Serge’s Epira contradictions

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/30/2012



The electricity spaghetti hit the ceiling fan last week, and the stench of the power oligarchs reeks all over the place. Now it’s not just electricity consumers charging the oligarchs and their captive government officials with conspiracy; local officials, such as North Cotabato Gov. Emilou Taliño-Mendoza and General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio, are saying that the Mindanao power crisis is “intentional.” Even Sen. Koko Pimentel openly agrees with Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chairman Lualhati Antonino’s assertion that the “artificial shortage” is the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ (NGCP) means to “have the Agus-Pulangi Power Plant privatized.”

The NGCP is by no means the main culprit. It goes way up to the oligarchy and the international corporatist mafia behind it. We must remember that the NGCP Frankenstein was sewn together by Fidel Ramos’ Monte Oro Corp., with the Carlyle Group catalyzing the entry of the State Grid Corp. of China, together with the Sy Group, to become the NGCP.

Monstrous as it became, the NGCP Frankenstein is but the son. The mother Frankenstein is the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), which, in its time, was sewn together by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the illegal Gloria Arroyo regime, the oligarchs and their Yellow “civil society,” together with the corrupt 12th Congress of Edsa II. They managed to use the thread of the ADB’s $900-million power sector loan and the IMF-WB’s $300-million rehabilitation loan release as conditions for the enactment of the Epira into law.

The local power oligarchs were also alleged to have contributed to a payola of P500,000 for every member of Congress under Speaker Sonny Belmonte, which emoluments were further spruced up by Gloria’s P10-million per congressman “O, Ilaw” project. And, like the current railroaded Corona “Articles of Impeachment,” it is doubtful that even half-a-dozen of the representatives or senators who signed the Epira even read it.

As for media, the oligarch-controlled “presstitute” (press-prostitute) merely suppressed the truth. Only a few, like this columnist and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), campaigned in the streets against it.

The argument for Epira was that the monopoly enjoyed by the government’s National Power Corp. (Napocor) was too big to be efficient and had to be broken up into smaller units. Fast forward to today and the chairman of the Senate energy committee, Serge Osmeña, himself a champion of the Epira, now argues for the expansion of the split-up units.

In his defense of Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Rene Almendras’ disastrous handling of the Mindanao power crisis, Osmeña claims the Energy chief “is aware of economies of scale and that electricity would be cheaper for everyone if distributed over a bigger transmission grid than a smaller one…”

The shift in tone is obviously because much of the elite — a class to which Osmeña belongs — have already formed an oligopoly in the sector and are using their clout to blackmail the entire nation into swallowing the “highest power cost in Asia.”

Osmeña says, “The national reform policy on electricity… was to harness the finances and management talents of the private sector in ensuring that the country would be supplied in a timely manner with dependable, quality and reasonably priced power…” Really?

Independent power producers (IPP) are private utility companies established on the basis of state “sovereign guarantees” and/or securitization of captive consumers’ aggregate payments in a contract period. Here, securitization comes in “the form of financial instruments used to obtain funds from… investors… backed by amortizing cash flows.” These cash flows, in turn, are derived from the pockets of millions of electricity consumers.

Historically, securitization was done by the Republic of the Philippines to launch the Napocor; and as government did not shell out any money, only acting as an intermediary of the funds from power consumers, we can say that the power sector was never (repeat, NEVER) subsidized.

When the state’s power assets were still under Napocor control, the price of electricity in the Philippines was not only competitive but one of the lowest in Asia. Today, after Epira, power costs in this country have shot up way into the stratosphere.

In the case of Mindanao, we now see the IPPs blackmailing consumers, the way the privatized Aboitiz Group Power Barges 117 and 118 and the now Lopez-run Mt. Apo Geothermal are being used to force Mindanaoans into accepting 20-year, exorbitantly priced contracts, or else continue being denied much-needed electricity.

But wait. Isn’t price a reflection of these privateers’ much-vaunted “efficiency?” If so, aren’t they and other utilities like the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) guilty of doing their jobs at a very high cost to the nation and, in fact, destroying its entire economy?

Therefore, given that these oligarchs are only “efficient” from the point of view of profit extraction, totally missing the mark of providing efficient and reliable electricity at the least cost to consumers, why should we accept any of this, in view of the fact that things have gone from bad to worse despite 90 percent of the power sector being privatized?

As if to further cover up the litany of lies that is the Epira, Osmeña raises another point, saying that “Napocor was bankrupt and that even if it sold all of its assets, it still could not cover its liabilities.”

Napocor was a very healthy and viable public corporation before Corazon Aquino, her Yellow gang, and her oligarch-patrons took over the reins of the Philippine Republic. They abolished the Ministry of Energy and placed its functions under the Office of the President to ensure an efficient dismantling of the nation’s energy development program. They established almost a dozen IPPs and cancelled half a dozen major energy projects (including the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant). All these led to a “Dark Age” under a Cory-appointed oligarch as Napocor head. What followed during the Ramos era were 43 more plundering IPP contracts that were to be the most massive bloodletting of Napocor’s resources to this day — via the $18-billion so-called stranded debts that Epira was supposed to have erased but never did. All these have transpired while the oligarchs have not paid $10 billion of what they owe government for these privatized assets.

The current Speaker, Sonny Belmonte, when pressed for a response to the crescendo of complaints from Mindanao lawmakers, said, “We have to investigate (the power crisis) to know what is going on.” Let’s see when the investigation will start and how far it will go (considering who the distribution source of the Epira payola in 2001 really is).

Still, on a slightly positive note, despite the elder Sen. Nene Pimentel’s signing of the Epira, we are hopeful that the younger Pimentel will take up the energy cause in the Upper Chamber this time. My only criticism is that he may have weakened his position when he stated, “If I need to personally beg to Senator Osmeña to hold the inquiry before the Holy Week break, I will have to.”

Why even beg, Koko? Your duty lies with the people and no one else.

(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., after Lent, on “Mindanao power blackmail? Part II;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Dump Serge, Dina

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

3/26-4/1/2012

The manipulated power crisis in Mindanao was created by the oligarchs and their minions.

Their minions include the Department of Energy (DoE), the Power Sector Asset and Liabilities Management (Psalm), the Energy Rgulatory Commission (ERC) and other similar entities.

The Mindanao power crisis has been a painful disaster for the economy of Mindanao, but it has also been a blessing in disguise as it awakened the country to the criminal character of the ruling oligarchs and the Epira law they pushed through the corrupt Philippine Congress over 10 years ago.

Readers of this column know that we have been exposing the scandalous power price blackmail of the past few years. They are being forced to accept exorbitant power prices by the DoE which has threatened to issue an order to force Mindanao electric cooperatives to buy power from Aboitiz's Therma Marine that's six times the normal 2.60/kwh rates in Mindanao.

Instead of complying the Mindanaoans have raised hell and they are getting the nation's attention now.

In a Manila Standard Today newspaper report by Christine Herrera last week headlined "Imperial Manila Noynoying," referring to the inaction of Malacañang to the power crisis in Mindanao, North Cotabato Gov. Emilou Talino-Mendoza charged that "intentional" four to eight-hour blackouts in Mindanao are being perpetrated "….because the Palace wants Mindanao to submit to its plan to privatize the hydrothermal power plants and to accept power barges from big business that charges exorbitant fees of P14 a kilowatt hour."

The report continued to say that Gov. Talino-Mendoza found it difficult to explain to her people why they were experiencing long blackouts when the province is host to the Mt. Apo Geothermal Power Plant being run by the Lopezes.

The governor said that today, four big businesses are involved in generating and distributing power in Mindanao: the Lopezes, the Ayalas, the mall mogul Henry Sy (actually Jr.) and the Aboitizes, who she said are all "friends" of President Benigno Aquino III.

The courageous governor says: "The Palace, the Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission are Noynoying in Manila, while our people here are also forced to do Noynoying because they have nothing to do and are helpless about the blackouts that hit us everyday…"

General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custudio also joined the governor in the call against privatization of the Mindanao hyrdro-power assets and demand for a congressional investigation.

In the Senate, Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel have called on senate energy committee chair Serg Osmeña to launch an investigation.

Inn the Lower House, party list Cong. Angelo Palmones, Rep. Rufus Rodrigues of Cagayan de Oro and Vicente Belmonte of Iligan have called on the House energy counterpart Dina Abad to respond to the issues being raised.

Senator Sergio Osmeña III, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, vowed to conduct the probe but not before blaming Gloria Arroyo for the crisis.

Dina Abad, a Lopez minion, has kept quiet.

Serge Osmeña has spoken, alleging that Gloria Arroyo had been in the habit of compelling Napocor to reduce power prices to window dress her performance.

From all the historical facts that anyone can easily find on the Internet, Gloria Arroyo was forced on several occasions to do this because the Epira law that privatized the power sector and open it to the greed and abuses of the oligarchs caused power rates to shoot up to become the "highest power rates in Asia."

