Vintage Erap

The provincial trips of President Joseph Estrada must be rejuvenating for our country's embattled leader. It is during these trips and in these areas that the vintage Erap thrives. This is the Erap of the 1998 campaign, the populist leader who threw away scripts and speeches to rely on his gut and his feelings. It is here where the press critics are of no moment and where the likes of loyalists such as Ike Gutierrez are irrelevant.

Last Friday, January 28, in the sun-drenched public square in San Jose, Antique, President Erap inaugurated a spanking, P10-million office funded by the pioneering program called Third Elementary Education Project (TEEP), without cues and without teleprompters. He was alone and free.

President Erap shook hands with the crowd and exchanged small talk. The people were animated and proud, and the atmosphere was electric. Education Secretary Andrew Gonzalez was beaming and proud as he guided President Erap along the new office. This was President Erap's and Bro. Andrew's day.

Before he left, President Erap vowed to support projects like TEEP, which are aimed at correcting under-investment in "the poorest of the poor" provinces. These are programs being enthusiastically supported by the multilateral funding institutions. Before he left Antique, President Erap exchanged salutes and pleasantries with a group of Boy Scouts. It was a photo-op that made the front pages in the national dailies the following day.

If security permits, President Estrada should be left alone, to work out things based on his intuitive grasp of governance and leadership. He is at his best under such circumstances. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the key to his second wind, his second act.

The Municipal Telephone Projects Office, which was created ten years ago and is supposed to interconnect all municipalities in the country with a "Telepono sa Barangay" program, is to be abolished on February 8, 2000. The program's goal is to install two public pay phone stations and eight ordinary lines in 32,000 barangays. But with the impending abolition of the MTPO, the "Telepono sa Barangay" is really imperilled.

The phone program is foreign-financed. Contracts have already been entered into with telecom companies like Heesung Cable Ltd/LG Information Ltd., Siemens Ateam, Fibercom/ECI Telecom Inc., and Siemens AG. And international banks like Exim Bank of Korea, KBC Bank of Belgium, Trance No. 1 Israel Exim Bank, and Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau have already signified their intention to finance the ambitious phone program.

Now here lies the problem. If the Estrada government does not honor its signed contracts, the Philippines is going to face a credibility problem insofar as the international banking community is concerned. This could again send wrong signals to foreign investors who plan to invest in our country. And it could make it difficult to get, in the future, foreign grants from foreign governments for our other infrastructure projects.

In my brief remarks at the recent launching of my book, "Walking Through the Pathways of Life," at EDSA Shangri-La, I cited three special people who walked with me for many miles during the past many years: Fr. James B. Reuter, Max V. Soliven, and the Macapagal family led by the late President Diosdado Macapagal and incumbent Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I failed to thank one very special person, a stunning lady who led me into the world of professional journalism: Carmen "Chitang" Guerrero-Nakpil.

It was Chitang Nakpil who, one day at Manila Hotel, in the late seventies, asked me to co-write a column with her, and with the late Benedicto David, for the Times Journal. That started me on the road to column-writing -- and yes, it was Chitang, who changed the course of my professional life. How I became a journalist is included in "Walking Through the Pathways of Life."

There is an important global conference -- the Second Annual Curricula Best Practices Symposium -- that starts today at the Manila Midtown Hotel. The gathering will be attended by some 700 selected students, teachers, and administrators from schools in various parts of the world. And the participants have a common interest: the new academic lanes and the latest in Information Technology opened by Net Curricula, which was organized three years ago by Francisco J. Colayco and Engr. Rodolfo Noel I. Lozada.

Two leaders in global communications have been invited to deliver the keynote addresses for the symposium: Dr. Grant Beglarian, director of ThinkQuest of Advanced Network Services and Dr. Virgilio U. Manzano of Hiroshima University. They and other leaders in the field of IT will take up the latest tools to access local classrooms to the learning centers of the world. Those interested in joining the symposium may contact telephone numbers 533-1190 and 533-2482 and ask for Arnel Bondoc.

There is another event, this time in the field of culture, that will be staged tonight at the Alegria Lounge, Holiday Inn, UN Avenue, Manila. It is the restaging of Les Miz, a special adaptation of the world's best loved musicale, Les Miserables, Cameron Mackintosh's production of the Victor Hugo blockbuster novel. Tonight's presentation by Performing Arts International is sponsored by PAGCOR. For details, contact telephone numbers 523-5691 and 526-1212.

Here are excerpts from letters I received during the past several days:

HECTOR SANVICTORES: "I heard the NFA is again thinking of importing more rice. This will worsen the situation the rice farmers are in. Three years ago, they enjoyed good palay prices, about P9 to P10 per kilo. Now, because of the massive rice importation, palay prices have gone down to P5-P6 per kilo. It looks like nobody is taking cognizance of the farmers' plight."

ROMIE P. CASTANEDA: "Last January 24, a Cebu Ferries vessel plying the Cebu-Iligan route came into a sudden stop when its engine broke down. The passengers were terrified as big waves rocked the ship. Fortunately, repair was done in an hour. A similar incident happened with the same boat earlier. Other similar incidents have been happening in the Cebu-Cagayan de Oro route. Apparently, the shipowners are not concerned about the seaworthiness of their ships. Do we have to wait for another tragedy before the authorities concerned do something?"

GIL RUFINO, San Francisco, California, USA: "At least, Fred Lim is trying his best to do the job at hand. More power to Dirty Harry."

Art A. Borjal's e-mail address: