| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
03/23/2012
The day after our Monday column on the Mindanao power sabotage and
blackmail, our comrade in the fight against the electricity supply
manipulation rang up early in the morning. Jojo Borja, stockholder of
Iligan Light and Power, told me that the long power blackouts had
suddenly stopped just two days after our GNN episode on the issue last
Saturday evening.
For good measure, the Monday papers started to
reflect the struggle we have waged for months as some politicians have
reportedly called for investigations. The name of Serge Osmea even
cropped up after being forced to respond to questions from fellow
senators, namely, Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel. In the Lower House,
Mindanao Reps. Vicente Belmonte and Rufus Rodriguez have clamored for
action, too. While were happy over these actions, why did they have to
come so late? More importantly, can our lawmakers provide the long-term
solution by, first of all, reversing the wretched Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (Epira) posthaste?
The citizens, power sector
players, as well as business and local political leaders of Mindanao
have long demanded the mobilization of available power resources, which
the oligarchs minions in the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power
Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. have kept
mothballed despite billions of pesos in losses in the regions economy.
At
the same time, Mindanaoans, particularly the electric cooperatives
(ECs), have made clear their very strong objection to the privatization
of the hydroelectric plants of Mindanao, such as the Agus-Pulangui
system. Not all of them, though, realize that the solution to the entire
nations power price woes lies in this very demand the end to
privatization of the power sector. And this would ultimately mean the
repeal of the Epira a law that bans the public sector from setting up
and maintaining its own non-profit power generation facilities that are
funded by the peoples captive patronage via monthly payments.
If
Philippine media had any real dedication to the nation and the peoples
welfare, this power price issue should always be the major news item all
the time. Sadly, mainstream media, which carry the most palpable daily
impact, are hopelessly in the chains of the oligarchs control.
We
have been told that one party-list congressman has been boycotted by
ABS-CBN in the past few days since he started raising the issue and
named the power oligarchs.
Of course, we all know whose diktats are followed at ABS-CBN, and the other major TV networks are no less controlled.
There used to be laws against such over-reaching control of business and media, but not anymore.
Besides
PeNoy safeguarding his clans own P10-billion interest in Hacienda
Luisita, coupled with his desire to have an Aquino high court, I have
long held that the Corona impeachment hullabaloo is part of a deliberate
PR strategy of the spinmasters (and puppet masters) of Malacaang to
divert from the truly crucial issues of the country.
Imagine: Even
when the power crisis had already caused billions in daily losses to
Mindanao, rousing a seemingly incipient rebellion from the locals there,
this power crisis issue still couldnt make it to the banner of the
major news outfits!
You can just see the twisted priority of the
patently pro-PeNoy op-ed and news writers who wont be shaken to give way
to this vital economic issue even for a day. Still, I am thankful that
the Mindanao power rebellion has at last come to fore.
Corollary
to our power price woes is our fossil fuel supply that is always at the
mercy of world market prices, which absolutely do not reflect true
global demand.
Robert Reich, professor of Public Policy at UC
Berkeley and a former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary, explains in his
article (Why Republicans Arent Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising
Prices at the Gas Pump) that Financial speculators historically
accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users
for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of
all contracts. Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission the federal agency that regulates trading in oil
futures warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil
market (allowing) them to push oil prices higher and higher not only
on the basis of their expectations about the future but also
expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.
Why
then do we 95 million Filipinos allow ourselves to fall prey to these
oil speculators greed and whims? For that matter, why does Obama allow
his 313 million US citizens to be victimized by the same?
Its
because the world has relinquished control to the financial mafias
through democratic elections, which are really akin to their brand of
political UFCs (Ultimate Fighting Championships). Whats worse is that in
the US, Jews control that countrys money.
So it is imperative for
the Philippines to oust the domestic lackeys of the Global Finance
Mafia, like the one running 60 percent of our power supply today.
In
1986, Cory Aquino reversed the public sector or state-led economic
development model by enshrining in her Constitution several private
sector-led schemes while handing the Bangko Sentral to a monetary board
composed of five from the private sector and only two from government
(instead of the other way around).
That is why, above all else, a
radical counter-revolution to the Yellows turnover of our government to
the oligarchs is needed now more than ever.
(Tune in to 1098AM,
dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.;
watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to
9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or
Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV
and radio archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120323com6.html