Arroyo is not without fault as the Epira was one of the concessions she was required to give to get the support of the oligarchs and its foreign partners in Edsa II.

We put on written record here, as it was stated by our GNN show guest and former Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) energy committee advocate Wilson, that Gloria Arroyo sought to stop the FDC from opposing the Epira; likewise Arroyo suppressed the exposé of the Partido Manggagawa congressman Renato Magtubo of the P500,000 payola through Sonny Belmonte to pass the Epira.

"The power rates in Mindanao have been politicized," Herrera quotes Osmeña, "This is why the Epira Law mandates the sale of Napocor's plants to the private sector, so that the private owners will not have to compete with government plants whose rates can be subsidized."

But what is wrong with government providing low and affordable rates to the public and why is Serg Osmeña so concerned with the private owners profit concerns and not the power consuming public that are adversely damaged by the high power rates the privatized power plants "private owners" are charging?

Obviously it is because Serg Osmeña is part of the Meralco-Lopez family and is seated in the energy committee to protect the oligarchs' interest and not the nation.

The Epira defenders like the Malaya editorial of March 22 point to Davao City which did not have blackouts during the crisis, but the generation cost there are double or almost double the areas hit by the crisis.

Gov. Talino-Mendoza said: "Davao's power generation is owned by the Ayalas and the distribution is also owned by the Ayalas. They wanted us to give up also the power distribution to the Lopezes, who now run the Mt. Apo Geothermal Plant," and Mt. Apo Geothermal Plant could generate 98 megawatts and North Cotabato's system peak demand was only at 38 megawatts, "… yet we contend with eight-hour blackouts everyday."

North Cotabato was negotiating with the Lopezes to reduce the cost of power to P3.50 per kilowatt hour from P4.11 when the blackouts started hitting it.

Talino-Mendoza said then: "We were told to accept power barges owned by big business that charges us P14 per kilowatt hour."

If North Cotabato accepts these rates today, they will be tied to them for the next 20 years as that is the duration of the contract, precisely the same type of con game and swindle the oligarchs and the corrupted DoE and ERC gave blessings to in Luzon and the Visayas.

At this writing, to try to resolve the irate Mandanaons' rebellion, Malacañang's Noynoy hints leasing the Aboitiz's Therma Marine power barges which it acquired for $30 million and turned around and assessed at $ 80 million as rate base to charge the P 14/kwh rate.

So, we ask Serge Osmeña: Isn't this the public capitalizing and subsidizing the oligarchs; a case of socialism for the rich and the risk and pains capitalism for the rest of us ordinary mortals?

This morning as I write ERC spokesman Saturnino Juan is lying through his teeth over DWIZ's Karambola to cover up the grandiose con game of the oligarchs, the corrupt politicians and captured Cabinet offices and regulatory agencies.

We are thankful the show then called up Mr. Jojo Borja to expose and denounce the lies of the ERC and its spokesperson right there and then.

At this writing, the Mindanoans are also filing a P 5-billion class suit against the government power executives in this power mess.

In Luzon, we must launch a movement to oust Serge Osemña and Dina Abad from their respective energy committees so the scandals may be truly investigated.

(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 "Mines: Bombs or Boon?"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Abetting power blackmail

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/26/2012



Anger over the power price issue now erupting in Mindanao is one that this country has not seen since the initial outbursts against the power purchase agreements in Metro Manila almost a decade ago.

North Cotabato Gov. Emilou Talio-Mendoza, for instance, has made direct hits at three power oligarchs operating in Mindanao. Without mincing words, she accused them of engineering intentional power shortages to force Mindanao to accept the privatization of the vast Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, where the cost of generation is less than P0.01 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) given the systems full depreciation. What privatization will do is bring about high power rates, which is what the oligarchs and multilateral financial agencies intend for Mindanao. Good thing she was joined by General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio in opposing this move.

As expected, privatization advocates are pinning the blame on those who oppose power privatization. The March 22 editorial of Malaya, for example, argues that Davao City, which accepted privatization, does not experience blackouts. What they refuse to highlight is that power rates in Iligan City and the larger province of Lanao del Norte, where power outages frequently occur, hover at P6.56/kWh, compared to Davaos independent power producer (IPP) rates of P8.75/kWh that are at least 25 percent higher.

Evidently, their logic is that people can get uninterrupted power, but at the oligarchs price. Its nothing short of blackmail.

Its good that Iligan Citys residents have refused to sign the 20-year IPP contracts that aim to tie them to exorbitant power rates because they know that the current power shortages, which can be abated with the optimization of hydroelectricity, are merely artificial and short-term.

But absurd as the situation already is, blackmail rates in Mindanao are not even uniform. In North Cotabato, a Lopez company is reportedly asking P14/kWh for power from the already privatized Mt. Apo geothermal plants, which is dumbfounding given that the people are being made to choose between the blackouts and the high rates when the geothermal resource sits right in their province.

On the part of our legislators, there has been a growing clamor to look into the issue, too. But, even as such calls are made by Senators Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel or Representatives Vicente Belmonte, Rufus Rodriguez and Angelo Palmones, the chairmen of the respective Senate and House energy committees have been less forthcoming.

Serge Osmena, for one, blames Gloria Arroyo for politicizing the rates in yielding to populist demands by ordering the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to reduce its generation charge below costs, arguing that this is why the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) mandates the sale of Napocors plants to the private sector, so that the private owners will not have to compete with government plants whose rates can be subsidized.

Surely, given his position, Serge is well aware of several anomalies in the largely privatized Philippine power sector today, such as the Wholesale Electricity Spot Markets casino-like pricing that has yielded rates as high as P60/kWh from private IPPs; and yet he does nothing. Is that not a case of politicizing policies in favor of price gouging?

Kinship with a known oligarchic clan should have also disqualified Serge from his committee chairmanship due to conflict-of-interest; same with his House counterpart, Dina Abad, whose spouse is the author of the Omnibus Power Bill (precursor to the Epira). But, instead of declining for reason of delicadeza, these solons obediently follow the diktats of the oligarchs and the International Monetary Fund. Dina even kept on weighing down all proposed inquiries on the power issue for the past decade or so.

Strictly speaking, power rates have never been subsidized by government because consumers themselves have paid for these directly and not just as taxpayers. Funding for all the investments of Napocor is also sourced straight from the pockets of consumers and taxpayers. So whats all that talk about subsidies?

Privatization merely transferred consumers investments in state-owned power plants and, consequently, these plants surpluses or profits multiplied several times over to private pockets. The standard modus operandi is epitomized by the Aboitiz Groups purchase of Napocor Power Barges 117 and 118 three years ago for $30 million, which were then revalued at $80 million to form the basis of new rates worth P14/kWh.

In the same way, the intentional power crisis in Mindanao is aimed to force a privatization of the single biggest public asset there that can keep power rates down against the price predation of the power oligarchs. Sadly, successive Yellow regimes supported by the oligarchs (Cory, Ramos, Arroyo and PeNoy) have all done a Noynoying of the Agus-Pulangi by failing to dredge it at the very least, thereby reducing its generating capacity.

Meanwhile, captive government agencies continue to sell off Napocor assets for pitiful ditties while concocting efficiency formulas that give incentives to IPPs, raising their rates of return to as high as 17 percent, and allowing no-bidding on equipment and supplies purchases that are overpriced by up to 1000 percent. The Performance Based Regulation schemes three-year revaluation of all assets based on replacement value alone makes these asset values always go up (never to depreciate) and, as a result, the rate base as well.

The Epira was passed in 2001 after P500,000 individual payolas were allegedly circulated. Thereafter, the oligarchs legislative stooges were given free rein to stifle any questions or objections. Indeed, no progress can happen while they remain in their posts; but then, replacements must be thoroughly vetted by the public, too, lest the new ones proceed to milk the power oligarchs for their mutual benefit.

Amid all the gloom, the courageous Mindanaoans have already prepared a P5-billion class suit against government officials responsible for this intentional power crisis in Mindanao. My only advice: Make sure that the case does not land on the oligarchs assets in the judiciary, most especially those being bandied about by Malacaang and the Yellow media as cleaner than clean.

(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

The trending game

BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
3/24-25/2012



It has never seeped into the minds of the so-called beacons in our society that the dispensation of justice has never been or can ever be a popularity contest. The judges, even from among primeval civilizations, do not judge the accused on the basis of what is popular; or condemn him because the people lust for his blood, or absolve him because he is influential. Civilized societies judge the accused on the basis of the evidence, and to impose the penalty if guilty, but not on what the public wants.

The survey conducted by Pulse Asia was an uncalled-for interference on the processes of the Senate impeachment court. It was a subtle attempt to influence the judgment of the impeachment court by the clever way of orchestrating “public sentiment.” There was malice much that it attempts to lay down the predicate that accused Chief Justice Renato Corona is guilty. Although only 47 percent of the respondents say Corona is guilty, the Philippine Daily Inquirer highlighted that in its banner to condition the readers that indeed the fellow is guilty.

