The hypocrites on the defensive

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

5/26-27/2012

The hypocrites once again found themselves squirming like worms after beleaguered Chief Justice Renato Corona threw back the challenge to the 188 members of Congress who signed the impeachment complaint, including Senator Franklin Drilon.

Such is the pathetic scenario of a country that has gone haywire. They wanted Corona to defend himself as not guilty, and not for them to prove that he is. Of course, the critics would insist on their right to cross-examine him. But whatever he says now has become irrelevant because he has taken the offensive of challenging them to do the same, of signing a waiver that would allow the opening not only of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, but also of their bank accounts, including their foreign currency deposits. Drilon cannot give his con-man's argument that it is Corona who is on trial, and therefore it is for him to prove his innocence.

It may sound logical, but if one knows what constitutes fair play, that argument of Drilon is pathetically illogical and stupid. First, Corona was compelled to raise that challenge because the trial that has been reduced to a circus has not proven anything. Second, many of those charges listed in the original impeachment complaint have already been dismissed, and the hypocrites have to swallow their pride by amending their complaint for fear the presiding judge might just dismiss their complaint altogether.

As Corona would put it, the discrepancies in one's SALN is not an impeachable offense because he is not under any legal obligation to declare all his assets to which the laws itself provides protection, and he is referring to the banking secrecy law. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 1405 provides, to quote: "All deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions in the Philippines x x x, are x considered as of an absolutely confidential nature and may not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office, except upon written permission of the depositor, or in cases of impeachment, or upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials, or in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation."

Despite that specific provision, the hypocrites thought it wise to just violate R.A. No. 1405 entertaining the usual notion that once disclosed, the accused would, by moral compulsion, have to explain his bank account or why he failed to include it in his SALN. They wanted to skip the civilized process of proving their case based on the merits of that they could legally obtain. When asked how they managed to obtain copies of those dubious bank records that purport to represent the deposits of Corona, which was not even certified by the bank, the complainants come out with their silly alibi that even a man just released from a mental asylum would have doubts.

Nonetheless, the hypocrites came back dangling the same line that allegedly Corona has 82 bank accounts. They were out to publicly ridicule and discredit the chief justice and make travesty of our laws. Thus, when they came out with their fantastic figure of summing up Corona's dollar account reaching a staggering figure of $12 million by the simpleton process of just adding all the transactions that put on the spotlight the sanity of those who testified. As one would quip, it was not the dollar account of Corona the public discovered, but on the insanity of people who have been parading themselves as "holier than thou."

More than anything else, Republic Act No. 6426 or An Act Instituting a Foreign Currency Deposit System in the Philippines is more stringent than R.A. No. 1405. Specifically, Section 8 provides, to quote: "All foreign currency deposits authorized under this Act, x x x, are hereby declared as and considered of an absolutely confidential nature and, except upon the written permission of the depositor, in no instance shall foreign currency deposits be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office whether judicial or administrative or legislative, or any other entity whether public or private; x x x, That said foreign currency deposits shall be exempt from attachment, garnishment, or any other order or process of any court, legislative body, government agency or any administrative body whatsoever." Note that Section 8 did not put any proviso that would give the courts an excuse to examine foreign currency deposits.

Finally, the prosecution panel, being members of Congress, should have anticipated that contradiction between the law that mandates all government officials to submit their SALN and the law on bank secrecy. It is because of this that Corona believes he has not committed any wrongdoing; and that he will continue to abide by those laws for as long as they are not amended to synchronize them with the objective sought by the law on SALN. In the meantime, either the impeachment court acquit Corona, or take his challenge to put truism to their vagaries about their so-called "tuwid na daan", or follow what that infamous Supreme Court precedent during the time of Hilario Davide, that instead of convicting the Marcoses of acquiring ill-gotten wealth, it proceeded to convict their money, thus justifying the grabbing of the foreign currency deposit without the hypocrites having to prove anything.

• rodkap@yahoo.com.ph 

Don’t just believe; think!

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/25/2012

At the recent anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) rallies in Chicago, a placard captured on TV and the Internet that caught my attention read: "Don't believe them again!"

The US has invited more than 80 heads-of-state and heads-of-government to the Nato meet in Obama's hometown. Rick Rozoff, journalist and "Stop Nato" movement manager, reports that the matters to be discussed range from how to close the book on the now Vietnam-like quagmire of the Afghan war — Nato's first ground war and the US' longest armed conflict to date; to the alliance's defense capabilities as well as the US-Nato missile "defense" system; and to the expansion of the military bloc's global military partnerships that would lead up to the consolidation of a Nato-oriented global intervention force. But not tabled for the talks is why Nato, an organization formed expressly for the defense of Europe, is in a war 5,583 kilometers away in Afghanistan, and why the US invited over 50 non-members to its summit.

Suspicions have been raised that the Nato Chicago summit is the beginning of the Global Nato, a fear that is very well-founded given the extra-European theater wars the US is bringing Nato into — from Afghanistan in Asia to Libya in Africa. Nato's former secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has denied the allegations of a planned "global policeman" role, pointing to a lack of material resources, which is the same problem befogging today's secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen as European countries suffer economic debacles while spending billions in Afghanistan and angering constituencies back home.

But that still won't stop US Conservative think-tanks from continuing to argue and lay the basis for US shepherding of Nato into its global misadventures, such as in the case of Foreign Affairs magazine contributors, Ivo Daalder and James Goldgeier, who wrote: "The advent of a new global politics after the Cold War has led Nato to expand its geographic reach and the range of its operations. Now, Nato must extend its membership to any democratic state that can help it fulfill its new responsibilities. Only a truly global alliance can address the global challenges of the day."

In September of 2010, Rick Rozoff reports that Daalder, also the US permanent representative to Nato, told Indian journalists visiting Nato's Brussels headquarters: "I think it is important to have a dialog (with India) and deepen that dialog. It is through dialog, through understanding each other's perceptions and perhaps by working on misperceptions that may exist, that we can strengthen the relations between India and Nato," bluntly suggesting that India should abandon its policy of neutrality and collaborate with the US and Nato in developing an international interceptor missile system.

Last December, US President Obama declared the "re-balancing" of his country's presence in Asia, announced US Marine deployment in Australia, followed in March by initiatives for a missile defense shield in Asia, with Japan, South Korea and even the Philippines ostensibly guarding against the North Korean "threat." In Africa, Nato has been enticing the African Union to sign a partnership agreement and reinforcing the African Standby Force (ASF) which saw action in the Côte d'Ivoire coup against a sitting president in favor of an IMF man (reminds us of the parliamentary coup in Greece and Italy where Goldman Sachs men grabbed power).

It is no wonder that a placard imploring people to "Don't believe them anymore" — a small but powerful message — has been suppressed violently, with over 300 protesters arrested in a martial law-like atmosphere in Obama's hometown. The protests, attended even by a delegation of Afghan children, shows the world doesn't believe the global powers anymore and has learned to think.

In the Philippines, we have countless formal and informal spokesmen for US geopolitical interests, starting with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense chief Voltaire Gazmin, supported by a cast of hundreds in media and other institutions. One media talking head, for instance, said over radio that "Anyone who thinks of sharing the China Sea with China is a traitor," with him, of course, saying nothing about the US-British swindle of the Filipinos in Malampaya, or the larceny that is about to happen in the Reed Bank with Monte Oro Corp. and MVP where nothing will be left for the Filipino nation — all invariably backed by Western mafias (like Carlyle or Goldman Sachs) that have been culprits in many Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) deals that have shortchanged the nation. So is such posturing patriotic or a build-up to the acceptance of an Asian Nato?

As the global and local Establishment — the mainstream — is absolutely no longer credible, thinking Filipinos should thus declare, "Don't believe them anymore," as my radio program audience did in their texts.

The mainstream's attitude is typified by what certain quarters have on the Corona impeachment trial, especially the forces pushing it, from Malacañang to the Ombudsman; to the haven of Harvey Keh, the Ateneo de Manila University and its Jesuits; to the Yellow evil society (who counts the ham-acting Heidi Mendoza as a member) worthy of being sued by the defense panel; and, most of all, Benigno Aquino III, who has not a shred of integrity and reliability as a democratic leader after two years of absolutely incompetent governance.

And since we ought to not believe them, too, something must be done about this, the sooner the better.

(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.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

P 7.11-M rehab fixes P 60-B crisis

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/21-27/2012

The 2012 Mindanao power crisis is estimated to have cost P 60-B loss to economy of Mindanao, and government itself claimed to have lost P 15-B over the years to purchase power to fill in the shortfall every year.

But last May 9 the state-run National Power Corporation completed its fast-tracked rehabilitation of Pulangi IV hydroelectric power plant in Bukidnon, allowing it to generate power to its installed capacity of 250MW from half of that before this latest rehabilitation. The rehabilitation started mid-April at the height of the Mindanao power crisis, a hurried response to the uproar from Mindanaoans who suffered the crippling brownouts and believed the crisis was deliberate. The estimated power shortfall causing the crisis was between 100-150MW, the Pulangi rehab cost only P 7.11-M and restored at least over 100MW. Why didn't Secretary Rene Almendras of the DoE order this done in early 2010 when he took charge of the DoE? Negligence or sabotage? Either way, those responsible must be investigated and prosecuted to set the example; but nothing doing with BS Aquino III.

