The elections, NGCP and DeepSeek’s AI

Three topics today: 1) The May 2025 elections, the Philippine National Police and the Commission on Elections; 2) the purchase by Maharlika Investment Corp. of eight percent of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and 3) the turmoil in the AI world with the sudden prominence of DeepSeek AI that was developed at a fraction of the cost its US rivals and what that means to you and me.

The May 12 electoral exercise this year is crucial for it will: 1) draw political battlelines in preparation for the 2028 presidential elections, in particular, between the ruling Marcos and Romualdez clans on one side, and the degraded, demonized Duterte clan on the other; 2) select the next generation of leaders at the LGU, congressional and senatorial levels and 3) be a time of reckoning, a mid-term accounting or referendum on the six-year presidency of Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. who still enjoys majority job approval ratings.

For these reasons, it is critical that the summer elections are clean, honest, transparent, with a quick and reliable count. That is where the Philippine National Police and the Comelec enter the picture.

PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil turns 56 on Feb. 7, 2025 and ordinarily should thus retire. But his term is being extended until after the elections to ensure continuity of command for the 228,000-strong PNP to guard the polls.

May 12 is the first election for George Erwin M. Garcia since becoming Comelec chair on July 22, 2022. Before joining the Comelec as commissioner on March 8, 2022, he was the Philippines’ leading election lawyer, with BBM among his clients. BBM, they say, was cheated in the 2016 vice presidential race. George advanced the P8 million needed for the filing fee. The protest was overrun by the 2022 presidential elections, which BBM won by an overwhelming majority (58.77 percent), the first time in 53 years that a presidential winner got a majority mandate. An honest guy, George knows election trickery of all kinds like the palm of his hand.

Both Marbil and Garcia are the guests of honor and speakers of the Manila Overseas Press Club during our Comelec-PNP Night, with the theme “The Game Changer: The May 2025 Elections” on Feb. 4, Tuesday, starting 6 p.m., dinner, at the Manila Polo Club. Seats are limited. Those interested may call Dena 0920-204-9229.

^{Maharlika Fund buys 8 percent of NGCP}

Within 90 days from Jan. 27, 2025, the sovereign wealth fund Maharlika Investments Corp. will pay P19.7 billion to listed holding company, the Synergy Grid & Development Phils. Inc. (SGP), for a 20 percent stake in SGP. The 20 percent SGP stake is equivalent to an indirect 8 percent ownership of NGCP, the transmission monopoly.

NGCP is majority controlled by Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert G. Coyiuto Jr., through their holding company, SGP, which owns 60 percent of NGCP.

With its P19.7 billion in primary preferred shares of SGP, Maharlika gets two out of the nine directors of SGP and two out of the 15 directors of NGCP. Maharlika’s P19.7-billion preferred shares of SGP are guaranteed to earn 6.5 percent or P1.28 billion per year, for a total of P3.84 billion in three years. The prefs are also voting shares, just like common shares. After three years, Maharlika has the option to convert its preferred shares into common voting shares.

It seems Maharlika will be a long-term investor in NGCP. That will enable the government to observe and monitor first-hand the operations of the Philippines’ transmission behemoth, a veritable cash cow that operates in strategic partnership with 40 percent NGCP owner, the State Grid of China – the world’s largest utility company (bigger than Saudi Aramco), the world’s third largest company in revenues (after Walmart and Amazon) and the world’s tenth most valuable brand, $85.6 billion worth, better than Nvidia.

Big Boy Sy and Robert Coyiuto can use the awesome P19.7-billion government cash infusion (not that many banks can lend you a P19.7-billion chunk for only 6.5 percent interest per year) so NGCP can accelerate the rollout of transmission lines to connect the archipelago, finally, to a nationwide electricity grid so nearly every Juan can enjoy cheap, reliable and easily available electricity.

China’s DeepSeek is the new AI darling

On Jan. 21, 2025, Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company with market value of $1.35 trillion. The US company produces most of the graphic processing units (GPUs), the computer chips that power the software for human-like computers called artificial intelligence (AI), like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

By October 2024, OpenAI, founded in 2015, had raised $6.6 billion from investors, valuing it at $157 billion, to improve its ChatGPT AI. On Jan. 21, 2025, President Trump announced a $500-billion Stargate super AI project funded by OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX.

On Jan. 27, 2025, all those efforts became nothing more than overrated, overpriced hype when the Chinese, through DeepSeek, announced an AI application developed at a cost of only $5.6 million (not billions) in less than two years but does better than nearly all its US rivals, including ChatGPT, using fewer and so/so chips and greenhorn and inexperienced engineers.

DeepSeek’s R1 became the No. 1 app downloaded from Apple. It is a free software and an open source, meaning anyone can meddle into it and improve on it. R1 is said to be as powerful as OpenAI’s ChatGPT – in mathematics, coding and reasoning.

What DeepSeek means for you and me is – it will cost very little to enjoy the wonders of AI to make your life better (or worse). AI will be cheap, easily available and reliable. Thanks to the Chinese.

Now, if only DeepSeek could teach you how to court a girl or make your wife happy.

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