Invariably, it forewarns the 24 members of the Senate impeachment court that they have no business acquitting him or that it would be morally wrong for them to pronounce him not guilty. To deviate could make them answerable to the people. The survey amounts to prejudging the accused, and Pulse Asia is now acting as the unwitting spokesman of President Aquino who earlier declared he will not accept anything less than a guilty verdict.

Even if we take it that 47 percent indicated he is guilty, the 43 percent undecided does not stand for nothing. Neither could Pulse Asia and Inquirer assume Corona could eventually be judged guilty. The same can be said for the 5 percent claiming to have no basis. Remember, the 43 percent undecided knows the issue but could not decide. In that sense they have their grave doubt on the guilt of Corona. The 5 percent represents those who do not know what is going on, while the other 5 percent says he is not guilty.

In that, one could deduce that the 43 percent undecided and the 5 percent claiming to have no basis are likely to judge Corona not guilty because it would be an insult if after 34 days of marathon hearing they have not been able to come out with their own preliminary conclusion of the case. The 43 percent undecided is a slap on the face of the prosecution because it highlights its failure to explain why its members acted more like clowns than as lawyers. It is not the duty of the defense to convince the public about the innocence of Corona. Theirs is to rebut all those allegations by presenting their own witnesses and evidence that he is not guilty!

The uncanny thing is that as the hearing progresses, the public comes to realize that the prosecution has not proven anything. Even if we give it to them that Corona is guilty, they already missed that opportunity. Many of the previously anti-Corona are now pro-Corona precisely because of the prosecution’s stupidity. Such pathetic situation reminded me of that old adage that if the prosecution is weak, the accused need not even need a lawyer. All that Corona did was to give them enough rope to hang themselves with.

The latest of this episode is the alleged erroneous Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. That tart-wagging Senator Joker Arroyo is right that mistakes and errors in the SALN is not an impeachable offense. It cannot even be a misdemeanor. Errors and mistakes can always be rectified that is why we have the Civil Service Commission to check all those SALNs. What is impeachable if Corona did not file his SALN?

The same is true in the filing of income tax. Nobody goes to jail for committing an error or mistake in his income tax declaration. All taxpayers are given the widest leeway to explain why they did not pay for this or why they failed to declare some of their income. In that, taxpayers merely avail of their right to a tax deduction which is perfectly legal. It is the right of taxpayers to reduce the amount they want to pay just as it is the duty of the BIR to dispute that. What is being punished is tax evasion for in that instance the taxpayer purposely did not file his income tax.

To make things worse, all the errors the prosecution claims to have discovered in the SALN of Corona reveals their pathetic ineptness. Errors were bound to happen because the prosecution was holding on to titles and documents of properties that were either not owned by Corona, or have long been canceled, sold or disposed of. Some are even spurious to say the least. In which case, how could the prosecution proceed to punish Corona when knowingly it was they who used and presented that as their evidence?

My greatest fear is that Pulse Asia and all those hacks of this regime would from now on regularly dish out their alleged survey, gradually increasing the number of respondents pointing to Corona as guilty. Pulse Asia hopes to substitute the idiotic shortcomings of the prosecution forgetting that the Filipino people are not interested on what the supposed public opinion has to say, but in knowing the truth.

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)

Radical reversal needed

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/23/2012



The day after our Monday column on the Mindanao power sabotage and blackmail, our comrade in the fight against the electricity supply manipulation rang up early in the morning. Jojo Borja, stockholder of Iligan Light and Power, told me that the long power blackouts had suddenly stopped just two days after our GNN episode on the issue last Saturday evening.

For good measure, the Monday papers started to reflect the struggle we have waged for months as some politicians have reportedly called for investigations. The name of Serge Osmena even cropped up after being forced to respond to questions from fellow senators, namely, Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel. In the Lower House, Mindanao Reps. Vicente Belmonte and Rufus Rodriguez have clamored for action, too. While were happy over these actions, why did they have to come so late? More importantly, can our lawmakers provide the long-term solution by, first of all, reversing the wretched Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) posthaste?

The citizens, power sector players, as well as business and local political leaders of Mindanao have long demanded the mobilization of available power resources, which the oligarchs minions in the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. have kept mothballed despite billions of pesos in losses in the regions economy.

At the same time, Mindanaoans, particularly the electric cooperatives (ECs), have made clear their very strong objection to the privatization of the hydroelectric plants of Mindanao, such as the Agus-Pulangui system. Not all of them, though, realize that the solution to the entire nations power price woes lies in this very demand the end to privatization of the power sector. And this would ultimately mean the repeal of the Epira, a law that bans the public sector from setting up and maintaining its own non-profit power generation facilities that are funded by the peoples captive patronage via monthly payments.

If Philippine media had any real dedication to the nation and the peoples welfare, this power price issue should always be the major news item all the time. Sadly, mainstream media, which carry the most palpable daily impact, are hopelessly in the chains of the oligarchs control.

We have been told that one party-list congressman has been boycotted by ABS-CBN in the past few days since he started raising the issue and named the power oligarchs.

Of course, we all know whose diktats are followed at ABS-CBN, and the other major TV networks are no less controlled.

There used to be laws against such over-reaching control of business and media, but not anymore.

Besides PeNoy safeguarding his clans' own P10-billion interest in Hacienda Luisita, coupled with his desire to have an Aquino high court, I have long held that the Corona impeachment hullabaloo is part of a deliberate PR strategy of the spinmasters (and puppet masters) of Malacaang to divert from the truly crucial issues of the country.

Imagine: Even when the power crisis had already caused billions in daily losses to Mindanao, rousing a seemingly incipient rebellion from the locals there, this power crisis issue still couldn't make it to the banner of the major news outfits!

You can just see the twisted priority of the patently pro-PeNoy op-ed and news writers who wont be shaken to give way to this vital economic issue even for a day. Still, I am thankful that the Mindanao power rebellion has at last come to fore.

Corollary to our power price woes is our fossil fuel supply that is always at the mercy of world market prices, which absolutely do not reflect true global demand.

Robert Reich, professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary, explains in his article (Why Republicans Arent Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising Prices at the Gas Pump) that Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts. Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market (allowing) them to push oil prices higher and higher not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.

Why then do we 95 million Filipinos allow ourselves to fall prey to these oil speculators greed and whims? For that matter, why does Obama allow his 313 million US citizens to be victimized by the same?

It's because the world has relinquished control to the financial mafias through democratic elections, which are really akin to their brand of political UFCs (Ultimate Fighting Championships). Whats worse is that in the US, Jews control that countrys money.

So it is imperative for the Philippines to oust the domestic lackeys of the Global Finance Mafia, like the one running 60 percent of our power supply today.

In 1986, Cory Aquino reversed the public sector or state-led economic development model by enshrining in her Constitution several private sector-led schemes while handing the Bangko Sentral to a monetary board composed of five from the private sector and only two from government (instead of the other way around).

That is why, above all else, a radical counter-revolution to the Yellows turnover of our government to the oligarchs is needed now more than ever.

(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Crocodile with tears

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/19-25/2012

A little over a week ago, an article appeared in one of the dailies entitled, "The importance of country competitiveness."  It argued for the Philippines to ensure making the grade in global ratings surveys, such as those of Transparency International's Corruption Index, as well as with regard to firm level competitiveness and human resources development through education and "inclusive growth" that responds to the needs of the country's population.  Reading particularly the last prescriptions, I could not help but see a crocodile with tears emoting through the lines as Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) expounded on how he believes the Philippines must behave in order to be more competitive.  Nowhere in the real estate tycoon's 923 words do the phrase "Asia's highest electricity prices," "rentier oligarchs," or "exorbitant water bills" appear--three main issues that I attribute to the nation's loss of competitiveness, stunted agro-industrial economy, and the exploitation of the people.

 

The reference point of JAZA's corruption indicators, Transparency International (TI), is an institution that was created by the World Bank (WB) and Western financial interests to confine the definition of "corruption" to their advantage.  Western societies today are controlled by finance capitalists intent on monopolizing the wealth and power of the world through debt and global financial pyramiding schemes that have bankrupted nations, as what had happened to the so-called PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain).  The WB-TI combine looks only at government corruption and not private financial corruption, which is the mother of all corruption.  Moreover, the tandem is part of a larger network involving the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Paris Club (an informal group of global bankers) to serve up the world on a platter to financial predators.  We'll never see the TI investigate, expose, nor condemn, say, the Wall Street bankers' corruption that led to the 2008 Global Financial Crash.

 

JAZA's gibberish about why the Philippines lags in global competitiveness completely misses any mention of high electricity costs in the country, often cited by many companies that have left the country for other investment sites where power costs are much lower, such as Vietnam.  Why doesn't JAZA mention this fundamental problem of our country's exorbitant electricity cost?  The reason for his deaf, dumb, and blind reaction is that energy privatization is one of the diktats of Western financial interests.  This is evidenced by the aggressive campaign of multilaterals, such as the IMF, WB, ADB (Asian Development Bank), as well as bilaterals, such as USAID, in imposing privatization and deregulation of the electricity sectors in subordinated countries in the Third World.  JAZA isn't really interested in the root cause of our country's lack of competitiveness; he's just making a show of superficially discussing it, which makes him a total wimp.

