More hot air in today’s talkfest

Expect the cool December weather to suddenly turn unseasonably warm today as hot air from the so-called Economic Summit pushes the cold Christmas wind away for the next couple of days. It is almost as if the regular gusts of hot air from the two houses of Congress are not enough to distress a helpless Filipino people even in the best of times!

I have been following the special feature in Nancy Irlanda’s nightly business newscast on ANC 21. Nancy interviewed the supposed movers and shakers of the summit and I have heard nothing over the past two weeks that is new and would make this talkfest necessary.

While hot air may lift a balloon, unfortunately, hot air of the nature produced by Filipino officials will not lift a sinking economy. When mixed with the noxious gases that choke EDSA during rush hours, Filipino political hot air can only cause splitting headaches.

What is there to talk about? We are in a serious economic crisis. This crisis is not expected to abate until late 2002 or most likely 2003, but only if the US economy lifts by mid 2002.

Or maybe we should talk about job loss here and abroad. Or the depreciating value of the peso. We are losing the shield provided in the past by the dollar inflows from OFWs. Our OFWs are suffering salary cuts, being laid off their jobs or deciding to keep their money in dollars. With our export income and foreign investor interest down and with little by way of OFW dollars to cover the shortfall, the peso is buying less and less of value from the world market.

So no matter what our feelings toward globalization might be, we are stuck with our domestic economy for the next few years. And that means agriculture. We need to think of ways to improve the sector’s productivity, how to put buying power in the hands of our farmers. A resurgent countryside will have beneficial effects on the rest of the economy. Farmers with buying power will most likely buy products of our manufacturing sector.

I am sure our President, a PhD in Economics, knows exactly what to do to sustain us through this economic crisis. She should just go ahead and do what she must. If she thinks she can get consensus through this talkfest before she acts, she is mistaken. Lately, we are not exactly known as a people able to reach a consensus on anything. Talkfests, like Congress, only confuse and serve to delay what must be done.

In short, this summit is a waste of time. Let’s be done with it. And get to work na.

Mediation

I got an e-mail from Belle Abaya in Boston correcting an item I had in my column last Monday. Actually, she wrote, the project she worked on with the Supreme Court is in mediation, not arbitration. She clarified that "arbitration is private litigation, where parties and their lawyers argue out their positions as if they were in court, but in front of an agreed 3rd party, by whose decision they will abide."

Belle went on to explain that the "problem with arbitration is that it echoes the same limitations of litigation - 1) it is adversarial so parties end up angrier than when they started, 2) parties who disagree with the decision may not abide by it 3) since the process is strict and formal, the issues are narrowed to what can be a legal issue. But in reality emotions and hurt are normally the roots of the lawsuit. They are usually left undiscussed, so the parties’ relationship is not repaired.

"Mediation, on the other hand, which is as old as many cultures’ indigenous systems of dispute resolution, brings disputing parties together to discuss themselves (not their lawyers) what is the problem, what caused it, and how they want to move on. Whereas arbitration focuses on the past and what happened, mediation focuses on "what has happened has already happened, what do we want to do now?"

"Modern mediation has been refined to give mediators better skills in listening, questioning, re-framing, summarizing, and creatively drawing out options and packaging solutions... The Supreme Court’s mediation project is Davide’s response not just to unclogging the courts, but giving greater access to justice, and one that is more satisfying and durable. Studies show that because the parties partook in shaping the solution, they are more satisfied, and the compliance to the agreement is more lasting.

"So, imagine in 10 days of mediation ordered by Davide, we mediated 1,500 cases and resolved 81 percent of them, mostly in one sitting of no more than three hours each. It is a tribute to our perceptive mediators who trained for it. And to think Davide was able to harness all 400 people to give their time for free to be trained in the classroom and in actual court practice, and then to serve again pro bono for 10 days — that is really leadership!"

Now I wonder what happened to the project after Belle went back to Boston. Hopefully, it has been instituted as a going concern by the Supreme Court.

Fair warning

This one’s from Dr. Ernie E.

A man finds himself on the operating table, about to be operated on by his daughter-in-law, the surgeon.

The man says, "Think of it this way ... If anything happens to me, your mother-in-law is coming to live with you."

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@bayantel.com.ph)