Estimates of the power shortfall in Mindanao power range from DoE's Asirit on record saying that the shortfall was only 100MW, while other reports have placed it at the high of 200MW. If Pulangi IV alone had been maintained properly at such a minimal cost early on and the rest of the Agus-Pulangi system rehabilitated as well two years earlier, there would not have been any Mindanao power crisis. Instead of the rehabilitation of these existing capacities the BS Aquino III, its DoE officials and politicians such as Sen. Serge Osmeña the past two years have been repeatedly claiming instead that a power crisis existed in Mindanao which can only be solved by installing new coal-fired and other power plants. Senator Angara, author of the RE (Renewable Energy) law in turn has repeatedly claimed that solar and wind power for Mindanao is the answer, hiding the fact that his RE law charges P 20/kWh for solar and wind generated power to hydro's P 2/kWh.

Each and every politician and DoE and ERC official have a lobbyist's angle: Serge Osmeña has schemed for the privatization of Agus-Pulangi and other hydro-resources of Mindanao to the oligarchs which include his Lopez kin as well as the Aboitizes, Alcantaras, and Ayalas. The DoE officials are with the coal-power lobby, while Angara is with the RE lobby which include the foreign energy companies in partnership with the usual suspects – Ayala, Aboitiz, Lopez et al who are already in RE projects. What is made clear from these historical facts in the power sector is that national policy on this matter has been ruled by lobby interests working through the entire polical power structure. Not a single of the officials act with responsibility and concern for the genuine interest of the people of Mindanao and the nation as a whole leading to the situation today that has produced the "highest power cost in Asia" and devastated Philippine industry and quality-of-life.

Our recent program on Destiny Cable channel 8, GNN show featured Mr. Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power, and Atty. Homobono Adaza, to report to the nation how the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) tired again to pull a fast one on the anti-Power Plunder advocates and the public. They reported how notices of a crucial ERC hearing on the case of the MAP (Maximum Allowable Price) petition of Meralco, arrived on a Sunday at the legal counsel, Adaza's residence a day before the hearing and on the Friday before the Monday hearing for the petitioner Borja. Suffice it to say that the Meralco petition for MAP was postpone again, saving the 6-million Meralco consumers from an early approval of a very onerous power rate base that is 100% over what Meralco should be charging for its distribution rate. The present rate is based on what Borja proves are Meralco equipment overpricing as high as 900%.

Mang Naro Lualhati, octogenarian consumer activist laid the basis for the case that Borja and Adaza are locking horns with Meralco over at the Court of Appeals, hence ERC should not have tried to move to resolve Meralco's petition in its sala. Lualhati, on his end, has filed a Motion for Reconsideration on ERC's dismissal of his opposition to Meralco's MAP of around P 1.60/kWh which according to the accountant-oppositor Lualhati should only be P 0.90/kWh and Jojo Borja provided solid evidence - facts, figures and documents – proving Lualhati's charges. If Lualhati, Borja et al win their epic struggle Meralco customers can win as much as 50% of the distribution charges it pays, and certainly more if other issues such as the PBR and its perks' 17% are eventually defeated and overturned to go back to the RORB rate system's 12% rate base.

During our GNN program Borja highlighted another fact that should make everybody stop and take seriously the predatory power victimization of millions of Filipinos, informing us: "To this day, Iligan Light and Power (ILPI) is charging only P 5.50/kWh retail on a customer base of 60,000 electricity connections while Meralco is charging P 11 to P12 (fluctuates with monthly changes) on a customer base of 6-Million electricity connections." Whatever happened to the principle of "economies-of-scale" where the bigger the market and operation of an enterprise the lower its prices for products and services could and should be?

(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.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives) 

50% power cut, not wage hike

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/21/2012

The newspapers have just reported that the Metro Manila Wage Board approved a P30-minimum wage hike to be factored into the "cost-of-living allowance" and given in two tranches. Some labor groups that demanded a P125-daily minimum wage increase described the wage board's decision as "loose change."

Acting president of the Employers' Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) Rene Soriano questioned the move, asking, "Will the wage increase create jobs? The resounding answer is no," adding that the increase would, in fact, worsen the conditions of vulnerable workers.

This tit-for-tat between the labor and business sectors goes on every year with the same predictable outcome — an unhappy compromise where both lose and the employable unemployed lose even more.

According to Dr. Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo, professor of the UP College of Social Work and Community Development, the entire informal sector constitutes around 24.6 million informal workers and operators, or 76.34 percent of the country's labor force. Well, the recent minimum wage hike just pushed that figure higher.

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) claims that workers have no reason to be happy with the small wage hike granted by the wage board. Its secretary-general Roger Saluta says, "It's another reason to intensify the struggle for a legislated wage hike." So, every year, the KMU revs up for the perfunctory "struggle" then settles for the predictable "loose change" while continuing to charge fees from its members to keep itself going.

The unionized labor force in the Philippines, according to one report in Bulatlat.com, has dropped from a high of 2.97 million 20 years ago to 319,408 in 2010 or 10 percent of the wage earners in the country and less than one percent of the country's labor force. The underground economy is now reported to be 70 percent of the national economy; and of the more or less 40 million labor force, 35 million are invisible to the formal, legal system of wages, incomes, social security and benefits. Workers and employees in the underground economy have a free-wheeling, negotiated wage system — and maybe that's why this sector is thriving and growing at the expense of the formal economy.

During the discussions and debates on the latest wage hike petition, one focus of interest was the comparative levels of minimum wages in the Asean and Asian regions, with the employers' side highlighting the $10 per day in the Philippines in relation to Vietnam's $2.20, Cambodia's $2, Indonesia's $5.20 to 5.90, and China's $3.75 to $5.

KMU reacts saying most Asean and Asian counterparts may be receiving lower minimum wages but their living conditions are way better because of lower local commodities and services costs, and higher purchasing power. Moreover, in reaction to BS Aquino III's rejection of his group's wage hike demand, KMU chairman Elmer Labog adds, "The problem with the President is that he is always taking the viewpoint of the foreign investors, never of Filipino workers."

The problem with both of them — Aquino and Labog — is that they never take the viewpoint of the real engine — the drivers and workers of the real economy — the SMEs (small and medium enterprises), which constitute 95 percent of Philippine businesses and employ the vast majority of both formal and informal sector workers.

Every year, this charade among the three parties in the wage issue — government, labor and employers' representatives — is played out without ever resolving the matter to the benefit of our people and economy. The growing hardships of the working class are never solved in any wage boards since there are more fundamental problems that the decision makers know of but have nary the guts nor will to confront decisively.

Of course, foremost of these problems is our country's "highest power rate in Asia" that's debilitating every aspect of Philippine life and livelihood. Hernan Nicdao admitted this much on a GNN show. After reciting labor's mantra, the talk shifted to the Filipinos' standard of living and, inevitably, to the price of electricity.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) had already demanded government action on this problem late last year. But as it was unfortunately not sustained, then it's back to the old charade.

Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power called me last weekend to report that their power utility company's retained earnings the past year alone exceeded their authorized capital despite an electricity rate of only P5.50 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) and a customer base of only 60,000, which from all angles, is a fantastic, if not immoral, return for the company that Borja blames on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

Thus, Borja also wonders how much more a giant utility company such as the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is raking in since it charges P12 per kwh with a customer base of almost 6 million and with the majority of industry and commerce situated in its 9,337-square kilometer-franchise area, where the concentration of the national economy is.

It is very clear from the example of Iligan Light and Power that electricity rates in the country can be brought down dramatically and radically — if only the will to demand and achieve it is there. That will certainly do all the workers of the Philippines — in both the formal and informal sectors — greater good than all the past and future tripartite wage negotiations can ever hope to attain.

(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.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

What happened to the Ombudsman?

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

5/19-20/2011

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales' unabashed eagerness to ingratiate herself to the President resulted in two things: She demeaned the stature of her office and violated the right of a person to due process of law.

What puts a bad taste into one's mouth is that she and her cabal of what many suspect are crackpots feel they stand above the law. If not this, they see the law as their instrument to punish those whom they perceive as corrupt elements in their hypocritical "tuwid na daan." What Ombudsman Morales did was all for show.

She appeared serious. After all she had all those illegally furnished raw documents supplied by Vicente Aquino of the Anti-Money Laundering Council who, like her, takes on the same level of arrogance as standing above the law. Expectedly, that drew firestorms both from the members of the Senate impeachment court and from people who still bother to use their common sense. Maybe they know the role of the Ombudsman, but certainly they doubt much that her motivation was in pursuit of what the law mandates her to do. Her action is an attempt to pass on her duty to the Senate impeachment court, for it to continue in mercilessly destroying the reputation of the accused chief justice in a trial by publicity.