 

In November 2011, Nora Halili Lao, a trustee of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (PhilExport), said, "electricity costs account for 40 to 50 percent of exporters' total operating expenses.  Considering this, it is difficult for exporters from the Philippines to price their products at more competitive levels… even those (companies that) have already invested in the country are now contemplating (on) moving to either China or Vietnam since the high electricity rates in the Philippines have made them lose their competitive advantage in the global market."  In the same year, Federation of Philippine Industries chairman Meneleo Carlos Jr. said, "the prohibitive cost of electricity in the country must be the biggest reason why foreign investments have been shrinking in the Philippines, while it is kicking up in other countries in the region."  Even more significantly, the same report stated that the Philippines is the only country that has privatized its power industry.

 

Public relations (PR) hacks of the old Philippine elite tout the known members of the oligarchy as icons of business excellence; hence, the special attention to their business opinions.  But are they really credible?  The Ayalas have been mere rentiers exploiting privilege and power never earned.  Their business empire was built on 1,616 hectares of Hacienda de San Pedro de Makati "acquired" (as was the practice of that time, riding on horseback from dawn to dusk) and 10,000 hectares of the "Roxas family playground" in Batangas--absolutely no sweat-and-tears entrepreneurship there.  In their 21st Century incarnation, they still haven't gone into manufacturing or high tech industries, as the export of semi-conductors, also a comprador business, merely takes advantage of low wages in the import and assembly of parts, not unlike their other rentier businesses, namely, the privatized water utilities, which make use of consumer cash flow to fund business development.  In essence, JAZA isn't worried about country competitiveness at all because high electricity prices don't matter to him; all he needs to do is raise rent and water rates.

 

JAZA writes: "National competitiveness simply cannot be achieved if majority of the population is struggling to meet their most basic needs."  My heart almost bled reading this because just last week, we received complaints from the water consuming  public about Ayala-owned Manila Water's collection policy on household consumers, disallowing the "Pay one, leave one" payment system, i.e. one month overdue plus one month due, slashing the homeowners' credit line for the most essential of household utilities.  This is aside from the fact that water utility charges have ballooned over 10 times from the time water service was privatized to the Ayalas and other oligarchs.  Notice the disparity between JAZA's actual practice and his lament over "the population struggling to meet (its) basic needs."

 

So what are we to make of these contradictions?  The dictionary states that "the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess" is nothing but plain "hypocrisy," which, unfortunately, is the oil of commerce in this society of ours.

 

If any, what the era of privatization in the Philippines, along with the hardship it spawned, has exposed is the hypocrisy of the entire system.  That system, based on oligarchy-led economics, was ushered in by no less than the Edsa I counter-revolution against a state-led national development program, which put utilities and other strategic assets (and means of production) in the hands of the public.  The Nation-State must therefore be restored to pre-eminence so that our people's needs will be addressed and the oligarchs' monopolization of our national wealth be put to an end.

 

(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 "Mines: Bombs or boon?;" visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Power blackmail, fascism

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/19/2012



If we continue to have the kind of political leaders and economic managers that we have today, then this nation is a goner. Speaking to ANC last week on the current Mindanao power crisis, National Economic Development Authority (Neda) Assistant Director-General Ruperto Majuca practically admitted government sabotage for the non-dredging of the Agus-Pulangui hydroelectric river network despite ample warnings over the past decade. Besides this, he adverted to the absence of political will in making use of available power barges to get interim supply (which this column has repeatedly called for). Most importantly, he revealed the real agenda behind the engineered power shortage, saying, “Mindanao must soon get used to higher prices if the people want power.” Then, he even capped it off with an asinine “You cannot have your cake and eat it too” remark as a veiled threat to all Filipinos — that they should be happy to have electricity even at exorbitant prices (the highest in all of Asia), or else live without it.

Our GNN show over Destiny Cable and 300 other cable networks nationwide also tackled the same topic. But our guests were the more genuine stakeholders in this issue, namely, Jojo Borja (stockholder of Iligan Light and Power and an irate anti-power oligarchy crusader) and Wilson Fortaleza (formerly with the Freedom from Debt Coalition electricity consumer advocacy). Borja confirmed that as the power crisis continues to ravage Mindanao’s economy, everything from Internet cafés and restaurants to major manufacturing concerns have been forced to shut down, despite the fact that one power barge in Davao dedicated to the Holcim cement plant, as well as two power barges in Iloilo and one in Luzon, are merely lying idle. Fortaleza, who just came from a National Power Corp. (Napocor) union-sponsored visit to Agus-Pulangui, stressed that the system could still recover its full capacity to provide all the power Mindanao needs today — given the proper maintenance — and still at the current level of Mindanao’s hydro power production cost below one centavo per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Borja even adds that another source of ready supply are the two power barges sold off by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. to Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) for $30 million last 2009, which assets were priced a few months later at $80 million in order to be used as the basis for doubling electricity cost to consumers. The flipside, of course, is that the 33 electric cooperatives (ECs) in Mindanao are deterred from buying TMI-generated power, hence, the current quagmire the region is in.

But, instead of providing real solutions, what Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary and former Ayala and Aboitiz executive Jose Rene Almendras wants is to issue an order that will force all Mindanao power utility operators to purchase power from TMI even at a high cost. According to a March 5 report in Business Mirror (“Mindanao power problem nearing solution: DoE”), Almendras said that as “there are about 100 MW (megawatts) of undispatched power… they are now verifying reports that some of the electric cooperatives are hesitant to buy because (of the) the price differential… (prompting) the DoE (to possibly) issue a directive to compel the electric cooperatives to buy power even at a higher rate… (because) “At the end of the day, it’s the distributor who’s supposed to buy the necessary power to sell.’”

The “undispatched power” mentioned, of course, refers to the TMI power barges’ allocated capacity. As Almendras wants to force this down the throats of Mindanao’s utilities and consumers through a DoE order, those who fail to comply will certainly come under some pain of punishment, such as what was mentioned by a DoE undersecretary, who said that the Energy Department’s proposed circular “will allow the grid operator, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, to cut off power to erring utilities… (so that it would force them) to secure available power generation in the region at a higher price.”

This contemplated action is simple blackmail and fascism, with the DoE as the “muscle” and Almendras as the “enforcer,” all doing the bidding of the capo di tutti capi, the power oligarchs. All those “public” but privately-owned officials of the DoE, form the time of Gloria Arroyo to the present PeNoy Aquino administration, will someday face the wrath of the people and the courts of a new government — the way Iceland’s prime minister is now facing jail term for betraying his people in the financial and economic crisis since 2008.

The present oligarchy-controlled government will not always be on top and the more these oppressive impositions are pushed down the throats of our people, the earlier the day of reckoning shall be. The last example we cited is just a case of the debacle from the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 that gave way to the power sector’s massive privatization.

In 1993, the Alcantara Group was granted and commissioned a BOT (build- operate-and-transfer) project with Napocor’s $110-million 104 MW diesel-fired power plant complex (designated NMPC-1 and 2). Since Mindanao always had surplus power, these were hardly used. Ten years later these were turned over to Iligan City after Napocor failed to pay municipal taxes. But the city cannot operate the plants anymore as Epira bans government from engaging in power generation, besides the fact that the plants were built on an alleged overpriced Alcantara property that is now being refused for their operation.

The reason the Mindanao ECs and handful of private utilities refuse to buy overpriced TMI power is that this would lock them into paying for these high prices in the next 20 years for an engineered short-term power crisis, which the rains will resolve in a few months. The DoE and the oligarch-conspirators want to force these high priced contracts so that they can do the same when the Agus-Pulangui is privatized when the public will momentarily let down its guard.

Luckily, Mindanaoans today are not yielding. Having learned the bitter lessons from Luzon and Visayas’ power woes, their struggle may yet inspire the rest of the country to reverse the Epira totally and shove the pain it brought down those greedy power oligarchs’ sorry backsides.

(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 “Mining: Bomb or Boon?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Integrity the nation needs

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/16/2012



Last Monday the nation was witness to a rare display of integrity from a member of Congress. In the eyes of many, Navotas City Rep. Tobias “Toby” Tiangco became a shining example of how an elected official — who swore fealty to the Constitution — should behave in the exercise of his duties.

The Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona were rammed by the leaders of the congressional majority into the faces of their fellow legislators without giving them the time to read through the documents before affixing their signatures. It was, from all accounts, a gross violation of the basic rule of verification involving documents sworn before the law.

