Wanted: Ideologies for political parties

A couple of weeks ago, Senators Joker Arroyo and Ralph Recto visited the Tsuneishi Shipyard in Balamban in the Western seaboard of Cebu Island to see for themselves the nation’s largest shipbuilding facility. After their quick tour of the place, the two Senators were literally shocked and awed by what they saw. This shipbuilding industry is not a mom and pop operation, it is a world-class ship manufacturing facility.

The senators saw five huge vessels in various stages of assembly. The steel plates were shaping up into bulk carrier vessels. In fact, one strange looking vessel has already a name emblazoned on its side – HÖEGH AutoLines.

This vessel is called a Car Carrier capable of accommodating 5,100 cars on board. Just a few days ago, our friends from the Tsuneishi Shipyard e-mailed me photos of the Autolines vessel, which is already on its sea trials and will be delivered by the end of March.

When Sen. Ralph Recto spoke inside the Buanoy Barangay Hall to talk to the ship workers, he emphasized that this Senatorial race is not a test of popularity between President Arroyo or deposed President Joseph "Erap" Estrada. The issue is what Senatorial candidates like him can do to bring jobs into this country because jobs means our poor people can have food on their table and pay for the schooling of their children.

I’ve been scanning the pages of our national dailies and everyone who gets to be interviewed by the media will give you details of why he or she is running, but they don’t tell you what they can do when they are elected to the Senate. Again, all this is happening because of personality politics. Actor Richard Gomez is running because he has the money to fund his campaign. Yet, he didn’t bother to pay his taxes, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)? How about Noynoy Aquino? He’s running because he is the son of Ninoy Aquino. Period!

What’s sadly missing in today’s political parties is an ideology worth fighting for. For instance, I still have to hear Team Unity make a stand on Charter change (cha-cha)? That’s an ideology worth fighting for. Let’s ask those running for senator whether they understand what Federalism is? If they do, then are they willing to change the Charter because they know that a shift to a Federal System of governance will do wonders to this country? Again, these are major issues not being tackled by either the administration or the opposition. It is everyman or woman for him or herself!

Talking about Federalism, my good friend Manuel Lino Faelnar, vice president for Metro Manila of the Save Our Languages Through Federalism Foundation Inc. (SOLFED), e-mailed me that he was a convenor of the "The Federalist Forum: Towards Genuine Self-Rule, Equitable Regional Development and Cultural Preservation" held Feb. 24 at the University of Asia and the Pacific. Keynote speakers were former senator John Osmeña, Sen. Vicente Paterno, Marietta Goco and former Tawi-Tawi governor Almarin Tillah. Frankly speaking, I have always known that former senator John Osmeña was pro-Federalism, but how come I still don’t hear him bring this out into the open this topic as an agenda of the opposition?

What was clear in that forum is that the issue of Federalism has started to wane. It was quite hot during the sorties made by the Abueva Commission but due to the election season, the issue on Federalism has been sidelined when it should have been a major ideology for a political party. I can only sigh in frustration that the reason why this country can never grow is that Senatorial candidates don’t really care to build a better government; they only want the people’s votes to get them into political power.

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Perhaps our Senatoriables can also look at the other important issues that strike into the heart of the Filipino people. Just a week ago, we read in one of the news dailies that the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) raided seven outlets in Singalong, Manila selling counterfeit drugs, especially fake Viagra. Seized were fake drugs with a street value of P35 million. Hey, we’re not talking here about the illegal drug trade. We’re talking here about fake drugs being sold to innocent Filipinos at supposedly half the price of the original drug.

It’s bad enough that people have to pay high prices for drugs in this country but paying a little less for drugs that look the same as the original but has no medicinal value at all is criminal! According to that news, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that 30 percent of drugs sold in Southeast Asia are fakes or counterfeit!

Last Monday, I was in Manila for a day for a very important meeting and since we finished early, I went to the Glorietta and I bumped into an old friend, Cathy Salceda nee Ileto, who used to be with Globe Telecom and Innove. Coincidentally, she is now a senior manager of the corporate affairs division of Pfizer, the drug company that is famous for the Blue pill that people with Erectile Dysfunction Syndrome (EDS) use.

Being an old friend and since I had that news clipping on that fake Viagra, I asked her a straight question, "Why are medicines in India cheaper by 80 percent? She came up with this reply: "Pricing policies differ from one country to another due to factors such as overriding government policies, local manufacturing and operational costs. What Pfizer offers would be evidence-based medicines that have gone through extensive research, as well as a patient care program, where we provide patients with relevant health information and education materials. In India, there are approximately 30,000 pharmaceutical companies that conduct operations; many of these are generic companies largely selling bulk medicines. The level of competition will naturally cause lowering prices of medicines." No doubt that she answered well. But what this country needs is good quality cheap medicines. How do we achieve that? Again I’d like to hear it from our Senatoriables what they think is the solution to this problem. We shall be writing more on this subject. After all, I do take a lot of medicines that I buy myself and since medicines are very expensive here, I’m sure we can find a way to reduce this cost and make it affordable to our people. If multinational companies like Pfizer has something up its sleeve to help the Filipino people, then we’re all ears!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable at 8 p.m.