Over dinner with a group of newspaper columnists at the Palace, the President reiterated her feeling that she has done well in the economic front. The inflation rate is as low as it has ever been in two years. On the budget deficit, she is confident her finance and budget secretaries can keep it at programmed levels. She said she could probably bring down interest rates some more but that won’t bring more investments in unless she addresses the problem of competitiveness.
She is pleased with the performance of her economic managers. "I can leave them on auto-pilot now," she beamed. She is also confident she has a winning program on power rates. Peace and order, however, is a headache.
The President said she left peace and order and security in the expert hands of the PNP but will now take a stronger hands-on approach. Failure, she said, means heads will roll. She didn’t sound too pleased with the PNP’s effectiveness thus far, as she kept on talking about how the new PNP leadership will produce better results. But if she feels that way, why did she appoint its former chief to her Cabinet. Is she still paying a political debt?
She said the recent order to relieve PNP officials for failure to curb jueteng would serve notice they mean business. But she also agreed with our observation that more impact could have been generated if more comprehensive criteria, one that covers failure in other areas of police work, have been the basis for such a drastic action.
For example, she said she thinks NCR police chief Edgar Aglipay has performed extremely well, given the multiplicity of problems in the National Capital Region. It is not fair, she said, to fire him simply on the issue of jueteng because he really had bigger headaches. The cases of the police officers should not be reviewed en masse as was done by Napolcom but on a case by case basis, she said. That made me wonder if DILG Secretary Joey Lina acted on his own.
By focusing on jueteng, she agreed that Joey Lina missed a good opportunity to highlight what government is doing to improve police work. But in fairness to Joey, the President said the DILG head argued that if police officials are ineffective in something as simple and obvious as jueteng, how can they be expected to control the big ones like kidnapping, robbery, etc. Also, it has been observed that as a general rule, the police officers where jueteng is rampant are also the least efficient in fighting crime.
Beyond jueteng, the President said she wants to deliver results in peace and order that could be translated to a general feeling of security among the people. She said peace and order is key to the country’s ability to convert the positive economic fundamentals into benefits that could be felt by the people in terms of jobs and improved quality of life. Without peace and order, we are just wasting our opportunities.
She said she ordered the new PNP chief to be more proactive in fighting kidnapping. She said she told them to use their intelligence funds to learn who the syndicates are and neutralize them even before they can commit a crime. She said Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told her that his successful campaign in Davao is anchored on good intelligence work. "I told them not to wait before they kidnap somebody," she explained, "know who the syndicates are and act right away." She expects a regular report on the status of these syndicates from the PNP chief.
According to the President, she is giving the new PNP chief a year to clean up the crime situation. But from the way she sounded over dinner, it is obvious she is going to be on their backs and will be very impatient about delivering early results. Expect her to make surprise visits to police headquarters in major towns and cities. She seems to understand that peace and order is a very potent political issue that could be used successfully against her in 2004, specially by someone like Ping Lacson.
She said her appointment of Mayor Duterte to head an anti crime task force should give vitality into the anti crime effort. She said she is not defining the scope of Mayor Duterte’s work and is leaving it up to him to do that. Her appointment of Duterte is expected to deliver the message that she means business and can also be brutally tough on crime.
Having been told that Metro Manila’s horrible traffic jams constitute a disincentive for investors, the President said she ordered newly installed DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza to work closely with MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando in instituting discipline and order in the streets. She said Bayani was really her first choice and is glad he is now in the saddle at MMDA.
Still on the subject of competitiveness, the President said negotiations are on to reform the contract of PIATCO for the new international airport terminal. She said a study by her consultant, former SGV head Gloria Tan Climaco indicates that the contract is too inflated as it stands. It will force them to charge exorbitant rates to recover their costs and that will destroy our competitiveness, she observed.
Asked what made the contract "inflated", she replied that in the re-negotiation with a previous administration, the proponents managed to stuff it with such nebulous things as "goodwill" which will have to be recovered from the public. She didn’t have to go into details. We understood that this must be the portion of the inflated costs that covers excessive consultancy fees paid to a shadowy figure that PIATCO refuses to explain.
On politics, the President said she has ordered her political advisers not to talk about 2004 yet. She agrees with observations that the campaign season for 2004 has come too early. In any case, she said, she intends to focus her attention on national competitiveness issues, primarily power rates and peace and order for now. I imagine she knows that success in these areas will deliver the votes in 2004. Failure or perception of failure will be fatal to her political career.
Dinner was over after an hour and a half and the President was off for two more evening appointments. She had the birthday party of Vice President Tito Guingona and another dinner meeting with another group of newspaper people to go to. At 8:30 in the evening, she still had a long night ahead of her.
Airlines
Unless the flight attendant is particularly attractive, no one really bothers with the in-flight safety lectures before take-off. Maybe, Dr. Ernie E surmises, if they made it a little more interesting, we would. Here are a few examples from Dr. Ernie E.
On a Continental Flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting your child. If you are traveling with more than one small child... pick your favorite.
(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@bayantel.com.ph)