For refusing to be part of that travesty, Toby became the symbol of congressional integrity — a trait that is sorely lacking nowadays. Even though some of his colleagues, such as Reps. Boying Remulla and Hermilando Mandanas, also refused succumb to Malacañang’s pressure-tactics, when the challenge came to voluntarily put the truth on record in the Senate, only Toby rose to the occasion, with the others simply copping out by seeking Senate subpoenas that were never to come. Through it all, Toby did not shirk from his duty to the Constitution and the nation.

At the other end of the pole, stuck in the mud of trapo politics is a congressman from the lair of some of the most notorious political personalities this country has ever seen — the city of Mandaluyong. Rep. Neptali Gonzales II is a member of one of two political clans that have controlled that city’s politics. The Gonzaleses and Abaloses have, for quite some time, alternated for control of the congressional and mayoralty seats to perpetuate themselves in power.

These two political families are, in fact, among the most yellow of the Yellows. Tracing their roots to the Yellow armies of Edsa I and II vintage, they are believed to be the most sanctimonious yet the epitome of trapo politics.

Even before Toby Tiangco set foot in the Senate, Neptali Gonzales II, in no uncertain terms, already threatened him with expulsion if he were to push through with it — something that the principled Navoteño readily defied.

What gall, indeed, for this Yellow congressman from Mandaluyong to threaten another elected representative of the people. The power that comes with his position as House majority leader must have so gotten into his head that he now throws his weight around with abandon, just as the “supreme” power over impeachment has gone to the heads of some senator-judges cum prosecutors, who simply brush aside all pretenses of impartiality in browbeating witnesses and defense lawyers while refusing to inhibit when openly chastised by the public.

The likes of Gonzales represent a majority of the politicians prevailing in our corrupt political system while Toby is just the one whom most of our suffering people can pin their hopes on.

Tiangco is, in fact, among the rare breed of political leaders who have dared raise the power issue when, in the halls of Congress, he asked why power consumers are paying a value added tax (VAT) on “systems losses.” Dina Abad, in contrast, merely sat on her cushy seat as chairman of the House energy committee and did nothing.

Similarly, the so-called young House prosecutors at the forefront of the botched impeachment case, such as Niel Tupas, Erin Tañada, Miro Quimbo, Bolet Banal, et. al, have proven themselves to have kowtowed to Malacañang. By executing illegal orders in behalf of their Palace patron, they have readily violated the sacrosanct separation of powers; prostituted themselves for their slice of the pork barrel; trampled upon constitutional rules and the Rules of Court just to adopt patently illegal House rules on impeachment and verification, thereby trampling upon the rights of the accused; and conspired to obtain information illegally.

But trapo politics cuts across generations. These young trapos have surely learned well from their forebears, who are themselves getting their well-deserved rewards. To wit, the following lucrative posts were recently handed: For the elder Tañada, the chairmanship of the group of United Coconut Planters Bank, Coconut Industry Investment Fund, et. al; for a former Quezon City councilor said to have operated several sauna bath joints in Cubao during his incumbency, membership in the board of Poro Point Management Corp.; and for the extremely lucky Tupases, a Philippine National Oil Co. post for the father and a Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board seat for the sister.

Clearly, as these appointees do not bring anything new to the table, it is all plain nepotism. But as such is the rule of success in Yellow society and politics, can they all be expected to have any shame?

Fortunately, despite this culture of corruption, Filipinos can still celebrate whenever there are leaders who rise above the mire by becoming shining examples of integrity in government.

So we ask: Is Neptali Gonzales II going to make good his threat of expelling Toby Tiangco from the House? Let’s see him try and invite a good skewering from the public. Tiangco’s Senate appearance right after Gonzales’ shameless threat is without doubt a gauntlet across the majority floor leader’s cheek. As Toby is sure to not back down, we should let the good congressman know that we are all rooting for him in his fight for decency and integrity in the Lower House.

(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 “Mindanao power crisis and Epira;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

An ‘oust oligarchs’ alliance

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/12/2012



The global “Occupy Movement” opened the struggle of the 99 percent disposed peoples of the world against the miniscule but powerful one percent that monopolize the globe’s wealth. That one percent is, of course, the oligarchy. Like the rest of the world, the Philippines has had its own share of oligarchs who mimic and implement the same paradigm of greed and exploitation that has dominated the world these past two and a half decades — since the time of Thatcherism and Reaganomics.

Even though the Philippines’ own oligarchs may have spats — real or make-believe — with one another once in a while, all of them will always stand united when it comes to exploiting and exhausting the wealth and resources of this nation for their fat bank accounts and megalomaniac egos.

At their core, these oligarchs are the centurions of the global oligarchy in the country, the local gatekeepers of finance capital holding rein through money politics and mass media control. And because of this, the people must recognize the need to oust this oligarchy in order to free this nation from the global masters determined to extract every bit of wealth and anima from us.

Just the other day, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) again had called for new taxes on the Filipino people. IMF mission leader to the Philippines Vivek Arora reasoned that it is required for “growth to be sustained over the medium term.” However, what they won’t say is that while the oligarchy revels at the government assets to be privatized for their benefit, as well as the taxes from the people that finance the bureaucracy implementing the global and domestic oligarchy’s will, the people suffer from over-taxation just so that both public and private sector debts can be financed.

As I picked up a copy of the credo of a giant bank’s training manual which says, “We believe in the central role that private enterprise plays in economic development,” it is pretty clear that minions are being brainwashed to execute an ideology of servitude to the oligarchy.

But pray tell us, is the United States of America, the Mecca of capitalism that allows Wall Street to be the central power in its economy, a shining example of economic development today? We have seen the US of A become an economic wasteland as neoliberal economists of the Reagan period transferred all power to private capital, which went on to seek profit for profit’s sake and against continuous development of that nation’s physical or “hard” industries, which then led private enterprises to shift to Third World labor to further increase their profits.

So, should the Third World celebrate this? Are people too naive to realize that the Philippine oligarchy has also tapped into the much bruited about business process outsourcing (BPO) sector?

Though prone to window dressing, there are times when correct views emanate from multilateral agencies, like that Asian Development Bank (ADB) study by F. Tech Tschang, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, stating that “the (Philippine) government should not rely on the (BPO) industry in dealing with the poverty situation in the country.”

Further, Norio Usui, ADB Philippines senior country economist, said the economy must “walk on two legs,” one being the services sector and the other, the industrial sector (particularly manufacturing) in order to achieve growth. Of course, we should add the all-important factor: Agricultural development toward food self-sufficiency.

Yet the Philippine oligarchy will have none of these since they are averse to investing in long gestation projects with substantial original capital (as opposed to borrowed capital using government “sovereign guarantees”).

Hence, private enterprise can never be the central engine in economic development. As the state (i.e. the people and their territory) is the genuine agent of the people’s aspirations and will, it is the ultimate source of all capital.

Witness several state-led economies (such as China, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Vietnam and Argentina) that have shown the way since the advent of the 21st Century: Have they not successfully established their own nation-state leadership paradigms, which the Philippines can learn from? So then, how do we make this work given the local oligarchy’s control of all institutions of state and government, not to mention its control of all mainstream tri-media instruments, as well as the educational system that shapes the minds of our youth?

Ironically, the greatest ally of the people and the nation-state centered leadership will be the oligarchs themselves. As their ideology of greed inflicts greater and greater suffering on the population, intra-oligarchy rivalries will soon arise.

In the interim, the challenge to the genuine leadership agents of the people is to maintain the audibility and visibility of their nationalist ideology and its promise of genuine change and benefit to the general welfare.

The first priority, therefore, is to consolidate the diverse forces that represent the nationalist ideology into an alliance. From there, a consistent message, image and leadership must find constant projection in all forms of national media.

Those alleged “retired military officers” plotting a supposed ouster of PeNoy would do well to consider not just booting out a single trapo but the entire oligarchy. They must also ensure that in the ensuing vacuum, all their efforts are in support of a nationalist leadership. Otherwise, the same domination from PeNoy and the oligarchy will remain. But no matter the great effort and sacrifice needed for this, we must remember that the time is now ripe. As the global and domestic situation mature toward an explosion of the people’s rage, we will hear more and more exclaim, “Patria o muerte, venceremos!”

(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 “Anti-large scale mining is pro-people;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

The FVR-IPP scam on Mindanao

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/12-18/2012



For this issue I had wanted to write about the US State Department report on the Philippines as “one of the world’s most highly mineralized countries” with an untapped wealth of over $840 billion or around P40 trillion. But with the way Filipinos are already surrendering their present earnings and wealth to historic scams of powerful foreign and domestic plunderers, our children and the next generations will never ever get to taste the fruits of our national patrimony.

In this regard, there are two current issues that highlight the situation of our country: One is mining while the other concerns electricity. As there is an urgent development in the latter, I am compelled to focus more on the power issue, but still dwell a bit on mining later.

Why the urgency? That’s because there is again another case of corrupt government bureaucrats conniving with power oligarchs to foist more FVR-type IPP (independent power producer) deals for the next 20 years--this time, in Mindanao.

