The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

We usually stand poles apart from militant groups when anything related to business and the economy is on the public agenda. But this time, on their proposal that the Social Security System provide help to members who are laid off, hopefully temporarily, we are in agreement with them. It is fair. It is socially beneficial. It also makes economic sense.

The militants’ proposal is, in fact, nothing new. During the dollar crisis in the early 1980s when the Philippines had to declare a moratorium on debt payments, the economic downturn was far more severe than what is projected from the current global slowdown. That period was characterized by layoffs not seen since the Japanese occupation period.

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Were a right of reply in place in Spain from 1888 to the 1895, half of the space in “La Solidaridad” would have been devoted to pieces enumerating the blessings showered on these islands by Spanish colonial rule and extolling the friars for standing as bulwarks against the spread of heretical and seditious ideas championed by the likes of Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena.

Let us give a sample of the staple of advocacies that Soli carried in its every issue: representation in the Cortes; curbing of the abuses of the friars; full extension of the coverage of the Spanish civil and penal codes to the Indios; expansion of public education; and some measure of self-rule.

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It’s just probably because of our – mediamen’s – over-blown sense of self-importance that in trying to defend ourselves from attempts to gag us such as Nene Pimentel’s right to reply bill we fell into the trap set before us.

Nene starts from fashionable and the seemingly politically correct assumption that media has a fundamental commitment to truth, justice and the democratic way of life and that this commitment imposes on us the heavy burden of being “responsible” in our role as disseminators of news and as outlets of opinions.

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Malacañang continues to express confidence that the P330 billion stimulus package unveiled by Gloria Arroyo this year will be enough to sustain growth in the face the global economic slowdown.

Most analysts are unconvinced spending our way out of the looming crisis is the answer, assuming the P330 billion could be raised. The doubts of the skeptics have grown stronger now that the P330 million figure appears to have been plucked out of thin air.

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The Palace recently announced that Gloria Arroyo will be leaving for the yearly summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Thailand starting this week with a “lean” team.

The announcement was obviously meant to preempt criticisms of another costly presidential junket in the face of a looming economic crisis. But this yearly meeting of Asean leaders is not the right occasion to think about cost-saving.

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It is probably naïve to suppose that Gloria Arroyo, this late in the day, will have an epiphany and start looking with all seriousness and sincerity into the latest accusation of thievery against her husband. Her standard reaction to charges of wrongdoing is to brazen it out, accusing critics of muckraking purely to gain cheap political points.

This has been so from the start (remember Mike’s undeclared stash running to hundreds of millions in some local banks?). She’ll brazen it out to the finish, which hopefully would be not long soon. Unless, of course, she succeeds in mangling the Constitution.

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THE thieves in the Arroyo administration came into the scene late. The world has undergone a sea change since the time of the notorious looters of their nation’s wealth like our own Ferdinand Marcos. Corruption is no longer tolerated by bilateral and multilateral agencies that provide assistance, whether in the form of grants and loans. Yet it is probably in recognition of the fact that it is much harder to steal now that the thieves are frantically seeking to further line their pockets while the opportunity, however tight, lasts.

Current attention is focused on the World Bank’s findings of collusion in the bidding for WB-funded projects. Contractors apparently have to submit over-priced bids not so much to improve their bottom line but rather to safeguard it.

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About two years ago, there was an uproar over reports that many bridges under a program financed by foreign lenders and implemented by the government were being built on carabao cart paths while many roads built for mechanized vehicles remained segmented for lack of spans across rivers and streams. There was even a picture of an all-steel two-lane bridge built in the middle of a field, with both ends leading to nowhere.

After the “bridges to nowhere” scandal had its 15 seconds of fame, public attention passed on to other corruption controversies. Since the Arroyo administration has an unbeaten record among all administrations this country has had on graft-ridden deals, the seeming fickleness of public attention is understandable. People have to catch their breath in following the succession of anomalies unearthed one after the other.

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SEC failed to do its job

In the ongoing Senate investigation into why the pre-need industry is facing imminent collapse, it is well to draw a distinction between poorly conceived or poorly implemented business plans and the out-and-out scams perpetrated by con men.

The case, for example, of the failed companies which solicited placements in return for guaranteed payment in the future of college tuition properly belongs to the first category. While some might have diverted their trust funds into questionable businesses, many placed their money into legitimate investment outlets. It just happened that there was no way the latter’s commitments could be met given the mismatch of returns and runaway increases in the cost of education.

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Gloria Arroyo is trying to pull off another smoke and mirrors trick with her seemingly frenzied efforts to force Lakas and Kampi into a merger to ensure a win for her candidates in the 2010 elections. At noon of June 30, 2010 she is politically dead meat. An overwhelming victory by Lakas-Kampi candidates in Congress and local government units will not save her and Mike from the retribution sure to be exacted by a people they savaged over nine years of misrule.

The time for accounting will come in due time. Even a victory by Noli de Castro, the administration’s best bet for the presidency, will not shield Gloria and Mike from the certainty of facing trial for plunder, among other crimes.

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