To begin with, under the Constitution, the Ombudsman, by her own accord, "as protector of the people, shall act promptly on complaints filed in any form or manner against public officials or employees of the government, or any subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof, including government-owned and controlled corporations, and shall, in appropriate cases, notify the complainants of the action taken and the result thereof." (Section 12, Article XI of the Constitution). Given that vast and encompassing powers, many are puzzled why Ombudsman Morales allowed her position, not to say the dignity of her office as a constitutional body, to be demoted by submitting itself to an ad hoc impeachment court. Many are in a quandary because the power which drove her to deliriously act with alacrity is equivalent to a blanket authority to deal with any form of venalities in government by mere complaint even from "anonymous" persons.

Many were surprised why she rushed herself to the public gallery when she could have done her job better by investigating and filing complaints if she finds any prima facie evidence against Chief Justice Corona. If there are legal limitations that could prevent her now from filing them, then she should, as a matter of judicial abeyance, wait because observance of the judicial process is pivotal to the dispensation of justice and that goes even to any man on the street. But as the thinking public could see it now, her attempt to shortcut the process was a consciously sorted out conspiracy to destroy the reputation of Corona by way of trial by publicity.

Similarly, that local administrator of AMLC cannot just hand out left and right records of bank deposits and transactions as though he is handing out condominium fliers. The Ombudsman and her cabal of self-righteous people know they are obligated to first file a complaint much that by their grotesque incompetence, they failed to include that particular offense in their impeachment complaint. Ombudsman Morales has lost her honing skill to legally interpret things, entertaining the thought that the members of the Senate will grill Corona, and not the one who supplied her those questionable evidence. This is what that zealot Senator Franklin Drilon is now doing.

Like the head of the Commission on Audit, Heidi Mendoza, and that self-styled crusader of "Kaya Natin Movement," Harvey Keh, the campaign to malign Corona is now revealed as a well-orchestrated demolition job. This may be because the Aquino government knows the impeachment court is not obligated to observe the rudiments of judicial procedures as done in the regular courts. It is more on how they could sway those senator-judges to act by the impulse of their loyalty. They always count on public sentiment, exploiting their lust for blood by the constant barrage of lies and propaganda to put pressure on the senator-judges to finally convict Corona. But that has visibly backfired. Ombudsman Morales not only destroyed the credibility of her accusations, but that razed to the ground the institution she represents. This is the point the feisty Senator Miriam-Santiago wanted to nail deep into the head of Morales.

More than that, Morales created a constitutional crisis, for should the Senate impeachment court strike off from the record her testimony or throw into the dust bin her alleged evidence, that could mean that the constitutional body she represents has been by-passed and overruled by an ad hoc body. It could be most embarrassing because she effectively allowed herself to be reduced into a mere stooge. In that instance, the impeachment court would have acted well within its jurisdictional domain to decide on the evidence brought before it.

The only unfortunate thing would be that it was brought in by the Ombudsman herself.

• rodkap@yahoo.com.ph

Moral-less

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/18/2012



The fundamental impediment to the credibility of the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona has been the violation of the Rule of Law from the very start. Committed by the most rabid of instigators, including but not limited to the prosecution, the campaign was recently amped up in a most blatant manner by the BS Aquino-appointed Ombudsman.

As questioned by several interrogators, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales did not obtain the consent of the alleged Foreign Currency Deposit Unit (FCDU) account holder or any of the courts as required by law, nor were there specified predicate crimes that would have allowed the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC)’s purported information to be released and publicized.

Despite the “spotless” Ombudsman’s protestations of not acting as “a tool for personal vendetta” on the pretext that she is not about to “jeopardize (her) 40 years of government service,” in the eyes of many people, she actually did just that. Considering the way she treated the law so cavalierly while showing manifest partiality for the position of BS Aquino III, the conclusion of texters such as Ferdie P. is that Carpio-Morales is simply “Carping and Moral-less.”

If the anti-Corona galleries are harping about the questionable circumstances of Corona’s ascendance to his post, similar questions are being raised about Carpio-Morales. Esteemed constitutionalist, lawyer Alan Paguia, whom I consider a practicing martyr for the Rule of Law, recalls that the current Ombudsman’s appointment smacked of conspiratorial intent and nepotism.

BS Aquino III’s immoral deal absolving former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez from the allegations of graft and corruption in exchange for her quiet resignation was meant to ensure that the already retired Supreme Court (SC) Justice Carpio-Morales could be appointed with inevitable gratitude to the appointing power — especially since she was chosen over hundreds of equally, if not more, capable, younger and incontrovertibly independent legal luminaries of proven integrity. So now, unlike other retired SC magistrates, Carpio-Morales continues to enjoy all the perks and power of a high office, and the limelight to boot.

The recent Senate testimony of BSA III’s Ombudsman seemed to establish the “82 dollar accounts” of the CJ as beyond doubt. But, as it was later corrected to be just five alleged accounts, the whole drama has become as confusing as the earlier allegations involving alleged 45 Corona properties that were whittled down to five.

There is clearly this pattern of using “shock and awe” to produce massively high impact, derogatory headlines to leave the lingering impression on the impressionable public that the hyperbole is a fact, when it is nothing but a lie.

We don’t know how much of the allegations are true; thus, we have to await Corona’s testimony if we are to ensure that no one is taken for a ride.

Already, some major newspaper opinion writers have been jumping to conclusions, with large print column titles that say “The boxing game is over for Corona,” implying that the Carpio-Morales testimony dealt a death blow, despite the Corona camp carrying on the fight to the last round.

Most people, pundits and serious analysts among them, believe the Senate will convict Corona even if no proof of guilt is shown. The reactions range from “It’s all partisan and the ruling party will have the votes,” to “It’s the money that talks,” with rumored amounts in cash of “pork barrel” or whatever deals Malacañang can offer.

It is all “moral-less,” believe me; and the more I watch these senators trying to convict Corona, the sillier the effort by these pots to picture the kettle black become.

Still, even if guilt is established at all, it would not be a surprise either because the system that prevails today is completely “moral-less” and success in life is determined not by the old values of integrity, honesty, and industry but by “abilidad” or wile and guile to outrank the good.

Doubtlessly, most of these accusing congressmen, senators, “evil society” and big business people, like the Makati Business Club rooting for Aquino III, cannot be outdone in their mastery of the “moral-less” system — especially not by the CJ.

That is why in the midst of increasing misery, the system even gifts big business oligarchs with continuously escalating profits and consolidating corporate powers.

Last May 8, it was headlined that “Philippine hunger incidence hit a record high in March as more Filipino families reported… (experiencing) hunger in the past three months,” (with the SWS) “nationwide poll conducted from March 10 to 13… (disclosing) that 23.8 percent of respondents or an equivalent of around 5 million Filipino families reported that they did not have anything to eat at least once” in the said period.

Contrast that to this news, “Power distributor Manila Electric Co. recorded profits for the first quarter of 2012 rose 58.2 percent from the year before,” and this, “conglomerates post higher profits,” which cited among others that Lopez Holdings Corp. “reported a 192-percent increase in first quarter net income to P2.63 billion from P902 million registered in the same period last year” and you’ll get the picture.

Evidently, like what’s going on in the halls of the Senate, the Lower House, Malacañang, and all other institutions of society, it’s a “moral-less” conduct of affairs everyday; and it will persist unless some radical change comes over the nation.

(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.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Consumer advocacy and libel cases

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14-20/2012



Last week we received several texts informing us of a discussion over a friendly radio program mentioning us and our crusade against power oligarchs and their DPAs (deep penetration agents) in government.  The texts said one of the anchors opined that libel suits from those power oligarchs and their henchmen may just be waiting to be filed.  One potential complainant mentioned was Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Jose Rene Almendras; another name was mentioned but not all the texters could remember.  One mentioned the name of Manny Pangilinan, the Meralco big boss.  I called Linggoy Alcuaz, fellow OpinYon columnist now on leave for medical check-ups, who is a regular listener of the radio program concerned.  He explained that the "libel" issue was discussed theoretically.  I said that I would welcome the suit anyway as it would help highlight the crusade we are waging against the power abuse and exploitation going on with impunity.
 
Over the past years we have been slapped with around a dozen libel and defamation cases.  One case that dragged the publisher of the other newspaper I write for involved a P100-million claim for "damages" which dragged on for at least five years until the judge ordered a mediation process.  That case involved a power oligarch over another public utility--the North Luzon Expressway.  The filing fee alone for that suit cost the oligarch P1 million, a huge sum which would only be forfeited, but the oligarch believed it was worth it just to gag us for the duration of the case.  For me and my publisher, it involved endless trips to the courts in hot, humid salas of different judges, with the oligarch never once attending, leaving it to his law (or low) counsels.  To finally end the enervation, my publisher issued an apology for the oligarch to drop a P2-million demand for damages, which I followed in support of my publisher, but not without first bullshitting the oligarch's representative to the mediation.
 
The public utility privateers (or pirates) are aided in their plunder by such libel and defamation laws that make it very easy for the culprits to gag and/or burden journalists, critics, and consumer advocates (like Nasecore, or the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, whose leader Pete Ilagan was slapped with a libel case by the Lopezes).  For the power oligarchs and plunderers, along with their henchmen, the cost of a few millions to tie up consumer protection advocates is a pittance for them to tie up their nemeses who are trying to stop them from looting hundreds of billions from the power consuming public.  Still, this harassment will not stop us from continuing with our crusade to end the abuse and exploitation, to restore the power sector to national or consumer ownership and control, to halve the rates being charged, and to prosecute these oligarchs and their agents someday.
 
