Selling metro rail tracks is a stupid idea

Selling metro rail tracks is a stupid idea

Updated 10:20pm (Mla time) Sept 28, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 29, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the sale of the Philippine National Railways railroad tracks in Metro Manila. She said that with the elevated Light Rail Transit and Metrorail there, the ground level railroad tracks are no longer needed.

This is the kind of mindless, knee-jerk and stupid decision-making that characterizes this administration.

Coming back from her visit to China, the President trumpeted the revival of the Northrail Line up to Malolos, Bulacan, to be funded by the Chinese government. The Southrail Line to Calamba, Laguna, will also be constructed. Eventually, the two lines will stretch to their original terminals in Damortis, La Union, in the north and Legazpi, Albay, in the south. But pray tell, how are you going to connect the two rail lines if the tracks running through Metro Manila have already been sold to squatters? How will the cargos and passengers from North and Central Luzon be transported to Southern Luzon, and vice versa? Will the cargos be unloaded from the train at the outskirts of Metro Manila and trucked to the other side of the metropolis, from where they will continue their train trip to their final destinations? Will passengers get off outside Metro Manila, take a bus to the other side, and then board the train again? Stupid, 'di ba?

Besides, even with the LRT and Metrorail, we still need a commuter train. You cannot load fish from Pangasinan and vegetables from Baguio on these elevated rail lines. And you cannot load vegetables and coconuts from the south on them. There's not enough room even for passengers in Metro Manila, what more for cargos? Brainless, "talaga."

This administration must be really desperate for money. It wants to sell everything, even assets that are literally nailed to the ground. And it is so afraid of squatters it doesn't even want to touch them.

It is now becoming clear why we are a poor, begging Third World country that is getting poorer every year. We do everything that is the opposite of what prosperous, progressive countries are doing. While countries like Japan, the United States, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are developing and expanding their railroads, we are phasing out our own railroad by selling the tracks and right-of-way.

Japan, Europe and even China now have the fastest and most modern trains in the world. For even with the initial love affair with the motor vehicle, trains are still the most economical way of transporting the most cargos and passengers.

Fast trains to and from the inner cities to the open countryside are the surest way to decongest the urban areas. Millions can work in the cities during the day and still go home to the fresh air and open space of the countryside in the evening. They don't have to live in festering slums in the cities. Japanese who work in Tokyo can have dinner at 7 or 8 p.m. at home--as far away from Tokyo as Tarlac or Pangasinan is from Manila--because of the bullet train.

I am not saying that we should have the bullet train now. We cannot afford it yet. But we should have not only the national railroad from north to south but also a commuter rail to take passengers around Metro Manila and suburbs. Even with the LRT, Metrorail and the bus and jeepney lines, we still need them. Tokyo, New York and other modern cities have the subway, the train, the commuter rail and the highways at the same time. In addition, San Francisco has the elevated Bay Area Rapid Transit System. Besides these, Germany and California have high-speed autobahns and freeways. The United Kingdom has the tunnel under the English Channel to France, and Hong Kong has its own underwater tunnel to Kowloon.

We need not only the trains and commuter rails but we also have to increase the number of trains on the existing elevated rail lines. There are so many passengers who want to ride them because they are fast, but there is no longer space for them. It was expected that the elevated rails would lead to the demise of the buses and jeepneys and make car owners leave their vehicles at home; they are the causes of the traffic chaos in the streets below. But that is not happening because there are not enough trains. The passengers are there but not the trains.

The operators can earn more by buying more trains, but they do not want to invest any more money because they are content with their profits. The government has guaranteed their minimum income and pays for the difference between this minimum and their actual earnings, so why bother to invest more? That is why the government is losing so much money subsidizing them. They could earn profits from their operations by bringing in more trains but the government doesn't bother to force them.

There is a PNR rail right-of-way along Recto to Tutuban to the North and South Harbors. Ms Arroyo may think they are no longer needed, but that line can considerably ease traffic in downtown Manila by taking the container vans to and from the piers on board cargo trains instead of truck-trailers.

Why did the government allow the PNR to deteriorate to its present wretched state in the first place? Up to the time of President Diosdado Macapagal, trains with first-class coaches ran from Damortis to Legazpi. You could take the night Bicol Express at Tutuban, sleep comfortably on board and wake up refreshed the next morning already in Legazpi.

When will that time come back again?

