraq’s abandonment from the petrodollar that caused the US and its allies to savagely attack that country ending in the hanging of Saddam Hussein by the puppet government they installed, and triggered the bombing of Libya that reduced its cities to rubble and the subsequent brutal murder of Moammar Gaddhafi.
Nonetheless, Iran remains steadfast because the international currency market led by China, India, Russia and Brazil is taking steps to use direct currency exchange in their trade ties. In which case, the next war the world could possibly witness is a war to save the US dollar. As one would put it, the US dollar is the only currency in the world that has been able to maintain its artificial value by virtue of the American military might, and not by its true value in the international currency market.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod P. Kapunan
2/11-12/2012
The US either has to accept a nuclear-power Iran or go to war to stop it from producing its own nuclear weapon. Such is the premise being floated by those policy makers in Washington, Tel Aviv and London. This observation has come to surface for although all are eager to wage war against Iran, their interests are not really identical.
For one, Israel wants to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran from completing its alleged nuclear weapons development program. Destroying them before they could be stored in deep and hardened silos is a better option. The focus of Israel’s concern is on Iran’s becoming a full-fledged member of the nuclear club with the capacity to inflict massive damage to its territory.
The US, on the other hand, wants to punish it for threatening to drop the US dollar in the sale of its oil exports. For Iran to make good that threat to shift to other currencies and precious metals, like gold, could set a precedent for other countries to abandon the dollar as their international medium of exchange that has fattened the US economy by their purchase of treasury bills, securities, bonds and assets all denominated in US dollars
Abandonment from that de facto economic monopoly imposed by the US after President Nixon detached the dollar from its gold reserve in 1974 could trigger a steep devaluation of its currency. Such could trigger hyper-inflation to an economy that has been wracked by trade deficit and artificially kept afloat beyond its actual value. It is for this why tension now grips the Strait of Hormuz with the international media drumming up on Iran’s nuclear threat.
But as tension heightens to generate volatility in the price of oil in the international market, their policy towards Iran has been going through some kind of crystalline revision with both the Israelis and the US seeking to redefine their respective interests to warrant their going to war with the international public opinion to back them up. It is for this why observers say that US-Israeli relation is now at the crossword.
It is from this realization that has put a hinge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eagerness to go to war at the earliest possible time. The Zionists know that war with Iran could effectively erase their differences to bare the truth that it is not the threat of nuclear weapon that bugs them, but on their chauvinism to prevent any country from contesting their military dominance that allowed them to dictate the course of events in the Middle East.
The US has become Israel’s unwilling conduit. Trying get along on the issue of Iran’s denuclearization appears reasonable than going to war just to stave off that country’s plan to drop the US dollar. Even if it could snowball to seriously affect its international economic standing that could not hide its imperialistic motivation which might not be acceptable to the American public. Right now the majority of the American public see the present US policy in the Middle East as the result of intense Jewish lobby, and not borne out of any historical link.
It is for this that many patriotic Americans are beginning to ask whether the purposeful link of US interest to Israel’s interest, vis-à-vis its alleged survival, is anchored on that usual jingoistic posturing of not allowing the creation of a Palestinian state. Surely, the American public could not bear to see a war drag on, while sapping both their economic resources and the precious blood of their young boys that is the result of intense Jewish lobby that has found collaborative allies in Wall Street and in Congress.
In fact, many Americans are now questioning the wisdom of the massive economic aid running to about $13 billion annually, just for Israel to effectively play the role of America’s proxy mugger in the Middle East. US banks and oil companies now take cover in that Zionist propaganda to hide the truth that it would be a war to save their own skin consequent to their bungling of the US economy. This is asked because the premise of securing Israel’s existence could no longer be justified by the current military edge it enjoy against the Arab countries.
Rather, US support stands as supplementary to Israeli expansionism to a point that it has become parasitic to US aid all at the expense of the American taxpayers. Its record of atrocities against the Palestinian people is incomparable that they have become the source of American embarrassment domestically and abroad. On the other hand, Iran is fully aware that it was Iraq’s abandonment from the petrodollar that caused the US and its allies to savagely attack that country ending in the hanging of Saddam Hussein by the puppet government they installed, and triggered the bombing of Libya that reduced its cities to rubble and the subsequent brutal murder of Moammar Gaddhafi.
