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.

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