The chocolate contract and the Masinloc bidding

The chocolate contract and the Masinloc bidding

Updated 11:43pm (Mla time) Sept 26, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


IF you have a sweet tooth, and you are not diabetic, not overweight, and does not easily break out with pimples, eating chocolate is one of the most delightful indulgences, 'di ba? So why is chocolate bringing a lot of trouble to some public officials and businessmen? Because of one cardinal sin: greed. Not for chocolate but for money.

Last Sept. 17, this column dwelt on the conflict over a contract to supply Duty Free Philippines with chocolate snacks and candies. DFP had awarded the contract to Eastern Duty Free (EDF). Another supplier, Winning Touch, made a higher offer. EDF matched this higher offer and clinched the contract. Winning Touch and the DFP Employees Union protested and filed charges of graft against then Tourism Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan and DFP General Manager Michael Kho. There was no public bidding, they said.

It turns out that William Tieng, owner of Winning Touch, himself has several contracts with DFP which he got without any public bidding either. Two congressmen filed resolutions calling for investigations not only of the chocolate contract but all the other contracts of DFP, including those awarded to Tieng.

Last week, the camp of Tieng sent a letter commenting on that column. In fairness to him, I am now reporting the contents of that letter.

The issue is neither the contracts of Tieng nor his "alleged monopoly" of the operations at Duty Free, the letter said. And it is EDF that will monopolize the chocolate business at DFP.

Chocolate products represent about 40 percent-worth about $40 million or P2.2 billion-of DFP's annual sales. At least 20 companies now supply chocolate products to DFP. In the new contract under question, only one, EDF, will henceforth be the sole supplier. The 20 other companies will lose their business, which means lost jobs for their employees, the letter said.

"Why fix something that is not broke?" it asked. "The new contract will earn less for the government than what it is earning under the present setup.

"Despite the amended DFP-EDF contract (to match Winning Touch's superior offer) which increased the government take by P180 million a year, DFP would still lose P336 million a year, according to the complaint of the DFP employees."

Besides, the contract was rushed; it was a midnight contract, the Tieng camp said. Pagdanganan's replacement had already been announced, and yet he approved a major contract. Prudence dictates that he should have allowed the new secretary, who was to take over in a few days, to review and sign the contract. Yet the PTA board pushed through with the meeting to ratify the contract on Aug. 25, when half of Metro Manila was under water. The President declared a calamity by lunchtime and sent home employees in both public and private offices. Why the hurry then? Besides, the letter added, EDF, just like Winning Touch, supplies other products to DFP.

* * *

Another government contract will be bid out this October, and it is bound to be a headache, too if it is not handled correctly. This is the sale of the 600-megawatt Masinloc power plant in Zambales, the first part of the privatization of the mega-losing National Power Corp.

The sale of all of Napocor's assets is expected to raise between $4 billion and $5 billion, not even enough to pay for its accumulated debts of $7.2 billion. But Napocor has to sell them in a hurry because it loses an average P100 billion a year!

The government badly needs foreign investors to privatize Napocor-and put a stop to its bleeding-as there is not enough local capital. A number of foreign investors have qualified for the bidding, among them, Marubeni of Japan, Kepco of Korea, YNN of Australia, YTL of Malaysia, and Atlanta-based Mirant Philippines.

The lone local bidder may be the First Generation Holdings of the Lopez group.

So what is the problem?

In a pre-bid conference last Sept. 1, the potential foreign investors denounced the bidding guidelines drafted by the government.

They denounced a "right to match" provision which states that any winning bid by a foreign company may be matched by a Filipino-owned company, which will then be proclaimed the winner.

This rule, said the foreign investors, is inequitable and gives preferential treatment to a Filipino company. It is grossly disadvantageous, unfair and discriminatory to foreign investors, they said.

But wasn't that the same rule given by the Supreme Court in the sale of Manila Hotel? A Malaysian company won the bidding but a Filipino group, led by businessman Emilio Yap, matched the bid and was declared the winner. The Malaysians protested but the Supreme Court backed the Filipino company.

But there is a difference between the Manila Hotel and the Masinloc power plant. The Manila Hotel is clearly part of the national patrimony and should remain in Filipino hands, the tribunal said. The Masinloc plant is not.