Meanwhile, a headline blared last week ("Meralco files plea for 2013 rate hike") that is sure to not go unopposed.  Former Misamis Oriental Gov. Homobono Adaza and Mindanao anti-power privatization crusader Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power updated me on the latest attempt of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pull a fast one on power consumers.  This refers to the case filed by octogenarian accountant and consumer advocate Mang Naro Lualhati against the MAP (Maximum Allowable Price) application of Meralco before the ERC, a rate now the subject of newspaper reports announcing the projected 2013 Meralco rate increase.  The notice of ERC hearing arrived anomalously late, at Adaza's residence on the Sunday afternoon before the Monday hearing.  Adaza thus had to call Borja to fly from Bukidnon, where the latter had just alighted, back to Cagayan de Oro and to Manila overnight to catch the next day's event.
 
At the ERC hearing last Monday, only a "hearing officer" presided.  Upon arriving at the hearing and entering his appearance, Adaza asked the "hearing officer" if he was "the" hearing officer.  It turned out that the guy was only a clerk of court.  Only after being informed that Adaza was at the hearing did the chairperson of the ERC, Zenaida Ducut, appear and preside--a basic requirement of the law which has never been met in all the past ERC hearings.
 
Since the instant proceeding was being called to formally accept the evidence of Meralco for its MAP approval, it was an evidentiary hearing which Adaza says is illegal since Borja also has a pending petition at the Court of Appeal questioning the continuation of the hearings until all prejudicial questions were resolved.
 
Adaza and Borja would have missed the ERC hearing if the deliberately late arrival of the notice for the hearing wasn't noted that Sunday.  Adaza no longer made an issue of this as they had already averted the scheme.  But he found the order for the hearing anomalous as well, as it was signed "for the ERC commissioners," when the law requires that such orders are signed by all the commissioners.  As this regular anomaly was no longer tolerated by Adaza, the entire proceeding for Meralco's presentation of evidence was delayed for another five days.  As such, five million customers got a reprieve thanks to Adaza, Borja, and Lualhati (who wasn't able to attend due to physical infirmities).
 
The ERC's attempts to frustrate consumer advocates' exposés of Meralco's predatory rate hike petitions have had a long history.  Since 2003, both Meralco and the ERC have had their way in running rings around even the Puno Supreme Court and the Commission on Audit.  When BS Aquino III stepped into Malacañang, the power oligarchs' noose tightened even more around the high court with the appointment of his justices, starting with Justice Lourdes Sereno, who had always decided in favor of Meralco in the most crucial issue of rate increases and nitpicked on consumer protectionists.
 
Latest reports from Mindanao say brownouts there are getting longer, with the cause supposedly the rehabilitation work now being done at the Agus-Pulangi left undone for two years of the BS Aquino III government despite desperate pleas from Mindanaoans in 2010.
 
As the negligence clearly was deliberate, the delay in the plants' rehabilitation directly led to the power shortfalls that created the power crisis, which became another opportunity for oligarchs like the Aboitizes to price gouge the people.
 
In the wake of Mindanao's electricity woes, government was compelled to call for a summit and schedule a hearing of the Joint Congressional Power Commission for April.  Amazingly, Sen. Serge Osmeña postponed the meet for another month claiming no quorum, which his House counterpart Rep. Dina Abad ensured by getting out of town!  All these as government's losses have already reached P15 billion, with the local Mindanao economy losing up to P60 billion.
 
(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 May 12, "Malampaya plunder" with Rep. Neri Colmenares; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Souls on the Shoals

VIEW FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14-20/2012



Souls on the Shoals
 
The issues of vitality
Are still: the pricing of electricity
The issues of the China Sea
And parochially, fears of the Tsinoy community;
 
I have heard fears expressed
As one Tsinoy to me confessed
Of a list the military allegedly is making
Of Tsinoys who are opining
 
That Filipinos are overreacting
To the points China is explaining:
That China's claim to the China Sea
Has basis in long recorded history
 
There is no point in acrimony
In China and the Philippines' diplomacy
As peaceful dialogue and mutuality
Will win the day for each party
 
Indeed the Philippines must simply proceed
To discuss, negotiate on how to proceed
With joint projects of oil and gas explorations
Like Vietnam does with India, Russia, and other nations
 
Seeking new arms for "credible defense"
From the US departments of State and Defense
In the eyes of neighbor China is seen as an offense
A provocation by the US across the geopolitical fence
 
My own take of all the acrimony is this:
It's not the people-to-people relations that's amiss
It's the US exerting geopolitical pressure
That its monopoly over Philippine territory it may ensure
 
It is known among those in the know
Like those on Embassy Row
How some Philippine officials have been tepid
In receiving China's friendship bid
 
A standby loan offer of $1.6 billion
For instance, has been kept in oblivion
Gray steel hulls greet Hainan fishing expeditions
In age-old "commons" sea--now disputed dominions
 
Ironically, some Philippine government officers
Gladly expend from the national coffers
Funds for their inexplicable injudicious orders
For obsolete US Hamilton cutters
 
'Tis the US and its tandem Britain
Monopoly over RP they would retain
Like Malampaya gas hogged by Shell and Chevron
And mere ten percent share for the Philippine population
 
I told my Tsinoy friend that if there is
Being made such a Tsinoy blacklist
It would really be by the US imperialist
For the "Project for a New American Century" to persist
 
'Tis the US that conquered these islands
And buried a million Filipinos across its seas and lands
Carted off the Balangiga Bells now at a US Air Base,
And continue looting to the present days
 
China and Tsinoys must realize
That the US and Britain operate in perfect disguise
Behind "democracy" and "independence" of neo-colonies
And promote from behind the antipathies
 
Sovereignty for an ancient nation
Is sacred today as in Shi Huang Ti's coronation
UNCLOS exists less than a generation
But can cause so much consternation
 
The 1300s Ming dynasty "nine line" map shows
Embrace of Scarborough or the Huangyan shoals
The Philippines in '65 planted flag and a lighthouse did light
Yet uncaring Filipino leaders left flag and light fade out of sight
 
By either side from dusk to dawn
Maps and histories will be shown
Yet from these debates no benefits can ever be drawn:
Only by mutual exploitation shall the fruits be known
 
Genuine Filipino patriots must come to the fore
Unbridled by the "colonial mentality" lore
And speak the truth of imperialist stories from yore
And imperialism today again returning to fore
 
Filipinos, like Vietnamese, Malaysians, and more
Must move ahead--join and explore
With India, Russia, China, and Iran too
To tap the common Sea's boon to the people due
 
60/40 Filipinos must declare
The Filipino people should have the lion's share
Unlike US/Britain's ten percent spare
In Malampaya for the Filipino's fare
 
China if it is to be Big Brother
Must share more with Little Brother,
Rest assured China will reap more bother
If Little Brother conspires with the Other
 
Let Tsinoys and Pinoys take from history
Lessons that should always be in living memory
Colonial and imperial wars have come and gone
Always no good to people's lives they have done
 
Meanwhile the Filipino nation
Must deal with its continuous "electrocution"
No point in jawing or warring of territorial demarcations
While the "highest power cost in Asia" bring ruination.

P7.11M solves Mindanao crisis

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14/2012



Last May 9, state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) completed its fast-tracked rehabilitation of the Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon, allowing it to generate power to its installed capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) from half of that before.  That the rehabilitation was started only mid-April this year at the height of the Mindanao power crisis shows government's hurried response to the uproar from Mindanaoans who have suffered the crippling effects of the long blackouts--outages that were deemed deliberate.
 
As a result, Mindanao's economy suffered billions in losses, estimated by some to reach P60 billion, with government's Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. claiming a loss of up to P15 billion.
 
To wit, the estimated power shortfall was anywhere between 100 to 150 MW.  The Pulangi rehab, meanwhile, costing only P7.11 million, has already restored at least 100 MW of installed electric capacity to Mindanao.  The question is, why didn't the Department of Energy (DoE) order this rehab earlier when this new administration took over in 2010?  Was it negligence or plain sabotage?
 
If Pulangi IV alone had been maintained properly at such a minimal cost early on, with the rest of the Agus-Pulangi system also rehabilitated two years prior, there would not have been any Mindanao power crisis to speak of.
 
Instead, what BS Aquino III, his DoE officials, as well as politicians such as Sen. Serge Osmeña have repeatedly claimed for the past two years was that a power crisis in Mindanao can only be solved by installing new coal-fired and other power plants.
 
Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the RE (Renewable Energy) law in turn has repeatedly claimed that solar and wind power for Mindanao is the answer, hiding the fact that his RE law charges P20 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for solar and wind, compared to hydro's P2/kWh.
 
In all, these officials are acting more as lobbyists, with Osmeña calling for the privatization of Agus-Pulangi and other hydroelectric resources on behalf of the oligarchs (such as the Lopezes, Aboitizes, Alcantaras, and Ayalas); with DoE officials siding with the coal and mining lobby; and with Angara rooting for his RE program in favor of foreign energy companies that would have to be in partnership with the usual suspects, i.e. the power oligarchs, who are already in RE projects.
 