Nonetheless, Iran remains steadfast because the international currency market led by China, India, Russia and Brazil is taking steps to use direct currency exchange in their trade ties. In which case, the next war the world could possibly witness is a war to save the US dollar. As one would put it, the US dollar is the only currency in the world that has been able to maintain its artificial value by virtue of the American military might, and not by its true value in the international currency market.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Friday, February 10, 2012
Useful idiot’s G.I. Joe toys
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/10/2012
While the prosecution’s case in the Senate continues to crumble amid growing public revulsion, and with certain religious sects rallying in front of the Supreme Court (SC) against Malacañang’s assaults, the “useful idiot” in the Palace continues his inane programs serving US and Western interests.
The newest toys that BS Aquino III is acquiring for his policy of “territorial defense,” announced through his equally inane Defense Chief Voltaire Gazmin, include multi-purpose attack helicopters, destroyers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Earlier announced was the acquisition of a squadron of F-16s and Hamilton class cutters (of which one had been delivered, refurbished, and christened BRP Gregorio del Pilar). All these are part of a P70-billion (roughly P10 billion annual) modernization budget for eight years.
Considering that an F-16 costs around $70 million (or P3 billion each, fetching P36 billion for a squadron of 12), very little else can really be bought, with the ones already acquired either obsolete or soon to be so by the end of eight years.
The F-16 is a “fourth-generation jet fighter;” its military aviation technology is now classified as 6th generation. Meanwhile, China, the perceived “territorial threat” of Malacañang (with the obvious prodding of the US), already has an undisclosed fleet of Chengdu J-20s.
Further, unlike the Philippines, most Asean countries are already flying 5th generation fighters. Malaysia, another country that has territorial issues with us, has its F/A-18D Hornets, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Sukhoi Su-30. India, for its part, has developed the Sukhoi PAK FA with its Russian partners.
Given these realities, acquiring a squadron of F-16s is merely G.I. Joe stuff — toys for the really small boys. And these are definitely no different from the World War II-vintage Hamilton cutters being bruited about by Malacañang. As for the UAVs already in the Philippines, even retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Gen. Ramon Farolan in his newspaper column suspects the recent bombing of the Abu Sayyaf lair in Sulu, allegedly killing its top three commanders, as being done by US UAVs — not PeNoy Broncos.
A Predator drone, widely used by the US in its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, costs $4.5 million or P200 million each. Maybe it would cost a little less if it is only for surveillance and reconnaissance, but the drone itself is just a small part of an entire infrastructure consisting of satellite links, command and control, etc.
The yearning for multi-purpose attack helicopters by Malacañang and Gazmin is clearly out of synch with the real needs of the country, where several natural disasters affect hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, who are most often in desperate need of rescue and emergency airlift operations.
As for anti-submarine ships, Malacañang would do better to build up the Navy’s drydock facilities for repair and maintenance, as well as to focus on the building of ships to keep those still afloat floating and to produce new ones that run and don’t sink. In other words, we have to build our own shipbuilding capabilities.
It is now an old tenet that the strength of a nation is in its economic and industrial capacity for with it, a nation can build and buy the best. In the armaments arena, if you cannot have the latest then you are the most likely loser in a war.
The acquisition of G.I. Joe toy-weapons is useful only to the traders of these armaments, including US congressmen and senators who are peddling these in the Third World. G.I. Joe toys will do nothing to enhance the territorial defense of the Philippines especially when the real invaders have long infiltrated the country like the US, which already has its troops and drones in our territory all these years.
Even the purchase of G.I. Joe toy guns, ships and planes being directed by the real G.I. Joes is meant to sustain the Western economies and their defense industries now in dire straits — with funds taken from RP’s share in, say, Malampaya. It’s the classic “frying us in our own oil” scheme, where the US and its allies get to devour the feast.
If injected into the coconut industry to develop its downstream products and industries, P10 billion even just for a year would already start a massive economic upsurge.
There is a growing global demand for healthy nutritional alternatives that coconut provides, from the humble virgin coconut oil (VCO) to new anti-Alzheimer medication derived from it; to packaging and marketing of coconut water; to the development of “nutraceuticals” for the medical and beauty industries; to high-end chemicals with applications even in the explosives industry; to eco-textile against soil erosion for countries such as China. P10 billion for just one year injected into the local dairy industry can spur local production of dairy products that will save the country $1 billion in dairy imports every year.
Just think: Investments into these two grassroots agro-industrial commodities alone will help improve the income of at least 40 percent of the population in the agricultural sector and boost both the industrial and service sectors’ vitality.