Foreign investors must be given a level playing field, otherwise they would not bother to invest here at all. Remember that they spend a lot of money and resources to conduct studies on the property they intend to buy. When the right to match is given to a preferred third party, that party doesn't have to spend or make any studies at all. It just matches the highest bid, knowing that the bidder made painstaking studies to arrive at the price. That effectively results in a virtual handover to the Filipino firm. The foreign investor loses his investment on the due diligence it made, and the Filipino company profits from the foreigner's pains and investments. That is unfair. That sends the wrong message to foreign investors and jeopardizes government efforts to privatize Napocor.

Restore maximum income tax rate to 70%

Restore maximum income tax rate to 70%

Updated 11:01pm (Mla time) Sept 23, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 24, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


(Due to a computer glitch, an old column with a similar date was sent to the Inquirer and published in the Sept. 22 issue. Though it was written a year ago, the issue remains valid today, however. The following column should have been published instead. Sorry for the mix-up.)

THE PRESIDENT and Congress continue to dance the “moro-moro” around the pork barrel, an outstanding example of corruption, wastage and abuse of power in government. The President asks members of Congress to forego 40 percent of their pork barrel. The legislators counter that the President should forego her own pork barrel (yes, she has it in the form of discretionary, intelligence and social funds).

But all this is just for show and intended to fool the people and preserve the status quo. If the President is sincere about reducing the congressional pork barrel, all she has to do is remove the appropriation from her proposed budget -- and not just 40 percent of it. No need to ask Congress' permission.
If Congress is sincere about cutting the pork in the executive department, all it has to do is reduce the appropriations for intelligence and discretionary allowances. So why are they not doing this?

If Congress would cut all government allowances by just 20 percent, about P20 billion would be saved, an amount equal to the expected revenue from the proposed increase in tariff on oil imports as well as the congressional pork barrel.

As stated last Monday, while the Constitution prohibits members of lawmaking bodies from increasing their own salaries, they have been surreptitiously increasing their own allowances and other benefits. The list of allowances top officials pay themselves can fill a whole page. Aside from the usual discretionary and intelligence allowances, there are allowances for cars, drivers, gasoline, maintenance, travel, mail and phone, entertainment, housing, etc., etc. Some even have grocery allowances.

And in the case of government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs), their boards of directors can and have increased their own salaries -- and even their retirement benefits.

Easily the most obnoxious is the case of the Development Bank of the Philippines whose board of directors approved a P75,000 budget for each director for "office and staff allowance." It allowed each director to appoint two relatives to be paid out of this allowance. It was disapproved by the Commission on Audit (CoA), but the board defied the CoA and went ahead and created the new positions anyway. The directors obviously believe that charity begins at home.

It is not only members of Congress and boards of directors who have abused their power to increase allowances. Members of provincial, city, municipal and even village councils have abused theirs, too.

Easily the most abused privilege is the car plan. Members of the boards and councils attend meetings only once or twice a month. They already have one or two or more of their own vehicles. Yet they are provided with more new vehicles at taxpayers' expense -- luxury models, even -- plus backup vehicles for their bodyguards.

Under these car plans, the vehicles bought by the government become the properties of the users after a few years and after they have paid, on installment, a token price. In some cases, when an official is replaced, he does not return the vehicle assigned to him and it is lost to the government.

Theoretically, there is a watchdog -- the CoA -- that is supposed to check this form of abuse. But the auditors are co-opted into the conspiracy by being given their own cars. So they turn a blind eye, and everybody is happy. It is like letting a gang of thieves loose in the vaults of the Treasury.

The chiefs of the GOCCs, the governors and mayors use these benefits as a bribe to get what they want from the board and council members, in the same way that the President uses the pork barrel as a bribe to members of Congress.

In the face of such wanton abuse and wastage, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants to get the money to fund them from the people through bigger and more taxes. She has proposed eight tax reform measures. Of these, only the increase in the taxes on tobacco and liquor has the least opposition, although this is likely to increase smuggling and reduce local production and sale of these products, hence, less tax revenues collected.

The most regressive is the increase in oil tariff. This will impact on power and transportation rates, and hence on all products, and raise the inflation rate. It will hit the poor the hardest, but the government likes this because it is the easiest to collect.

One basic principle of taxation is to tax most those who can afford it the most. Yet our tax structure favors the rich and punishes the poor, especially the middle class. While increasing consumption taxes, which hits everybody, it has reduced direct taxes on the rich.

It has reduced the maximum income tax rate from the original 70 percent to only 30 percent. Thus, the mega-rich, the multi-billionaires that Forbes Magazine listed among the richest in the region, pay the same 30 percent tax rate as a member of the middle class. That original 70 percent maximum rate, mind you, applied only to income above P500,000 a year.