What is made clear from these historical facts is that national policy on this matter has been ruled solely by lobby interests working through the entire political structure.  Not a single one of these officials have acted with responsibility and concern for the genuine interest of the people of Mindanao and the nation as a whole; thus, leading to the situation today that has produced the "highest power cost in Asia" devastating our industries and quality of life.
 
Last Saturday evening, on our Destiny Cable GNN program, Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power and lawyer Homobono Adaza reported on how the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is again trying to pull a fast one on the public.
 
As we wrote in this space last week, they recounted how notices of a crucial ERC hearing on the case of the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP) petition of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) arrived suspiciously late--on a Sunday afternoon at legal counsel Adaza's residence, less than a day before the hearing, and, for petitioner Borja, on the Friday before the Monday hearing.
 
Despite the many underhanded moves, we're glad that the Meralco petition was postponed anew, saving the power firm's 6 million consumers from an early approval of a very onerous power rate base that is 100 percent over what the company should be charging for distribution.  The present rate, by the way, is based on what Borja says are several instances of Meralco equipment overpricing by as much as 900 percent!
 
Mang Naro Lualhati, octogenarian consumer activist, who works in cooperation with the team of Borja, Adaza, Butch Junia, Alan Paguia, Ferdie Pasion, and many others, laid the basis for the case that Borja and Adaza are now locking horns with Meralco over at the Court of Appeals (CA); thus, constraining the ERC from trying to resolve Meralco's petition in its sala at this time.
 
Furthermore, Lualhati has filed a motion for reconsideration on the ERC's dismissal of his opposition to Meralco's MAP of around P1.60/kWh, which, according to the accountant-oppositor--aided by Borja's facts, figures, and documents--should only be P0.90/kWh.
 
If Lualhati, Borja et al. will prevail in this epic struggle, they can win for Meralco customers as much as 50 percent of the distribution charges they pay, not including several more if other issues, such as the Performance Based Regulation scheme and its 17 percent rate of return vs the old Return-on-Rate Base's 12 percent, are eventually dealt with and overturned.
 
More importantly, another fact was highlighted in our program that should make everyone stop and take the predatory power victimization of millions of Filipinos very seriously.  Says Borja, "To this day, Iligan Light and Power is charging only P5.50/kWh retail on a customer base of 60,000 electricity connections while Meralco is charging P11 to P12/kWh on a customer base of 6 million electricity connections."
 
Whatever happened to the principle of "economies-of-scale," where the bigger the market and operation of an enterprise, the lower its prices for products and services should be?  Well, given that the scale of the losses from the Mindanao power crisis, amounting to billions of pesos, was solved by a mere P7.11-million rehab project, we should know that these power pirates are always up to no good.
 
(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., this May 12 on "Malampaya plunder" with Rep. Neri Colmenares; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Vassal and suzerain

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

5/12-13/2012

The world knows the so-called "special relation" existing between the Philippines and the United States is one of a vassal and of a suzerain state. It has never been one between two sovereign states where the concept of national interest is pursued within the framework of what is mutually advantageous. It is from this context where Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin committed a serious diplomatic blunder. It now appears that their hasty mission to Washington D.C. was a pilgrimage made by the representatives of a vassal state to seek reassurance given the heightening tension with the rulers of the re-emerging Middle Kingdom.

Indeed, the pilgrimage turned out to be pathetic because they acted more like lackeys than as diplomats seeking to obtain reassurance from our current naval stand-off with China in the Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal. They blindly equated our interest as equivalent to US interest, thus resulting in our being denied the right to invoke our alliance under the existing Mutual Defense Treaty. As emissaries of a vassal state, del Rosario and Gazmin failed to look back- that our alliance with the US was extracted from us in exchange for our alleged freedom, and not one we purposely sought in order to supplement our national interest brought about by our natural weakness as a state.

As one exacted from us after World War II, the US always had the upper hand on how to interpret the alliance, and that interpretation was always along the lines that would advance their interest.

To begin with, Secretary del Rosario should not have trumpeted the purpose of his homage, like issuing a statement saying his trip was "to seek a reaffirmation from the US of its commitment to come to the country's aid if shots were fired and Philippine sovereignty is threatened." It was a costly blunder because he and Gazmin failed to read that Philippine interest is not exactly parallel to that of the US interest in the region. Rather, the thrust of the US policy is to pursue further its ties with China than in defending a lackey state that has dared to embroil itself in some kind of jingoistic adventurism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was blunt when she said, "the United States would not take sides in the sovereignty disputes in the area, but as a Pacific Power it was in its interest to ensure freedom of navigation in the sea lanes in the region."

The two even failed to observe the basic diplomatic code of keeping one's mouth shut, or if not to sound out to their counterpart what should be stated in the joint communiqué after the meeting; that either the US make an official stand she is on our side as far as our standoff with China at the Panatag Shoal is concerned, or not to make any reference to the crisis and to our military alliance if the US is not prepared to give any unequivocal support to our claim. For our failure to make an advance feeler on what should have been stated in that joint communiqué, the US felt it was free to say anything, like declaring that it would not take sides on our current dispute with China. Invariably, that put our position stranded in the middle of the West Philippine Seas which was embarrassing, for we could not possibly order our small flotilla to leave the area without losing face.

For that faux pas, del Rosario now tries to salvage the blunder by putting up some qualifiers that we could still draw the US to our side. Secretary del Rosario now says the US will honor the MDT if the Philippines is attacked by China. That question in fact compelled Secretary Clinton to state she is not prepared to discuss any hypothetical questions, knowing that China is unlikely to attack the Philippines. Definitely, the US will not come to our defense.

Nevertheless, this column is not saying we have no valid and legitimate claim over those islands we now call the Panatag Shoal. The validity and legitimacy of our claim is geographical rather than historical because Panatag Shoal is just 124 nautical miles from Zambales, and is well within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone as defined and demarcated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, while the disputed area is more than 250 nautical miles from the nearest Chinese territory. As signatory to the convention, China cannot now give its own arbitrary qualification to justify its hegemonistic expansionism that could reduce the area into a virtual Chinese lake. In fact, the US Air Force once used the area for their strafing and bombing practice when their facilities at Subic was still operational with China not lodging a single protest. Our claim is not based on ancient times when the whole of the known world was ruled by Genghis Khan, but in recent times when the Philippines, though the US, had a free hand in operating in that area.

• rodkap@yahoo.com.ph

Power rot

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/11/2012

"Meralco files plea for 2013 rate hike," newspapers announced this week. Former Misamis Oriental Gov. Homobono Adaza and Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power updated me on this latest attempt of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pull a fast one on power consumers. This refers to the case filed against the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP) application of Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) before the ERC by octogenarian accountant and consumer advocate Mang Naro Lualhati — a case that is now filled with several anomalies.

First, the notice for the May 7 ERC hearing arrived anomalously late, at lawyer Adaza's residence on the Sunday afternoon just before Monday. Thus, Adaza had to call Borja to fly from Bukidnon, where the latter had just alighted, back to Cagayan de Oro and then Manila overnight to catch the next day's event.

At the ERC hearing, only a "hearing officer" presided. Upon arriving and entering his appearance, Adaza asked the "hearing officer" if he was "the" hearing officer. It turned out that the guy was only a clerk of court. Only after being informed that Adaza was there did the chairman of the ERC, Zenaida Ducut, suddenly decide to appear and preside — a basic legal requirement that has never been met in all past ERC hearings participated in collectively or separately by our advocacy groups.

Since the occasion was being used to formally accept so-called evidence that will buttress Meralco's MAP petition, it was an evidentiary hearing that, according Adaza, was illegal since Jojo Borja also had a pending petition at the Court of Appeals questioning the continuation of the proceedings until prejudicial questions were resolved.

Adaza and Borja would have missed the ERC hearing, with Meralco already laughing all the way to the bank, if the obviously and deliberately late arrival of the notice wasn't noted that Sunday. Adaza no longer made an issue of it as he had already averted the scheme. Still, he found the order for the hearing anomalous, as it was merely signed "for the ERC commissioners," even when the law states that such orders need to be signed by all commissioners — an anomaly regularly committed by the ERC, but this time, protested by Adaza — compelling the entire proceeding to be delayed for another five days.

As such, five million Meralco customers got a reprieve, thanks to Adaza, Borja and Lualhati (who wasn't able to attend due to physical infirmities).

But trust the ERC to continue frustrating consumer advocates' questioning and exposés of Meralco's predatory rate hikes.

Since 2003, Meralco and ERC have been having their way in running rings around, despite roadblocks placed by the Puno Supreme Court and the Commission on Audit. This time, they have finally met the determined team that will stop them.

When BS Aquino III stepped into Malacañang, the power oligarchs' noose tightened even more around the Supreme Court with the appointment of BS Aquino III's justices, including Justice Lourdes Sereno who has decided in favor of Meralco in the most crucial issue of rate increases and nitpicks on consumer protectionists.