As we speak, there is an ongoing contrived power crisis of five to eight-hour brownouts in many parts of Mindanao, wreaking havoc to the island’s economy and the people’s lives. It was without a doubt brought on through deliberate non-maintenance and non-dredging of Mindanao’s abundant hydroelectric dams and facilities over the years, as the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform, which I’d rather call “Deform,” Act) dictates the privatization of all government power generation assets and bans government from ever engaging in such activity even when emergency situations, where only swift government aid can help, would call for it.

The unfolding development is similar to what Cory Aquino and Joker Arroyo (who placed the Department of Energy under the Office of the President to ensure easy manipulation) did in mothballing the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) and four hydropower development projects, which ensured a power crisis that bloomed into a full disaster during Ramos’ time, which Ramos then used to sign lucrative IPP contracts way beyond the maximum the ADB warned of.

This time, we can clearly discern the sinister plot of the power oligarchs and the corrupt top government bureaucrats they endorsed when a call was made to shift away from hydropower. One of their former executives, for instance, Energy Secretary Rene Almendras, said last week, “Considering the future lower rainfall forecast in Mindanao, we cannot rely solely on hydropower plants. Non-hydro baseload is immediately needed and this will only happen if everyone cooperates,” with the report stating that “Key to this is fast-tracking the process of obtaining local government permits in setting up power plants.”

To zero in on the larcenous angle, I should report on what Mr. Jojo Borja, part owner of Iligan Light, narrates: “IPPs are Build-Operate-and-Transfer projects and many were set up since FVR’s time; after their contracts finish, these are transferred to government, which is banned by the EPIRA from engaging in power generation. So the power oligarchs will buy back these IPPs for a tenth of their worth with a few crumbs to local officials.”

As in the Cory-FVR-Arroyo IPPs, the new Mindanao IPPs will get “take-or-pay” terms or the infamous PPAs (power purchase agreements), where power rates will be based on a “re-evaluated” replacement cost of such power plants made three times higher than the “giveaway” acquisition cost from government and re-evaluated (or escalated) every three years as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)-formulated Performance Based Regulation (PBR) stipulates.

This is how Manny Pangilinan’s Meralco has been able to make an average of 100% increase in profits every year since 2006, affording him the limitless funds to buy everything, from basketball teams to a second TV network, to PAL, to several new seats in the Inquirer and Philippine Star, so as to control public perception of the plundering rampage, ad nausea.

In Mindanao, it will be the Aboitizes and the Alcantaras or their dummies lording it over, with IPP contracts to last the next 20 years and with double the power rates. Pity Mindanao as we have pitied the rest of the country victimized by the EPIRA, the ERC, and the collusion of corrupt politicians and the oligarchy.

Manila did not awaken to the historic scam until years later when, contrary to EPIRA proponents as well as Meralco congressmen and senators’ claims, power prices did not go down and competition did not thrive. Power rates, in fact, doubled and a pluto-poly (control by the plutocracy) emerged.

Privatization did not erase the $18-billion debt burden of the power sector on government even by just a dollar--this after 10 years with 90% of the state’s power assets privatized.

What a gigantic scam this has been and continues to be while our senators and congressmen entertain fools who may still believe they mean anything well for the country. So we must not allow the hoax to go unreported. Jojo Borja has been helping to rally Mindanaoans against this historic scam in Mindanao, which may even spark a revolution for the entire archipelago.

As for that US State Department report on our enormous untapped mineral wealth, we have long written about it from intelligence tidbits gathered over the years. For example, we’ve repeatedly heard of nationalist economist Alejandro “Ding” Lichauco having picked up a satellite sensing report of the US that shows the whereabouts of massive reserves of oil, gas, and other minerals in our islands and seas as far back as the 90s.

We have also heard Nur Misuari use the same report to make the case that those areas must not be given away when controversy on the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD)’s ceding of territories to the US dummy MILF exploded.

The timing of that report is clearly in aid of the large scale mining interests that are pushing their case against any opposition to their avaricious and destructive mining that will exhaust all of the nation’s mineral resources before it is able to tap them all by itself in order to preserve these as a legacy for our future.

Next column: “Their ‘mining’ is not our mining.”

(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 “New Mindanao IPP scams of DoE;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

The United States’ criminal act

BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
3/10-11/2012



The United States is the only country that resorts to branding states to denote some kind of political categorization. Often such name calling is reflective of its attitude towards that state. It has called some states “totalitarian states” in referring to the former Soviet Union, China under Mao, North Korea, and Cuba; “failed states” for countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and other famine-stricken countries in the Sahel Region of Africa; and, “narco States” like Colombia, Mexico, and Afghanistan.

“Totalitarian states” are perceived as undemocratic where power is concentrated in one ruler; “failed states” or those it consider to have lost its power to govern; and the “narco states” or those governments sustained through the production, sale and distribution of drugs like cocaine and opium. The US has also branded some as “rogue states” in referring to Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Libya under Muammar Gaddhafi, Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and North Korea under Kim Jong Il. The US views their behavior as odd for refusing to kowtow to what it wants. The US often accuses them of sponsoring “international terrorism” or are “endeavoring to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”

Surprisingly, as the world looks at how the US has prejudged them, it has overlooked using the most important categorization that would fit to its status as a country that has no respect for international law, always seeking to enforce its interest by the use of force in defiance of the United Nations Charter. Perhaps, the US purposely reserved that title to itself. After all, it alone has the power, and the ability to use it with arrogance to subjugate other states with unparalleled ferocity and savagery to be fittingly called a criminal state, together with its Zionist enforcer in the Middle East, Israel.

At the outset, the economic embargo imposed on Cuba was a criminal act committed by one state against a sovereign state. We say this because in 1962 or barely three years after Cuba ousted Fulgencio Batista, the US arbitrarily reacted by imposing an economic blockade against a people just wishing to chart their own destiny. For the last 50 years the economic blockade has become much tighter that it has caused untold sufferings to the entire population, with the US hoping it would dampen their spirit to turn their back against their legendary revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

No state is authorized to impose an economic blockade against another state. That would be tantamount to war. But what is Cuba against a criminal state that parades itself as the guardian of democracy? It was criminal because the US sought to internationalize its aggressive design against Cuba by urging its allies or by blackmailing other countries to join the embargo which has never been sanction by the UN. The US has emerged as a mafia Godfather because it exerts its power and influence to secure the cooperation of law-abiding states to initially obey its criminal design of economically squeezing Cuba as what the members of the Organization of American States did to expel Cuba on July 26, 1964.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the world thought it would usher in the end of the Cold War. But true to its instinct as a criminal state, the US rather tightened the screw on the partial restriction imposed by President Kennedy on February 7, 1962. On October 15, 1992, US Congressman Robert Torricelli introduced a misnomer act dubbed as “Cuban Democracy Act.” That act sought to widen the scope of the embargo by prohibiting foreign-based subsidiaries of US companies from trading with Cuba, prohibiting US citizens from traveling to that island, and curtailing remittances to family relatives in Cuba.

It was followed on March 12, 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act, also given a misleading title of “Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act.” It sought to impose much tougher sanctions on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, gave a go-signal to US citizens to sue foreign investors who make use of American-owned properties seized by the Cuban government, and to deny entry to the US to such foreign investors doing business in Cuba. It was an act of gangsterism for intimidation is not only evident, but went beyond to blackmail legitimate business transactions carried out by other countries.

Conservative estimates put it that direct damage to the Cuban people as a result of the economic blockade that has been broadened to include commercial and financial blockade as of December 2010 would run to $104 billion. Taking into consideration the continued depreciation of the US dollar against the price of gold in the international financial market, damaged to the Cuban economy would exceed $975 billion.

For 15 straight years, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to end the US embargo against Cuba. One hundred eighty-three member-states voted for the lifting while a fellow criminal state, Israel, voted against to show both its color and loyalty to the US. The two other states voted to oppose, and they were Marshall Islands and Palau. Their vote was understandable for without the US food and economic assistance, the people there would starve and their economy would sink deep into the ocean.

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)

Oust the ‘helpless’ government?

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/5/2012



Last Sunday, a morning headline blared, “CHED helpless vs high miscellaneous fees this coming school year – Palace.” When the price of oil products was raised several times the past month (as in the case of the horrendous two-step 30-percent increase in the price of LPG), we heard the same refrain from Malacañang--that it cannot do anything about the problem. Similarly, when Mindanaoans raised shrill cries of pain due to the power supply and power rate crises crippling their lives and the island’s economy, the government agency concerned--the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp.--said it could do nothing as well.

Government, of course, does not involve only Malacañang but includes both the legislative and judicial branches--both of which have shown themselves unresponsive to the pleas people have been raising hell about.

So the question is, if the present government cannot do anything about these vital, day-to-day issues, why do we still allow it to continue running our lives?

The 1987 Constitution, the guide for governance in this country, says in its Preamble: “We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.”