Before Congress enacts a new tax measure, it should first raise the 30 percent limit on income tax rates to the original 70 percent. But of course the legislators lowered the limit because it benefits them. They themselves earn millions for which they should pay the correct taxes.

Graft will be worse in a parliamentary system

Graft will be worse in a parliamentary system

Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Sept 22, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


CONGRESSMEN are getting desperate because time is running out on a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution before next year's national elections. Now they are proposing that a transition president with a three-year term, instead of the full term of six years, be elected next year whose primary duty would be to shift to a parliamentary system.

But the term of the president cannot be shortened unless the Constitution is amended first. And any amendment cannot take effect unless the people first ratify it in a plebiscite. Which means we will have two polls in a space of eight months: the plebiscite and the national elections. Each of them will cost the taxpayers billions of pesos, an amount we cannot afford and is not in the 2004 budget submitted by the executive department. Congress cannot increase the budget submitted by the executive.

Furthermore, for this desperate plan to work, a constituent assembly must be in place next month and the plebiscite held next February, only three months before the May elections. There is very little time to prepare for all these.

A survey has shown that the people don't want Charter change, but leave it to the representatives of the people to push what they want instead of what the people want. They don't even know whether the people want a parliamentary system, but that is already the main agenda of a “Cha-cha” [Charter change].

The Senate does not want a “Consa” [constituent assembly] to amend the Constitution but a “Con-con” [constitutional convention]. As proposed by the Senate, delegates to the Con-Con will be elected at the same time as the other officials in the 2007 polls. The Consa, however, will be composed of, horrors, the present members of Congress.

As Senate President Franklin Drilon said, "It takes two to Cha-cha." But only the House is dancing to the tune. So the congressmen are getting desperate.

The most desperate of all is House Speaker Jose de Venecia, the conductor of the orchestra that is the House of Representatives playing the Cha-cha song. For this is his last hurrah, his last chance to be chief executive. This is also the last hurrah of former president Fidel V. Ramos, who is also for a parliamentary form of government.

Ramos and De Venecia have four things in common: 1. They are both from the province of Pangasinan. 2. They both want to be chief executive. 3. They both cannot be elected president -- Ramos because the Constitution bars him from running for president again, and De Venecia because the people already rejected him when he ran for president and is likely to be rejected again if he runs a second time. 4. They both want to become chief executive via the back door, by shifting to a parliamentary system, winning seats in parliament, and then running for prime minister.

De Venecia is a known wheeler-dealer famous for hammering coalitions from among different political parties. He is confident he can do it again with the politicians who would be elected to parliament. And that is not hard to do with the present members of Congress, most of whom would likely be elected to parliament. All he has to do is to be generous to the members of parliament (MPs) and they will vote for him to be the prime minister.

Besides that, the PM has to keep the MPs happy, otherwise they could declare a loss of confidence in him and vote to reorganize the government.

Where will the PM get all the money to buy the votes? Where else but from the people. While the MPs get fat, the people will be squeezed dry. You think life is bad now? Wait until we have a parliamentary government.

For in a parliamentary government, there is no system of checks and balances. There will be no Senate to check the MPs, who will be the counterparts of the present congressmen. There will be no executive department to balance the legislature. Parliament will be both the legislature and the executive department. The secretaries or ministers of the executive department will come from among the MPs. And the prime minister, the counterpart of the present president, will also be an MP, elected to his top post by his colleagues. The people will have no part in choosing the person who will rule them.

The government will become an old boys' club even more, controlled by the political party or coalition in power. The party can do almost anything it wants. It will be like a dictatorship with not just one dictator but many. Or like a banana republic with a ruling junta. Imagine having several Marcoses with less brains running the country. That's what we will be in a parliamentary system.

Theoretically, there will be opposition parties who are supposed to fiscalize the administration party. But in the Philippines, political parties don't stand for anything. Parties center around personalities, not ideologies or platforms of government. And opposition politicians tend to fly to the party in power to share in the spoils of victory. So in a Philippine parliament, opposition politicians and parties will join and coalesce with the winning party. Political butterflies will be as plentiful as locusts. Hence, there will be no more opposition parties to check the abuses of the administration party. That is like giving the combination of the safe to a bunch of thieves.

