Stanley Ho Should Just Stay Home

At this point, I think Stanley Ho will be a tough sell. The attempt to use public relations to turn the story around isn't going to work. Stanley Ho came out looking somewhat condescending in his interview with Manila-based reporters brought by Best World to Hong Kong to see him. So Mr. Ho is threatening to forget his plan to invest in the Philippines. All we can say in response is, promise, ha?

It is best for both the country and for the Macau casino king for Stanley Ho to just stay home. His money would normally be welcome in this investment-starved country. But then again, we seem to have enough evidence to conclude that Mr. Ho is more trouble than he is worth.

The Canadian intelligence reports on Mr. Ho's alleged triad connections cannot be dismissed outright. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the Canadians do not make such reports lightly. If a country as stable as Canada is worried about Mr. Ho, this graft prone Third World country we call our home should be more concerned.

In any case, I do not see what value added benefits Mr. Ho will bring to this country. If as he says, he is not interested in putting up a gambling operation here, the question is, what will he do? Mass housing? Not likely. That was just his bait to make President Estrada salivate. Restaurant as in the floating restaurant he calls Jumbo Palace? It might be less trouble to just import some Chinese chefs and have the Bataan Shipyard build a Jumbo Palace.

Mr. Ho isn't even here yet and the integrity of the stock exchange is now in question, no thanks to Best World, the issue identified with him. Even if only half of the things the Canadian intelligence reports are true, we will be in big trouble if Mr. Ho comes here. It should be very easy to buy our officials or finance coups.

The President appears partial to Mr. Ho. This is why religious and civic groups should sustain the pressure to keep Mr. Ho out. With Macau back in Chinese hands, Mr. Ho must be desperately looking for a safer base of operations. If we let him here, we run the risk of making him the virtual king of this country. That's just how he operates.

Keep Stanley Ho out. There is too much gambling and other vices here as it is. We don't need to get someone who makes it his business to control the political life of the territory where he operates.

One other issue that stinks like hell is the P35-billion barangay phone project of the DOTC. This was the project that made former Usec Josefina Lichauco resign after so many years of government service and, even if as a career official, she can't otherwise be removed from office other than for cause. In resigning, she even had to give up the presidency of the prestigious International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an honor the country would have enjoyed as well. It must be that bad.

Trade and Industry Secretary-designate Mar Roxas is right in asking the President to junk the project and just use the money for more worthwhile purposes. As we heard it, some people who claim closeness to President Erap, have just about cornered the juicy contracts directly or by proxy. For some reason, the project is exempted from a transparent competitive bidding and review by the NEDA.

What's the hurry, anyway? The private phone companies have put up phones in the countryside and are experiencing difficulties selling the service. Yet, they are even in the more populous areas. People in the hinterlands have more important priorities than phones... you know, like food and education.

The barangay phone project isn't like the power crisis situation which justified skipping the public bidding process. It is certainly no emergency. Besides, government is better off investigating new technologies that make it possible to use power lines for telecommunications. We may find out after spending all those billions in the barangay phone project, that we have one big and expensive system that is out of date.

If President Erap is serious about good clean government, he can't let this project through. The ECC should advise the President well on this. Or maybe we should ask Washington to investigate such potential vendors as Lucent Technologies for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if they get awards under present hurried and non-transparent circumstances.

I received this comment from STAR reader Peter Parsons which I think deserves wider dissemination. He may have found a world class Filipino hero.

I read your Demand and Supply column of Jan. 29 with great interest. I agree with much of your speculation. However, it always surprises and disappoints me that, in discussions about possible Philippine heroes, the name of Jose Abad Santos never seems to come to mind.

He was not shot at dawn on the Luneta, but he was shot in Cebu by the Japanese during the dawn of WWII. He was then the Chief Justice and by default the first man in the country -- Quezon and Osmena having taken up residence with MacArthur.

Abad Santos was offered the opportunity to leave the country by the Americans but he chose to stay. When captured by the Japanese, he was offered the job of puppet president, which he also refused. They offered him more time to rethink his position.

In the presence of his tearful son, he stated that he didn't need more time and that if they were going to shoot him, let them do it now. He also asked to be shot without a hood, and frontally, not in the back. He told his son not to cry in front of the Japanese.

The Japanese, after shooting him, told his son that his father had been a true hero.

The reason his name has not been more highly revered is that the history of the country has largely been written by what Luis Taruc calls "Super Balimbings," and in light of Jose Abad Santos' choice to die rather than collaborate, their own actions pale. They rightfully could not afford to extol his virtues.

So perhaps you could in your good column, bring his name to the fore once again, even if for a brief moment. He deserves it, even if he did not become the "world-class hero" of your search. His noble-minded choice was certainly world-class.

Looks like Erap jokes of more recent vintage, i.e. about his problematic handling of the economy, is going around the Filipino community in the US. Here is one, sent by Texas-based Dr. Ernie Espiritu.

Erap was visited by a businessman, who expressed wariness about the national economy.

"Things look great," assured Erap. "Why, if I wasn't president, I'd be buying stocks myself."

"If you weren't president," said the businessman, "so would I." (Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])