Let us not play games with our nation’s future anymore. Only when we purge our nation of various foreign economic and political subversives can we get to provide ourselves with a stable economy — first, through a strong industrial base and, second, through a strong Armed Forces that will keep these pesky infiltrators out.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The struggle against the Rule of Farce;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/10/2012
While the prosecution’s case in the Senate continues to crumble amid growing public revulsion, and with certain religious sects rallying in front of the Supreme Court (SC) against Malacañang’s assaults, the “useful idiot” in the Palace continues his inane programs serving US and Western interests.
The newest toys that BS Aquino III is acquiring for his policy of “territorial defense,” announced through his equally inane Defense Chief Voltaire Gazmin, include multi-purpose attack helicopters, destroyers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Earlier announced was the acquisition of a squadron of F-16s and Hamilton class cutters (of which one had been delivered, refurbished, and christened BRP Gregorio del Pilar). All these are part of a P70-billion (roughly P10 billion annual) modernization budget for eight years.
Considering that an F-16 costs around $70 million (or P3 billion each, fetching P36 billion for a squadron of 12), very little else can really be bought, with the ones already acquired either obsolete or soon to be so by the end of eight years.
The F-16 is a “fourth-generation jet fighter;” its military aviation technology is now classified as 6th generation. Meanwhile, China, the perceived “territorial threat” of Malacañang (with the obvious prodding of the US), already has an undisclosed fleet of Chengdu J-20s.
Further, unlike the Philippines, most Asean countries are already flying 5th generation fighters. Malaysia, another country that has territorial issues with us, has its F/A-18D Hornets, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Sukhoi Su-30. India, for its part, has developed the Sukhoi PAK FA with its Russian partners.
Given these realities, acquiring a squadron of F-16s is merely G.I. Joe stuff — toys for the really small boys. And these are definitely no different from the World War II-vintage Hamilton cutters being bruited about by Malacañang. As for the UAVs already in the Philippines, even retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Gen. Ramon Farolan in his newspaper column suspects the recent bombing of the Abu Sayyaf lair in Sulu, allegedly killing its top three commanders, as being done by US UAVs — not PeNoy Broncos.
A Predator drone, widely used by the US in its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, costs $4.5 million or P200 million each. Maybe it would cost a little less if it is only for surveillance and reconnaissance, but the drone itself is just a small part of an entire infrastructure consisting of satellite links, command and control, etc.
The yearning for multi-purpose attack helicopters by Malacañang and Gazmin is clearly out of synch with the real needs of the country, where several natural disasters affect hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, who are most often in desperate need of rescue and emergency airlift operations.
As for anti-submarine ships, Malacañang would do better to build up the Navy’s drydock facilities for repair and maintenance, as well as to focus on the building of ships to keep those still afloat floating and to produce new ones that run and don’t sink. In other words, we have to build our own shipbuilding capabilities.
It is now an old tenet that the strength of a nation is in its economic and industrial capacity for with it, a nation can build and buy the best. In the armaments arena, if you cannot have the latest then you are the most likely loser in a war.
The acquisition of G.I. Joe toy-weapons is useful only to the traders of these armaments, including US congressmen and senators who are peddling these in the Third World. G.I. Joe toys will do nothing to enhance the territorial defense of the Philippines especially when the real invaders have long infiltrated the country like the US, which already has its troops and drones in our territory all these years.
Even the purchase of G.I. Joe toy guns, ships and planes being directed by the real G.I. Joes is meant to sustain the Western economies and their defense industries now in dire straits — with funds taken from RP’s share in, say, Malampaya. It’s the classic “frying us in our own oil” scheme, where the US and its allies get to devour the feast.
If injected into the coconut industry to develop its downstream products and industries, P10 billion even just for a year would already start a massive economic upsurge.
There is a growing global demand for healthy nutritional alternatives that coconut provides, from the humble virgin coconut oil (VCO) to new anti-Alzheimer medication derived from it; to packaging and marketing of coconut water; to the development of “nutraceuticals” for the medical and beauty industries; to high-end chemicals with applications even in the explosives industry; to eco-textile against soil erosion for countries such as China. P10 billion for just one year injected into the local dairy industry can spur local production of dairy products that will save the country $1 billion in dairy imports every year.
Just think: Investments into these two grassroots agro-industrial commodities alone will help improve the income of at least 40 percent of the population in the agricultural sector and boost both the industrial and service sectors’ vitality.
Let us not play games with our nation’s future anymore. Only when we purge our nation of various foreign economic and political subversives can we get to provide ourselves with a stable economy — first, through a strong industrial base and, second, through a strong Armed Forces that will keep these pesky infiltrators out.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The struggle against the Rule of Farce;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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