Life may be hard now, but it will be worse in a parliamentary system, especially with the quality, or lack of it, of the present generation of politicians.

A begging republic; a beggar-President

A begging republic; a beggar-President

Updated 11:48pm (Mla time) Sept 19, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 20, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THE ALLEGED "strong republic" has become a begging republic. And the President, whom an American magazine included among the "most powerful" women in the world, has become a beggar-President.

The government itself prohibits begging- huge billboards warn the poor and Good Samaritans alike against the giving of alms to beggars. But it has resorted to begging to save itself from a looming financial disaster. After "extorting" P1 million apiece from a group of mostly Filipino-Chinese businessmen trapped in a jetliner (for the so-called Bayanihan Fund), the government is now begging each of the 50,000 top taxpayers to pay P1 million more. For being such good taxpayers, the President will punish them by dunning them for another P1 million apiece, while the tax evaders continue to get a free ride.

Wouldn't it be better to tell them to pay the correct taxes instead of begging for contributions? According to estimates, there is about P200 billion in uncollected taxes lying out there.

The businessmen want tax credits-to be used to pay future taxes-in exchange for their contributions. So there really would be no increase in the government's tax income. And we have had such a sorry experience with tax credit certificates.

The President is also begging members of Congress to agree to a cut in their pork barrel; and the fat cats in government-owned and controlled corporations to voluntarily cut their excessive salaries. Why does she have to beg them when all she has to do is remove the appropriations for pork from her proposed budget? If she is really the "powerful President" that the Americans think she is, she should not be afraid of the members of Congress. If there is no pork appropriation in her budget, then that is the end of it. Congress cannot increase the proposed budget she submits; it can only decrease it.

But the truth is she has submitted a P10 billion budget for pork to keep the congressmen happy. Only they're not happy with just P10 billion. They want P20 billion!

She has asked GOCC officials to voluntarily cut their scandalously high salaries. But since it is voluntary, they will not do that. Some of them will take token pay cuts for show, but they will still retain their excessive allowances, bonuses and other perks. For the salaries are only the tip of the iceberg. A big part of their take is hidden, just like the hidden allowances of the members of Congress, especially committee chairmen (that is why they're fighting for chairmanships), and Cabinet members. That is why some congressmen volunteered to give up their salaries, for show. Their salaries are peanuts compared to their hidden allowances.

What the President should do is issue an executive order standardizing the salaries and allowances of GOCC officials while waiting for Congress to pass an omnibus salary scale for GOCCs. Why should a GOCC official get a salary bigger than a Cabinet member, Supreme Court justice, and even the President herself?

They say that GOCC officials should get salaries at par with those of their counterparts in the private sector. But there is a difference in the public and private sectors. In the private sector, when a corporation doesn't earn a profit, its top officials are fired by the board of directors. They get fat salaries and bonuses only when the corporation is making big profits. For the directors have a stake in the corporation-they are part owners and shareholders.

In our GOCCs, however, the directors and top officials are politicians, proteges, and camp followers being rewarded for helping the President win the elections; they stay on and on even if the corporation is being run to the ground. They couldn't care less for the corporations; they care only for what they can get from them while they're in the saddle.

The reason there is so much abuse and wastage in Congress and in the GOCCs is that we have forgotten the principle that law/rule-making bodies should not be given the authority to increase their own benefits. That is why the Constitution prohibits members of Congress from increasing their own salaries.

But legislators-and executive and GOCC officials-have surreptitiously increased their own benefits. Thus, they have so many allowances and other perks that they no longer have any need for their salaries. The pork barrel is only the biggest and most corrupt.

For such a corrupt system, it is a wonder why our supposedly responsible leaders have allowed it to remain for generations. I was still a student when the Philippines Free Press under Teodoro M. Locsin was already fighting the pork barrel. Instead of abolishing or reducing it, the congressmen increased it and disguised it under innocent-sounding names. It is now P200 million for each senator and P65 million for each congressman, hundreds of times more than the original allocation. The lion's share of the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways now goes to the pork barrel of legislators. The DPWH has steadily lost control of its own budget. The legislators now control it. Legislators are now de facto secretaries of public works, usurping the authority and functions of the Cabinet member.

And yet the Constitution clearly delineates the authorities and functions of the three branches of government: Congress legislates, the executive branch executes, and the judiciary interprets (the laws). So why are the legislators performing the jobs of the executive departments? Because of corruption. They get kickbacks from favored contractors.