Meanwhile, on the postponed Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) meet that was supposed to be jointly chaired by Sen. Serge Osmeña and Rep. Dina Abad (who was conveniently out-of-town last April to avoid its convening), there is yet no official word as to when the shelved hearing is to be re-scheduled.

The latest reports from Mindanao say the power crisis there is getting worse. Brownouts are getting longer. The cause is supposedly the rehabilitation work being done at the Agus-Pulangi, which energy officials, particularly Department of Energy Secretary Rene Almendras, left undone for two years of the BS Aquino III government, despite calls from Mindanaoans in 2010 that it was desperately needed.

Clearly, the negligence was deliberate, as the delay of the rehabilitation directly led to the power shortfalls that created the power crisis there this season.

In the wake of Mindanao's electricity woes, government was compelled to call for a summit and schedule a convening of the JCPC. Amazingly, Mindanaoans were even blamed for this by PeNoy while the JCPC was indefinitely postponed due to a lack of quorum — this, as government losses due to the crisis have already reached P15 billion, with Mindanao's own economy experiencing losses of up to P60 billion.

The attitude and misdeeds of all those involved in the Philippine energy sector, private power companies and the agents they get appointed to government who are horrendously corrupt and rotten — promoting oligarchs' interests and their own "golden parachutes" — constitute a clear betrayal of the people.

How these people continue to hold on to their posts can only be explained by the complicity of the top appointing power and the corruption of money-based elections of this country.

In all sectors of the Philippine power elite, such betrayal of duty and rot is evident, as when the Senate cavalierly dismisses the plea to inhibit compromised judges; or when media practitioners irresponsibly report false information; or when police officials get involved in the murder of protected state witnesses, ad nausea.

(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., this May 12 on "Power, Manila, and Mindanao" with Bono Adaza, Al Tillah and Jojo Borja; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

ADB: No Good Samaritan

CONSUMERS' DEMAND!

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/7-5/13/2012

Last week saw a lot of hype for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the occasion of its 45th Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors. I am not one of those effusing over this institution as I remember that this is still a financial institution set up by the Western powers to control and exploit the direction of economic development in Asia. For Filipinos, the highlighting of the ADB's exploitative role is the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira). The IMF, the World Bank and the ADB all made the passage of the power privatization law a conditionality for release of their loans. In particular, the ADB released its second tranche of the Power Sector Restructuring loan of $ 400-M only upon the signing of the Epira into law, a law that is now causing the sucking sound we hear on the Philippine's financial and economic resources, transferring massive wealth to foreign financial predators and local comprador oligarchs. The ADB is no "Good Samaritan."

Privatization not beneficial
Nations and government do not need these multi-lateral financial agencies if they want truly sovereign, independent and progressive growth. Although China is now a prominent and powerful member of the ADB it didn't rely on the ADB to build up the foundations of its economy and national development. When Mao established the People's Republic of China (PROC) in 1949, the ADB still hadn't been born. Even at that time China could already extend ODA (Official Development Assistance) to its ideologically kindred countries and nations in the World. The ADB was only established in 1966, as an extension of the IMF and World Bank network. The multi-lateral financial agencies can be helpful to a nation only when that nation clearly knows what financial commitments are really in its interests and capable to obtaining the just and beneficial terms – and privatization of public utilities is certainly not beneficial to any nation and its people.

The Epira was a historic debacle for the Philippines and making the country the economic basket case of Asia, destroying productive industries, employment generation hopes and spreading poverty that has been highlighted recently on CNN's portrayal of the "pagpag" people eating and even selling recycled food from garbage bins of fastfoods and hotels. From the "leftover" debt the power privatization program has burdened the Filipino people we see how much has been siphoned out due to the Epira: the power sector debt of P 1-Trillion still has to be paid to IPPs (Independent Power Producers) and creditors. The profits carted away by the IPPs are humongous, such as Mirant which sold off its Philippine IPP operations five years after it started in 2001 and is estimated to have carted out $ 10-B in profits. In the transfer to Marubeni and Tepco the global banks and investment houses earn again in securitizing and financing the deal, and this is repeated again five years later.

ADB's "Poor" rating
Besides, overall, the ADB projects in Asia and the Philippines get a "poor" performance rating from its own evaluators, as its "Development Effectiveness Review 2011" reports saying the bank "failed to meet 80 percent of its goals" Its current projects in the Philippines include: the privatization and rehabilitation of the Masinloc coal-fired power plant (which will be partaking of the "high power cost in Asia" feast); the development of urban poor communities (as surveys show more are getting poorer), a Mindanao irrigation project, and "support" for government spending based on debt "toward recovering from the financial crisis". The ADB VP for sustainable development also urged Asia to "invest $ 6-Trillion in "green projects" to address the effects of global warming and climate change, and in the Philippines this means ADB support for the onerous Renewable Energy Law that would charge P 20/kWh generation cost to support the Wind and Solar power lobby and interests.

The ADB chief Haruhiko Kuroda announced the $ 12-B Special Drawing Rights, money created out of thin air, to lend out to "Asia's Poorest", but in exchange for what? Invariably it will be in exchange for one form of economic subservience of the debtor countries: privatization, opening up markets, opening up to GMOs (genetically modified organisms), large scale mining, etc. With SDRs created out of thin air they will have nations turn over physical, material, tangible and operational assets to ownership of foreign corporations. Ultimately, as we have seen our country go through, the chances are that loan recipient countries become poorer and poorer, and salvageable only if militantly pro-people and nationalist government can take over as we learn from Latin America these days where privatized state assets are being restored through nationalization – Spanish Repsol oil nationalized in Argentina and Red Electrica Plc. nationalized this week in Bolivia – allowing people to recover just living standards.

Alternative to IMF-WB-ADB: BRICS bank
An alternative to the IMF-WB-ADB that developing nations may be able to look forward to the recently announced BRICS bank, a fruit of the last meeting of the quintet of emerging World and regional economic powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa from its New Delhi meet. The development caused a knee jerk reaction from WB chief Zoellick who dismissed the idea perfunctorily, only to reverse himself three days later probably realizing the futility of the condescending attitude to the BRICS bank concept he had taken earlier. The BRICS bank will signal the end of Western and Japanese domination of the global financial and credit system, allow an alternative for developing nations to run to for development funding assistance without the onerous terms. In the last analysis, it is still better for a nation to depend on itself, establish a self-sustaining financial system – which is entirely possible for this country abundant in trillions of dollars of mineral wealth and dynamic citizens; if only it had the leadership to pave the way.

(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., April 8 "Tampakan anti-Large Scale Mining Updates"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives).

World peace: BRICS by BRICS

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/7-5/13/2012

OpinYon

I grew up with the United Nation's message of World Peace hung on my elementary classroom. That era of utopian peace vision ended at the turn of the last century and optimism from the closure of the Cold War soured as the West's imperial projects became apparent again over the decade. Led by U.S. neoconservatives' vision known as the PNAC (Project for a new American Century) to reestablish U.S. predominance over the World.

The PNAC pined for a New Pearl Harbor to re-ignite U.S. patriotism and serendipitously came the shock and awe of the 2011 World Trade Center 9/11 terrorist attack allowing George W. Bush his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union Address on January 2001, subsequently leading to the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 in a Zogby poll, 30% of the American people believe the U.S. government was engaged in a "cover up" and many believe it was an "inside job".

Project for a New American Century
In the mid-2000s the indisputable confirmation of the new hegemonistic crusade emerged: Nato Yugoslavia war commander, 4-star General Wesley Clark in his memoirs "A Time to Lead" recalls two visits to the Pentagon after the 9/11 incident and in those occasions narrates that a "senior general" told him "We're going to attack Iraq. The decision has basically been made, and six weeks later the same general held up a memo to him saying "Here's the paper from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Ronald Rumsfeld) outlining the strategy. We're going to take out seven countries in five years.", and named Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Iran. The U.S., dragging Nato along, has been or are in or around all those countries today fomenting "regime change". Unmentioned in all these is the fact that the fall of these countries constitute a stranglehold on Middle East and Africa oil, a sine qua non for constricting oil to China and eventual encirclement.

World Peace today is more elusive than ever before, incontrovertibly due to U.S.-Nato "exuberance" in all continents of the World, the latest in its basing of 2,500 Marines in Darwin, Australia in it "refocus" on Asia-Pacific and the announced deployment of "missile defense systems" in Japan, South Korea, and rumored, believe it or not, even in the Philippines. The missiles here may still be a rumor but the spy and weaponized drones are already believed flying about in the Southern islands and reportedly killed 15 Abu Sayyaf fighters. Given this reality in the Philippines, including the reported "rendition" of terrorists the U.S. catches in foreign lands and brought to the Philippines for interrogation and torture (see "Gregan", Carlos Isagani T. Zarate's April 30, 2012 column of Filipino believed "suicided" by U.S. military in Zamboanga), we clearly can't expect the Philippine government to examine its foreign policy in relation to U.S. imperial overreach.