If the Filipino people, who are hurting and demanding help from their government, are told by that same government that it can do nothing, does that still make the Filipino people sovereign? Can a government that says “no” to its people’s pleas for affordable and quality education, aside from moderating prices of basic goods and commodities, be an embodiment of these people’s ideals and aspirations? Does a government that refuses to extend a helping hand by regulating oil prices to protect its public serve the “common good?”

The argument that government cannot do anything because the “world market” dictates prices is bunk. Government can do plenty. Even the paragon of “free market” economics and laissez-faire capitalism, the US of A, is seriously considering intervening in its domestic fuel market by preparing the release of its “strategic oil reserves” to dampen the skyrocketing gas prices.

For the Philippines, this column has long called for the expansion of the nation’s 30 to 60-day oil and fuel reserves to a full year’s stockpile--bought during periods of low prices.

Just imagine: If the recent oil price increases are sustained for the rest of the year, our oil imports will balloon to over $15 billion from the $12 billion (more or less) in the past; but even this is already affordable for the Philippines, which now has $77 billion in foreign exchange reserves, not to mention P17 trillion sleeping in the Special Deposit Account (SDA).

Oil and fuel are basic necessities of the economy. The same is true for electricity, of which Philippine rates are already the “highest in Asia” but bound to go ever higher as Psalm plots with Congress to make taxpayers and electricity consumers shoulder $18 billion worth of “Universal Charge.” Even as these increasing energy costs already put tremendous economic and financial pressures on all our public and private schools, colleges, and universities (among other sectors), it must also be stated that the profit-seeking business orientation of the private educational sector has also added to the burden of parents and students, as the managing hierarchy of these institutions press to maintain profits amid difficult times. All these are happening as government continues to reduce the budget for state colleges and universities every year, thereby shrinking the educated class and dooming the nation’s future.

Despite the nation’s glaring and mounting socio-economic crisis, the legislature has chosen to spend 28 days on impeachment hearings that only serve to distract from our urgent challenges.

So distracting it was that most of the nation did not notice the Judiciary’s new decision on electricity that is adverse to power consumers’ welfare. By using technicalities in the House-approved Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)’s twisted rules, it summarily disqualified consumer crusaders, who have long fought against the grand larceny being perpetrated by the power pirates, as “oppositors.”

The Senate, thankfully, called for a long recess on the impeachment hearings. But the lull didn’t.

Fresh from raising a dud in the bid to impeach the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Malacañang started to raise the boogeyman of an “ouster” or “coup” attempt against the Palace tenant--a boogey that not even its own security officials would hazard to confirm. In short: Another dud.

What are the people of this Republic to do given this situation where the government that is tasked by the Constitution to help the people build a just and humane society instead reiterates constantly that it is “helpless,” and actually works to create distractions to the crises, and shuns all efforts at solving them?

If I may ask our constitutional experts, “Can it now be deemed legal to call for the ouster of this ‘helpless,’ unresponsive government that has become a bane to the people and a hindrance to the fulfillment of the Constitution’s vision?” Maybe the people should make sure the “ouster” rumor will no longer be a dud this time.

(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 “A Tribute to Horacio ‘Boy’ Morales: A People’s Man;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

BSP’s $500-M ‘gift’ to IMF hoax

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/5-11/2012



Our fellow OpinYon columnist and De La Salle professor Louie Montemar looked critically at the “news of the decade” last week emanating from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The surprise report in the papers that “the Philippines has just become a creditor nation, extending loans to poorer states in the European Union,” prompted Louie to write in his piece, “Making sense of the news,” that this news didn’t seem to compute given the socio-economic realities we see facing our nation.

It certainly does not make any sense. The claim that the Philippines has become a creditor nation is a big farce simply because a country with P4.9-trillion ($120-billion) outstanding national debt can hardly claim to be a real creditor country.

What’s not being stated is that the national government (NG) only borrows dollars for the BSP to pay our country’s $500-million contribution to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s new arrangement for borrowing (NAB) program and $251.5 million for the financial transaction plan (FTP), in accordance with the country’s obligations as a member of the Fund.

With help from financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani, the following instances show how the BSP and the NG went about raising the Philippines’ contributions to the IMF through borrowings:

From January 2006, the headline, “NG to issue bonds to BSP for advances of IMF dues,” spelled out an idea of issuing the same type of zero-coupon bonds as the now infamous CodeNGO PeaceBonds which need not pass through the national budget but instead go straight to government’s debt to form part of our “automatic debt service.”

Then, from 2009, the headline, “BSP advances P9B IMF quota payments,” highlighted the country’s regular ritual of raising contributions for the IMF at a time when the NG incurred a budget deficit but which it repaid in subsequent years to the BSP. There is therefore no reason to expect any difference in this year’s contributions to the IMF.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), reacting to the BSP and NG’s trumpeting of our country’s sizeable contribution to the FTP, said in a statement:

“The news suggesting that ‘the Philippines has now become a creditor nation’ may sound good, but (FDC) smells something fishy about this ‘hype’…

“Ricardo Reyes, FDC president, said that while such move ‘seems to suggest that the Philippines has gotten out of its debt problem, which of course is not true,’ considering the outstanding national government debt of P4.93 trillion ($120 billion) at present, the catch lies in the next part of the BSP announcement… (where the monetary authority) ‘lends a part of our dollar reserves to IMF’s FTP’ so the Philippines can borrow again and borrow more from the IMF… (this, notwithstanding the fact that) We have suffered more than enough and continue to suffer as a consequence of (the) IMF’s debt trap.”

So it’s time that we throw rotten tomatoes and eggs, and add the rotten balut, on PeNoy’s face for this shameful attempt to glorify the Philippines’ borrowed financial tribute to the IMF as a clean contribution to the multilateral financial institution’s fund. It is a desperate effort to put an artificial shine on the 26 years of Edsa I’s financial “reforms.”

Those reforms, consisting of the liberalization of currency and capital flows, as well as the deregulation and privatization of the financial system and economy, have actually caused the Philippines to become a shameful laggard in the region.

For the Edsa devotees’ information, our country is now overtaken by Vietnam, which 26 years ago, was just beginning to rebuild from the ravages of 50 years of war with France and then the US.

In spite of that, we still hear of paeans being showered on our alleged “creditor nation status” from the likes of Cory Aquino finance chief Jess Estanislao, whose statements, quoted by Tonette Chan in the Inquirer story, “From butt of jokes in 1986, Philippines has risen to creditor nation,” which proclaim “The Philippines (as) a model of good governance in the world… (thereby enabling it to) overtake Thailand and Indonesia in terms of economic growth,” simply brim with unadulterated hubris.

Why, the reporter even had the unmitigated gall to ask, “Who is having the last laugh now?” It’s certainly not us Filipinos.

If after 26 years of Edsa, we are where we are today given officialdom’s adherence to so-called financial and economic reforms started by Estanislao then handed down to a long list of heirs in the finance department (“Boy Blue” del Rosario, Jose “Mo” Cuisia, Bobby “Bobo” de Ocampo, Jose “Litong-lito” Camacho, Cesar “Foolishima,” etc.), how on earth can they still claim that the Philippines will be “overtaking” Thailand and Indonesia soon when 26 years ago these countries were behind us?

All told, the financial milieu imposed by the Edsa I regime was merely a bankers’ heaven, erected on Cory Aquino’s pledge to “honor all debts.”

It turned our people over to the money masters and the “debt trap” and dismantled all our financial and economic floodgates to effect the massive transfer of public assets to foreign and local corporatists--financed by “sovereign guarantees.”

What we have thus become is an emaciated nation-state, a captive creature shadowing our former glory.

As told by Dani Rodrik in “The Nation-State Reborn” (Economist’s View), the restoration of any nation’s greatness would require its people to “turn for solutions to their national governments, which remain the best hope for collective action” and that even as “the nation-state may be a relic (of) the French Revolution… it is all that we have.”

In our case, that entails a truly sovereign nation-state borne of a new Philippine Revolution and not one captive to corporate powers.

(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 BSP’s $ ‘creditor nation’ hoax;” visithttp://newkatipunero.blogspot.comfor our articles plus TV and radio archives)

The trial: Is it really over?

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
3/5-11/2012



After the events of Tuesday and Wednesday last week at the impeachment court, is it over? Or, are they over?

After the prosecution withdrew last Tuesday, five out of the eight articles of impeachment, Is it over for them?

They claimed that they had presented enough evidence and witnesses to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona in three out of the original eight articles. They made a formal offer of these pieces of evidence last Friday. The defense has until Wednesday to make its objections.

Next week, Monday, the Senate as an impeachment court will hold a very critical caucus. That caucus will determine how liberal or strict it will be in the application of the rules on evidence.

If the senator-judges are as strict as the rules are in criminal cases, the prosecution will be left hanging, high and dry, without any evidence.

If they are as liberal as they can and want to be in the case of a trial that is called and considered “sui generis,” then the defense will have a long and hard task of presenting its own evidence and witnesses to counter the allegations, evidence and witnesses of the prosecution in the three remaining articles of impeachment.

