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.

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