Filipinos, citizens of a Republic and of the World, have an obligation to engage in forming world public views on matters affecting our nation in the community of nations. Corny as it may now sound to some, our World's and children's peace is at stake. After the deceptions for war in "Saddam's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and Osama bin Laden's improbable role in WTC 9/11, the "R2P" or "right to protect" in Libya, "humanitarian intervention" in Syria, and the alleged "kill" of Osama bin Laden but show not even DNA proof, can we trust U.S. claims to lead the globe to peace? If not, why then are we as a nation silent about the U.S. abuse of power everywhere – from the U.N. Security Council to all continents of the World. Lord Acton's famous phrase "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," we appreciate when applied to governments, but it is as true for global powers. When the Soviet Union fell the U.S. became the sole power and it ate into its brain – PNAC was born.

BRICS to build a Multi-Polar World
The U.S. and Europe, misleadingly appropriating for their selves the term "international community", are allied in the project for hegemony over the World; but the real and greater international community comprising 70% of the World's population has refused to go along. These countries are organizing an alternative World to supplant the U.S.-Nato vision of the 21st Century. It is the most historic development that will shape the rest of next 90 years of this century – the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, building currency bridges to skirt the global US Dollar system and establishing a BRICS bank as an alternative source for developing nations. BRICS blasted U.S.-Nato intervention in Libya, opposes outside intervention in Syria, and is effectively helping Iran survive unilateral U.S. economic sanctions as China and India buy more Iranian oil using gold, barter and each other's currencies to trade.

World Peace will depend greatly on how Iran survives the onslaught of U.S. sanctions. A fallen Iran would bring U.S. and Nato to the Russian border and control of 20% of China's oil supply. That's a situation tempting for Western powers to exploit and likely the last straw for the long wary Eurasian and Asian powers. In a "next war" global holocaust is imminent. Hence, it's better to keep the balance of power where it is today maintain, expand and fortify the current "multi-polar world" to distribute global powers amongst more players against the consolidation of global power into a "uni-polar world" under a U.S. hegemony. What policy does the Philippine government have on this issue? There is no discussion of it but by its actions it is clear the Aquino III government and cabinet are scampering behind like a little ugly duckling tailing Mother Goose. The Philippine president and his cabinet are blatantly obsessed with playing sidekick to the U.S. even as the Lone Ranger refuses to declare its loyalty to the Philippine cause.

Hillary Clinton prefers to officially state that "The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all those involved for resolving the various disputes that they encounter," which makes cabinet member Albert del Rosario and Voltaire "Rambo" Gazmin seeking partisan support and the country they represent, in the words of Sen. Joker Arroyo "… look like beggars". While the Aquino III administration continues to hew to the age-old Philippine "little brown brother" role, other emerging economies and nations are in advancing their breakaway from the dependencies and inequities of the neo-colonial past, forging economic progress with each other: Venezuela recently signed a $ 130-M offshore oil development project with Iran which has the technology, and Vietnam has joint oil exploration with India and Russia. In the Philippines, Recto bank project is delayed due to Chinese hostility to the Philippine government and the project.

Rambos or Peace makers and De-nuclearization
Del Rosario and Gazmin went to the U.S. to obtain equipment for "credible deterrence" while CNN was reporting the "pagpag" or recycled garbage eaters of the Philippines. The oil in the Philippine claims of the China Sea remain unexplored and untapped, and projects in the pipeline are getting clogged up by the acrimony with China. The Philippines present leadership doesn't even make an appearance of trying to figure out what Filipinos really need under the present circumstances, it just maintains its Rambo posturing. The Filipino should be dismayed that this government simply doesn't have any inkling about the broader issues of the World that affect our country – global stability for global development, the multi-polar world and the abundant opportunities it offers, the great boon that BRICS is in terms of economic alliances and projects, and the potentially great role of the Philippines in helping BRICS build World Peace as the present generation's legacy to the next.

The great aspiration for this century is global nuclear disarmament. The Philippine government has no progressive and honest policy on this, preferring only to parrot the U.S. State Department line, condemning the North Korean rocket test but silent on Israeli possession of 200 nuclear missiles and on the recent Indian and Pakistan successful missile tests. In Syria where the balance of World power hangs today and Filipinos OFWs are in peril, it has no clear policy. On the aggression facing Iran that puts Philippine oil supply and costs in peril the government has no creative initiative. There is no thinking "out of the box" of traditional U.S.-Philippines ties that straitjackets the conduct of Philippine foreign affairs. Suffice it to say at this point that if the Philippine government had the ability to exercise leeway, support for Iran and North Korea would be the best steps towards global nuclear disarmament.

If Iran and North Korea attain even a limited degree of "MAD" (Mutual Assured Destruction) with Israel and the U.S. the global nuclear weapons disarmament table would be assured of a quorum. The tension will continue into the future, however there will be a short period of respite between now and the U.S. elections, the feared Iran-U.S./Israel confrontation is put off the rest of 2012 with Obama unwilling to engage in conflict before the U.S. elections and Israel wracked with divisions between war-itchy Netanyahu and detractors including former Mossad chiefs and prime ministers. Meanwhile, I urge readers to join in preaching the gospel of Multi-Polarism and the BRICS road to World Peace and democracy – and for the Philippines and Filipinos to drop its dependency on the U.S. syndrome.

(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's Revenge" with Govs. Bono Adaza and Al Tillah; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Who’ll advocate ‘nationalization?’

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/7/2012

The growing clamor for a minimum wage increase to allow formal sector workers to mitigate some of the many cost of living increases may be justified even while it is wrong. That's because the real task of government is to control, restrain and constrain galloping price hikes that have overtaken consumer purchasing power by two decades forward.

The basic drivers of the economy — fuel, power, water and food — are at the base of our cost of living pyramid. In three of these, the Philippines is already the highest or thereabouts in the whole of Asean and Asia.

It has been quoted that the minimum wage in the Philippines is already at $9 per day to Cambodia's $2.24, Vietnam's $2 to $3.21, and Indonesia's $3.15 to $5.27. Yet Filipinos are worst off especially in electricity and food prices. Notably, the Philippines is also the most aggressive in its economic liberalization and privatization. Surely, the connections must be obvious by now.

Minimum wage increases really punish the SMEs, or small and medium scale enterprises, which account for 98 percent of Philippine businesses and contribute at least 50 percent of all employment. The margins of SME businesses are very thin such that additional costs constantly squeeze their viability to the hilt. I should know; my family runs an SME employing a few hundred workers.

In the squeeze of power and fuel costs, municipal as well as national fees and taxes, not to mention exploitative real estate costs, additional minimum wage orders can easily tip the books into the red. Giant corporations, meanwhile, don't have these problems. Their power, for one, is subsidized by us residential consumers and SMEs, thereby financing their costs lower by as much as 50 percent.

Worse, the wage distortion created for longtime employees is even onerous — as Chris, a texter to my radio program puts it: "I have been at my work for 15 years but the new employees coming in are almost matching my salary."

In addition, more minimum wage increases can only push SMEs into the informal sector, which already employs 27.3 million workers as compared to the formal sector's 5.6 million. Thus, the wage increases will constrict the informal sector workers' ability to move up the wage ladder as formal sector SMEs are prevented from hiring them, owing to fears of violating the minimum wage law.

Besides that, other SMEs are going to be compelled to go the route of the Barangay Micro Business Enterprises Act by breaking up their formal SMEs into smaller units in order to fit the BMBE structure and offer jobs with commensurate wages — that is, if they still register at all.

Finally, the illogicality of the present system is described aptly by labor sector analyst and writer Rod Kapunan, who long ago criticized the "deregulated economy with a regulated wage regime," which is a guarantee for a dysfunctional economic system. And, as seen by the world last week when CNN featured the "pagpag" (or recycled garbage) eaters of the Philippines, we are experiencing the damaging effects of it today.

At the root of the decades-old Philippine economic degeneration are the policies of deregulation and privatization. This is so evident in the Philippine power industry now known as having "the highest power cost in Asia" with its ironies highlighted by the recent Mindanao power imbroglio of having lowest cost hydroelectric power but force fed with high priced power, as power barges were left idle due to an ill-conceived power law.

Although so far, Mindanaoans have gotten a tentative, if not halfhearted, commitment from government that it will desist from privatizing the prized Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex and will limit the duration of high priced contracts with independent power producers, these measures will eventually be overwhelmed by privatization unless a reversal is made via re-nationalization, such as in Bolivia which this week nationalized generating assets of Red Electrica de España for "inadequate investment" (the same way Filipino power companies limited investment in new energy sources by merely taking over state power assets).

And while Philippine politics the past month has been frenetic, beyond the sound and fury is this question: Who among the politicians are willing to address the root crisis of our country and push for the re-nationalization (or forms of it such as consumer stock ownership or "cooperativization") of the electric power industry without which there can be no solution to the murderously exorbitant power rates (which is also the case in the West today)?

Looking at the political alternatives, we still see no clear platform from any of the emerging candidates. That said, the United Nationalist Alliance, with Estrada's influence, may still have more of a maverick potential and could, if empowered in 2013, craft more populist-oriented policies. Meantime, Trillanes, although on the other side, is still emphatic in calling for profit caps and for certain heads to roll. Ditto for an independent like Mitos Magsaysay, who has been aggressively criticizing the present fuel and power policies.