Nobody to blame but GMA for fiscal crisis

Nobody to blame but GMA for fiscal crisis

Updated 10:25pm (Mla time) Sept 12, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


EVERY DAY, public officials become more inventive in stealing more money from the people. And officials of the Arroyo administration are more inventive than the others. Instead of using their talent to think of better ways to serve the country and the people, they use it to think of new ways to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. Here is the latest:

The Department of Transportation and Communication paid P100.8 million to a person for 10 hectares of land to be used for the extension of the airport in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. What's wrong with that?

Nothing, except that the government paid for the land that it already owns. The land is part of the public domain. And its description clearly says that. The person who sold and signed the absolute deed of sale does not own the land. Yet government paid him P100.8 million for it.

In fairness to the present DOTC secretary, this scam was consummated by a predecessor. The money had been paid but the Arroyo administration, which admits that it is running out of money and keeps repeating that it will stop graft and corruption, has not done anything to get back the money nor prosecute those involved in the scam. More details will be revealed in today's Kapihan sa Manila.

The Puerto Princesa deal is only the first of six similar deals lined up by the DOTC. The lands to be acquired will be used either for new airports or to expand existing ones. Luckily, the others have not yet been consummated when the first one was discovered. But it shows very clearly why the government is bankrupt-the money is going to the wrong pockets.

* * *

"Don't blame President Macapagal-Arroyo for the hard times," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye was quoted as saying yesterday after the Social Weather Stations came out with its most recent survey showing a huge drop in her net performance rating.

The results showed her net performance rating plunging from +30 in March and +26 in June to a mere +12 in August. This means that more and more people are dissatisfied with her performance.

But leave it to Bunye to always see the bright side. "The economic problems may have weighed down her ratings," he said, "but a positive 12 percent still showed solid acceptance for the President." Bunye is the kind of person who, instead of seeing a glass half-empty, he sees it half-full.

But this takes the cake. The economic crisis "should not be blamed on the President," he said, "because all that (she) did was to tell the truth about our situation and she is looking for a solution to this crisis."

False. But to be fair to him, I think he is just doing his job as best as he can-which is to try to put his boss in the best possible light.

But he is wrong. In the first place, GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo)did not tell the whole truth about what happened. In the second place, there is nobody to blame for the economic crisis but herself. The usual excuse of new presidents is to blame their predecessors. But in her case, she preceded herself. The mess worsened in her first three years because of her all-consuming desire to be reelected to a new term-although she had promised not to run for reelection.

She ordered the National Power Corp. to cut its purchased power adjustment (PPA) by 85 centavos per kilowatt hour to make herself popular with the voters, never mind if the reduction entailed huge losses to the power firm. Now we are paying for those huge losses. Because of that electioneering gimmick, Napocor's debts ballooned to P1.3 trillion, the government's single biggest liability.

Now that the elections are over and she does not need votes anymore, she is hitting the people with a double whammy. Aside from making the taxpayers pay for Napocor's debts, she raised Napocor's power rates. In short, while paying for higher electricity rates from one pocket, the taxpayer will have to dig into the other pocket to pay for Napocor's accumulated debts.

During her first term, she refused to raise taxes to pay for the growing budget deficit and national debt because that would have been unpopular. She resorted to a borrowing binge instead and hid the truth from the people. In her first three years as President, she borrowed more money than her two predecessors did put together. Now her sins have caught up with us.

Now that she has been reelected and can no longer run for another term, she is going to raise taxes and impose new ones. Never mind if the already impoverished people will be angry. After, all she does not need their votes anymore. Instead of saving money by abolishing the corrupt and wasteful pork barrel and by reducing the salaries and allowances of officials of government corporations that are losing money like a sieve, she would rather hit the people with more taxes.

That is the truth about what happened which she did not tell the people. There is nobody to blame for the economic crisis but GMA. She brought it on herself more than any other person.

* * *

The gossip mill is humming with the interesting story about the motel magnate and GMA-appointed ambassador whose former live-in partner had charged him with rape, attempted murder and serious illegal detention. Some stories say he has been convicted; others say he has been cleared. I have been asked many times about it-as if journalists know everything.

To find out the truth, I went to the Department of Justice to look at the records of the case, and I now return with good news for Ambassador to Laos Antonio Cabangon Chua and bad news for his partner: the DOJ has dismissed all cases. Furthermore, the charges filed with the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission have been dismissed by Malacañang.