The Dark Princes’ endless plunder
The confusion over the automated voting system and the campaigns are playing into the power wielders’ goals perfectly. While the people get distracted, the “Dark Princes” fast-track their latest plunder projects in cahoots with the government and finance bureaucrats. As the nation wrings its hands over the Comelec’s rising incredulity and its seemingly hopeless race against time, and as the people get waylaid by frivolous campaign issues and the multiplicity of spurious candidates, including party-list groups, the Arroyo regime now grants the Dark Princes a P100-billion stimulus package and tax breaks worth billions more for their power, water, and telecoms companies. Only President Joseph Estrada raised the current power crisis fraud as an issue. At a press conference late last week at the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) headquarters on Shaw Boulevard, President Estrada belied the Arroyo government’s tale about the Mindanao power crisis and the horrendous overpricing in its emergency power plan. Although media arrived in full force, there was hardly any report in the mainstream newspapers and broadcast outlets the next day. What many in the media wanted and excitedly thought they were going to get was an announcement that Erap would be withdrawing from the race, which, of course, didn’t happen. But it speaks of what media are when all they would do is scramble for a sensational story based on hearsay rather than take extra pains to report on a genuine national crisis and blatant plunder. Needless to say, their news editors, publishers and producers share much of the blame. That is why I am no longer surprised with such muted coverage of an important response to the power scam being foisted on us. The oligarchs behind the power industry represent hefty advertising clout that these mainstream newspaper owners fear right down to their bones. That dread of challenging the Dark Princes also permeates the rest of media and the political milieu, particularly the candidates they surreptitiously support, i.e. the Yellow candidate and Mr. Villarroyo. It should therefore not be surprising that two news items of the last five days that are vital to the Filipino people’s knowledge of their treasury and electricity supply — March 21’s “Additional incentives via IPP to help address supply lack” and March 25’s “Telco, power, water to get P100-B stimulus” — which only the Tribune carried with prominence, were hardly covered by mainstream media — a testament to the Dark Princes’ control of information today. Among the tax incentives the BoI reported are the “tax-free importation” of generating units and the “tax holidays” for power companies that have long been raking in billions. Now, they will get more tax freebies from a crisis they helped create while ordinary Filipinos soon face an upsurge in their VAT payments from 12 percent to 15 percent! Only God knows if these companies will get the same tax holidays as the Manila Water, which enjoyed a decade of non-payment of billions of pesos in taxes. On top of these tax freebies, the IMF-WB’s finance manager in the Philippines (aka Finance Secretary Gary Teves) is even proposing a P100-billion stimulus package for “infrastructure projects lined up for the telecommunications, power and water sectors.” I can’t imagine why these top earners among the “Top 1,000 Corporations” would still need any more “stimulus.” But this is how our society is organized: The rich oligarchs get more while the poor people give more. In the meantime, the Yellow candidate threatens “people power” if the elections are waylaid. Call-ins to radio programs, however, reflect an opposite reaction. A masa lady over a DWWW morning program, for instance, said (in Filipino): “His people power is only for the rich. The poor are worse off. Marcos and Erap were better as no one was ever deliberately mowed down in demonstrations and rallies (recalling the Mendiola, Hacienda Luisita and Edsa III massacres).” The last people power the Yellow candidate enthusiastically supported was Edsa II which installed Gloria Arroyo. Still, I’d encourage him to go on with the people power myth so that other forces such as the nationalist military groups and the Edsa III masa activists can intervene and finally sort out the mess Edsa I and II created. Only by stopping the oligarchs’ plunder can we return this country to the path of genuine political and economic democracy. This sham electoral system and exercise can lead to nothing else but chaos while the real economic and social hardships of the people continue to aggravate. Gloria Arroyo’s struggle to survive this transition of power is just a side show to the real crisis — the oligarchs’ and the Dark Princes’ continuing stranglehold on our lives, their insatiable plunder of our nation’s wealth and resources, and their ceaseless efforts to crush the light of hope and the future of our people. (Tune in to 1098AM, Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “Unorthodox Candidates: Jimmie Regalario and PEP”; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com) (Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel) Source: The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100326com5.html |
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