Besides nationalization, the other medium-term solution to our energy woes is tapping the China and West Philippine Sea fossil fuel reserves. But that will never happen if the Philippines remains in the grip of US-British clutches as BS Aquino III, Albert del Rosario, and Voltaire Gazmin are.

It's amusing to read some Filipino opinion writers, like Babes Romualdez, say, "China pushing RP closer to US," when we've long been collar and leash in the US' hands; or Raissa Robles with her "Is China after RP oil and gas fields?" when it is the US and Britain who really control these (like in the case of Malampaya).

There should be no illusion about oil projects today under "Philippine auspices," such as the Reed Bank with Forum Energy. These are all Western-controlled in the same way that certain mining companies are a front act.

All the conflicts being raised in our shared areas with China are motivated by the West's intent to keep China out and garner a monopoly for itself, with mere crumbs given to Filipinos. So the real solution is to also nationalize all energy exploration projects henceforth.

(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 "Tampakan anti-large scale mining updates;" visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Work, not wage increase

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

5/5-6/2012

If it is true that in every commodity produced by the application of labor, capitalists earn their profit by forcing the workers to produce an amount beyond what they are paid for in what Karl Marx termed as "surplus value", then there would be no reason for some businesses to go bankrupt. Maybe Marx was correct, but his theory is more of a general proposition than a realistic assessment on how that theory would work in a system such as ours. This is the same fallacious proposition that has blindly goaded much of our workers to demand higher wages as their defensive mechanism to overcome the inflationary increases in the prices of basic commodities.

Following the same proposition, they are wholly unaware that a general increase in the minimum wage could trigger another round of inflation that often puts to an end that vicious cycle, for then employment comes to an end for many of them. They always tend to focus their demand on wage, which through years of unabated increases, have reared its ugly heads of employment scarcity and consigned the remaining jobs to labor-only contracting, thus effectively shamming their constitutional right to security of tenure.

Many of them could not see the difference between employment and wage or could analyze that the logical basis for any wage increase is employment. In fact, without employment there could be no talk about labor rights or much more for them to collectively organize for their own welfare and protection, including their right to demand for higher wages. But as it is, they want the best of both worlds, envisioning a workers' paradise that even the former Soviet Union failed to fulfil its promise to liberate the workers from the yoke of capitalist exploitation.

For the incessant demand for wage increases, contractualization made a rapid inroad that today, regular workers have been marginalized. Residually, contractualization destroyed the very system that promoted organized labor, and labor invariably lost its clout to bargain for higher wages, better rights and benefits. Unfortunately, the government that has consented to this odd socialist practice of fixing the cost of wage pushed the cost of labor to the limits; that today, the country stands as one of the highest in minimum wage in Southeast Asia but sourly failed to match its productive output.

Yes, many employers will possibly comply with the adjusted minimum wage, but in so doing would resort to the nefarious practice of labor-only contracting. They may comply to give their employees what they are entitled to receive under the law. But that would not allow any of them to stay beyond six months for that would mean their regularization, that by law would compel them to pay incremental benefits due to a regular employee, contribute to the Social Security System, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig, Employees Compensation, pay for their 13th month pay, and possibly haggle with the labor unions which happen to companies that opt for direct hiring.

It is for these reasons why many employers are scratching their heads on where to get P426 daily to pay the minimum wage. If they will have to include their monthly contributions and pro rata the 13th month pay, that would run to over P500 a day. The sad part is that increased wages did not result in the efficiency of our workers. For our outlandish pricing in the cost of goods, our products have gradually been eased out of the market. This explains why in our time, a worker who is hired for his labor need not always result in him producing a surplus value for the capitalist. Employers now are likely to lose than earn.

Workers have to live up to that hard reality that for them to enjoy their constitutional right to security of tenure, they have to accept that compromise postulate that there is a need to adopt a new wage mechanism by making it flexible. The system of minimum wage in a capitalist system is a US model that has gotten their economy nowhere, and is being imposed here by their minions so for us to suffer the same fate. We have to restudy, not discard, the Marxist theory; that for as long as capitalism prevails, the socialist mechanism of pegging wage would have no place in our system. In fact, treating the value of labor as an intangible commodity is no different from the rest that can be sold and exchanged in the open market. Mass production in capitalism has effectively substituted and reduced labor as a commodity vulnerable to the indefensible vicissitudes of the law of supply and demand.

Only under a regime of deregulated wage could our workers put the economic system in labor back on track. Abolishing the minimum wage would not only unburden the employers of the high cost of wage, but could restore our competitiveness, usher in more employment, which is what we really want, generate more production with an assurance of continuity of employment so they could exercise their right to collectively bargain based on the true spirit of collective bargaining negotiations.

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)

ADB and Epira

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/4/2012

A lot of hype and drumbeating for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) meet is in the air this week, but we must remember that this is still a financial institution set up by the Western powers to control and exploit the direction of economic development in Asia even if it is delegated for the US' surrogate in the region — Japan.

Highlighting the ADB's exploitative role is the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), passed under duress from the Western multilateral financial institutions, i.e., the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the ADB — which all made the passage of the power privatization law a condition for the release of loans. The ADB released the second tranche of its Power Sector Restructuring loan of $400 million upon the signing of the Epira — a law that is now causing the sucking sound we hear on the Philippines' financial and economic resources, transferring massive wealth to foreign financial predators and local comprador oligarchs.

Nations and governments do not need these multilateral financial agencies if they want truly sovereign, independent and progressive growth. Although China is now a prominent and powerful member of the ADB, it didn't rely on the lending institution to build up the foundations of its economy and national development.

When Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China in 1949, the ADB still hadn't been born. Yet even at that time, China was able to extend Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans to its ideologically-kindred countries the world over.

The ADB was only established in 1966 as an extension of the IMF-WB network. These multilateral financial agencies can be helpful to a nation only when that nation clearly knows what financial commitments are really in its interests and is capable of obtaining the just and beneficial terms, where privatization of public utilities, which is never beneficial to any nation and its people, is not included.

The Epira was a historic debacle for the Philippines, making the country the economic basket case of Asia. It destroyed productive industries; dashed employment generation hopes; and spread the kind of poverty that was recently highlighted in CNN's reportage on "pagpag," where people were seen eating and even selling food from garbage bins of fast food restaurants and hotels.

From the "leftover" debt the power privatization program has placed on the shoulders of the Filipino people, we can already see how much has been siphoned out thanks to the Epira: The power sector debt of P1 trillion still has to be paid to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and creditors after more than a decade.

The profits carted away by the IPPs are humongous. Mirant, which sold off its Philippine IPP operations five years after it started in 2001, is estimated to have carted out $10 billion in profits. Then, in the IPP's transfer to Marubeni and Tepco, the global banks and investment houses earned a huge sum again in securitizing and financing the deal. Now, after five years, the same thing is to be repeated.

An alternative to the IMF-WB-ADB that developing nations may look forward to is the recently announced banking concept that was a fruit of the last meeting of the quintet of emerging world and regional economic powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The Brics bank, a brainchild of the new alliance in its New Delhi meet, naturally elicited knee-jerk reactions from the IMF-WB.

WB Chief Robert Zoellick, for one, dismissed the idea perfunctorily as difficult to implement, unnecessary, and rivaling Western-dominated banks, only to reverse himself three days later, probably realizing the futility of his condescending attitude.

The Brics bank will be a reality a few years from today, and it will signal the end of Western and Japanese domination of the global financial and credit system. It will allow an alternative for developing nations to run to for development assistance without the usual onerous terms.

Some quarters make a big deal of the ADB being located in the Philippines. These quarters claim that the country benefits economically from the expenditures of the lender in the country. And in the case of the ADB's conference here in Manila, the spending for its 4,000 participants is being touted as a great boon.

The fact is, no matter where the ADB is located, it would still do the same thing — extend exploitative instead of genuinely developmental credit to developing countries.

The kind of economics these "ADB-philes" pursue is the same type we saw during the IMF meeting in the Philippines in 1976 that caused a mushrooming of hotels that subsequently should have boosted tourism but never did in the 40 years that followed — because hotels are a wrong infrastructure for a developing nation like ours.

Truly, there is no durable and long-term benefit from such evanescent "junket" economics. Genuine development requires us to first be sovereign to build national "hard industries," which have all been junked today.

ADB Chief Haruhiko Kuroda announced a $12-billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), or money created out of thin air, to be lent out to "Asia's Poorest;" but in exchange for what? Invariably, it will be in exchange for one form of economic subservience of the debtor countries: Privatization; opening up of markets; opening up to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), large scale mining, etc.

With SDRs created out of thin air, they will have nations turn over their physical, material, tangible, and operational assets to foreign corporations. Ultimately, as we have seen in this country, the chances are that loan recipient countries will become poorer and poorer, salvageable only if militantly pro-people and nationalist governments take over — as we are learning from Latin America these days, where privatized state assets, such as Spain's Repsol Oil in Argentina and Red Electrica Plc. in Bolivia, are being restored through nationalization, allowing people to recover just living standards.

(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 "Tampakan anti-large scale mining updates;" visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)