The hullabaloo on Wednesday between Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago and private prosecutor Atty. Aguirre is a bad portent of things to come in the future for the trial, both for the court as well as the prosecution.

Miriam’s performance and style may serve to strengthen the resolve of the confused and demoralized advocates of impeachment and conviction.

On the other hand, Atty. Aguirre’s arrogance, “kabastusan” and defiance may serve to strengthen the general perception that the prosecution has been a failure.

The worst that can happen at this critical juncture is that the bias of the court and its senator judges may be tipped against the prosecution and for the defense in their appreciation of the admissibility of allegations, evidence and witnesses.

However, from the beginning, the impeachment trial and court have not been allowed to stand alone. First, there was a full month of trial by publicity even before the Impeachment trial proper started on Monday, Jan 16.

When Corona did not imitate Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and did not resign but chose to undergo trial, a Plan B was planned and prepared for in case of acquittal. Plan B would have been a repeat of “yellow” people power ala Edsa I and II.

In the beginning, it seemed so easy to “Occupy the Supreme Court” and oust CJ Corona, The Executive Branch and the President as Commander-in-Chief command the Armed Forces, the police and most of the civilian bureaucracy.

When Marcos in 1986 and Erap in 2001 were ousted, they had in addition to these, a sizeable mass base among the civilian population.

The Supreme Court and its chief justice never commanded armed forces nor a national police. Its judicial bureaucracy is small and passive.

In better times its popularity is lacklustre. A month ago it seemed that even a midget sized people power could brush aside an acquitted Corona. After all, Taft Ave. is smaller than Edsa. Padre Faura is smaller than Ortigas Ave.

However, a month ago, on Thursday, February 9, things changed dramatically. The SC issued a TRO against the opening of Corona’s foreign currency accounts upon the request of PS Bank.

Simultaneously, the INC staged a 7,000 man mini-rally in support of Corona and the rule of law and filled Padre Faura as it had never been before.

On Monday, February 13, the Senate caucus voted 13-10 to honor the TRO.

That week, news leaked out about a mammoth INC rally to be held at the Luneta on Tuesday, Feb 28. It was originally perceived as an anti-impeachment and anti-P-Noy, pro rule of law and pro-Corona and Gatdula rally.

Malacañang denied on behalf of the INC that it would be a political rally. It was supposed to be a bible and evangelical religious prayer rally.

Whatever it would eventually be perceived, it pre-empted and overshadowed the 26th Edsa Uno anniversary celebrations and rallies. It turns out that the INC is celebrating an anniversary this year.

The gang of conspirators composed of P-Noy, the Liberal Party, “Hayop’ 10 and Evil Society and the left had laid down their plans:

1. Demonize Corona. Alienate and separate him from the rest of the Supreme Court and judiciary.
2. Since the articles of impeachment were irreparably flawed, force and shame Corona into resigning.
3. Transfer the venue of the trial from the court to media, public opinion and the streets.
4. Peak public indignation. Make use of a trigger. Call for “Occupy the Supreme Court.” Mobilize big crowds.
5. Force and shame Corona to resign. If he does not, convince the Supreme Court to do a “constructive resignation” on Corona. If it does not, declare a revolutionary government and convene an appointed constitutional commission.

The best time to climax the above would have been during the 26th Edsa Uno anniversary celebrations.

Unfortunately, the timing for Plan B had peaked much earlier and was in quick decline during the whole month of February. Instead, a counter Plan C was brewing and percolating.

However, the maestro, presiding officer Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile prevented both prosecution and defense from walking out of his venue. He deprived them of any triggers within then trial. He counter pre-empted the trial publicity that had previously pre-empted the trial proper.

When we first used the term Plan C at the Balitaan sa Rembrandt on Friday, February 15, one of the guests/resource persons proclaimed that a Plan D would overshadow Plans A, B and C.

We were tempted to accept that possibility considering that people power had entered a stalemate. C had cancelled out B. Whether the vice versa of that is also true, we still cannot say.

We have not fully perceived and understood the new realities created by the mammoth INC Rally last Tuesday. That could be as important a game changer as Edsa Uno …

Oligarchs cause poverty

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/9/2012



The other spat that managed to outdo the “Whaa!” vs “Hear no Miriam” brouhaha in the Senate last week was the exchange between Manny Pangilinan (MVP) and Gina Lopez at a forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). That event at a plush hotel, clearly organized to push the corporate mining agenda, was where Lopez, as a self-appointed representative of the anti-large scale mining sector, made her point that such an approach destroys the beauty of nature. Opposite to that was MVP’s counter-argument, which said that since areas where large scale mining will be conducted are not tourist spots anyway, the most important thing to keep in mind is that “Mining is not the enemy, (but) poverty is.”

MVP and those lining up behind his arguments are obviously selling the idea that giant corporate mining will solve poverty in the Philippines. But, in the hundred-year history of large scale mining in the Philippines, has poverty decreased?

John Moldero was OIC Governor of Benguet in the immediate post-Edsa I government. Son of an American haciendero married to a native, John grew up very close to the locals of the Mountain Province. As founder of the globally famous Hobbit House, a regular habitué to many expats and a feature in Western films, which put the country on the world tourism map, John is also known for his unique contribution to Philippine hospitality and entertainment.

In the 2004 elections, John joined the campaign for FPJ. Tragically, he didn’t get to finish it. While driving on his scooter down Commonwealth Ave. to organize political marchers toward a rally, he was sideswiped by a delivery van and expired just minutes after being brought to a small nearby hospital.

John often waxed nostalgic when the subject of the Mountain Province arose and whenever the topic shifted to the issue of large vs small scale mining, he would leave us with this narrative:

“I grew up playing with the children of miners of the Mountain Province. There is a basic difference between the mining in Benguet and in Kalinga. The big mining companies of Benguet, such as the world-renowned Philex, employed thousands of miners and attracted foreign investors (even Mafia figures such as Meyer Lanky), leading Fortune magazine to report it as the “crown jewel” of the Mafioso’s holdings; but the miners remained as miners all their lives, as well as the generations of their children and grandchildren that followed. The difference in Kalinga is that mainly small mining took place there and the extraction of the rich lodes was gradual and sustainable, while mining families used much of their earnings for the education of their children. The second and third generations of Kalinga mining families are now doctors and lawyers, professionals produced by the small mining endeavors of these natives.”

Here lies the real argument against large-scale mining: Who benefits and how sustainable it really is.

Large scale miners promise to set up facilities, tailings ponds (really the size of giant lakes), and dams to contain poisonous and disastrous deluvial tailings for 20 years of mining operations. But what really begs to be asked is since they are expecting to exhaust the riches of those mines, taking all the wealth in a period short of a generation, what will be left for the people’s children and grandchildren?

All the benefits will simply accrue to a handful of foreign corporate interests, whereas the mining sites and communities will be left with only the ever present danger of a deluge of poisonous and utterly damaging flash floods of tailings that render hundreds, if not millions, of hectares (as in the Tampakan mines) uninhabitable for centuries.

So why are MVP and his cohorts (such as Peter Wallace) in such a hurry? Why are government mining officials so excited to pass laws and regulations that will allow this? Why should the nation accept a mere five, seven, or even 10 percent tax, plus some other short change, when such wealth should be 100 percent for the nation?

Besides that, we should ask: How bad can tailings disasters become? To date, there are 92 mine tailings disasters from all over the world significant enough to be listed on Internet sources. One of the worst is the Stava Valley disaster on July 19, 1985, an industrial catastrophe that cost 268 lives and 133 million euros in damage. Poisonous mud spread over 4.2 square kilometers, as aerial photos showed the horrendous extent of its permanent, irremediable damage.

The Foundation Stava 1985 was created in order to make sure that the innocent lives lost on that fateful day would not be in vain and that the world remembers the dangers and folly of gigantic scale mining.

The Philippines has its own Marcopper mine disaster in Boac, Marinduque, too, where 1.5 million cubic meters of toxic mine tailings spilled into five villages and buried Barangay Hinapula under six feet of muddy floodwaters, with residents poisoned with zinc and copper beyond tolerable limits.

Marcopper is estimated to have reaped a net profit of $7.3 billion from mining 30,000 tons of copper ore a day, but Marinduque still has a 71.9-percent poverty incidence and registered as the 14th poorest province in the country as of 2006.

While the corporate mining giant’s foreign mother companies have reaped billions, the country was left with thousands of hectares of poisoned lands that must rely on public resources (if any) to clean these up.

We do not have space enough to describe the horrors and economic injustice that large scale mining companies (that laugh all the way to their transnational banks) inflict on communities and nations while leaving a trail of disaster for the public to pick up in perpetuity.

So the problem is not poverty as poverty is not a cause but an effect--an effect of the greed, corrupting power, and avaricious machinations of oligarchs who want to devour and monopolize the wealth of nations.

(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 “A Tribute to Horacio ‘Boy’ Morales: A People’s Man;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)