Why should Zamora take the rap for what he didn't do?

If the President wants to replace Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, that's up to him. But he has to say he's doing it for some other reason.

When Zamora confirmed yesterday he had offered his "resignation", the reason given was that he was taking responsibility for the snafu in the snap "conditional pardon" of priest-killer Norberto Manero, Jr., which embarrassed President Estrada and supposedly took him by surprise when it was exposed by media.

I don't know at this writing whether the President "accepted" Zamora's "courtesy" resignation or whether he rejected it -- or whether (and this is in the realm of the possible in that crafty corner called Malacañang) it was only part of a big zarzuela. If you ask me, why on earth should Erap bite?

Even more ridiculous was the claim of ex-Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas who pounced on the news of the Zamora move to quit as a vindication for himself. Cuevas said yesterday he felt "vindicated" by newspaper "stories" that it had been Zamora who had singled out Manero and allegedly "inserted" his name on the list of convicts to be pardoned last Christmas season.

There have been many rumors about why Cuevas was really fired by the President, but as everybody knows a hundred rumors don't add up to a single fact, and gossip in this country where malicious tales fly faster than a speeding bullet isn't worth a pitcher (as the Americans say) of warm spit.

The fact remains that Killer Manero, pardoned and riding around in a Mercedes Benz (and "rumored" to be hiding out in some plush hotel) is very much at large. He didn't worm his way into some bolthole or hiding place in North Cotabato, but came sassily back to Metro Manila -- specifically, Quezon City -- as brassy as you please. This means that he's confident that his friends in high places and among so-called law enforcers will keep him safe and comfortable.

There's even been a concerted effort to polish up convicted murderer Manero's image, the burthen of which is that he was a staunch fighter (meaning himself, his siblings, and his CHDG and Ylaga gang) for democracy, holding the line with might and main against Moro and Communist terrorists.

If this keeps up, his victim, Italian missionary Tullio Favali, dead these past 15 years, may yet end up as the villain -- while Manero may even be nominated not just for "hero" status but for avenging "saint."

What sort of a country is this? The priest may not have been a terrific guy (what does it matter?) but certainly he was the victim of murder most foul -- and a source of brain-food. Doesn't that turn your stomach?

Manero and his group must have done a lot of powerful favors for a lot of powerful people -- and this is what should worry us no end. How many more "favors" will he now be in a position to do? All that ululating about Manero having turned over a new leaf, being "too old" for more mischief and even, reputedly having been converted to "Islam" is just part of the smoke being blown in our faces.

The bottom line is this: Would you want him to be your next-door neighbor?

There's sure to be more bad news at the corner gas pump. The oil companies are raising their prices. Bataan Rep. Enrique "Tet" Garcia, Jr. (2nd district), who's been batting for a "revised National Oil Exchange Proposal" came to the Tuesday Club at the EDSA Plaza Shangri-la to blow a gasket. I've written favorably of Garcia's Oilex scheme before, as a means of discombobulating the Big. 3 oil giants here -- Caltex, Shell and Petron. It seemed like a club we could use to fight the almost invincible worldwide oil cartel.

After further study on the matter however (sorry, Tet), creating an Oilex may be an idealistic idea, but I'm afraid it won't work. We can't mobilize the machinery and expertise, I've reluctantly come to believe, to implement such an alternative plan. This doesn't mean that we, the poor, abused consumers, ought to fall down and roll over -- and beg for mercy. We've got to find ways and means of combatting the cruel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but don't ask me for immediate solutions. That is what we pay our government officials and technological experts to do -- unless they're subservient to the Big Oil interests.

What discouraged me about a unilateral fight against the OPEC is the revelation that we may have nowhere to run. Let me explain this. Forty per cent of the world's oil production is accounted for by the OPEC member -- countries. Sixty per cent of the world's oil is provided by non-OPEC member countries, e.g. Mexico, Norway, Britain (North Sea Oil), Russia and Malaysia. The trouble is that in the past year -- to our consternation -- the non-OPEC nations appear to be cooperating fully with the OPEC knaves for the same greedy reasons, namely that of holding oil extraction and production down so as to jack up the prices. It's a conspiracy that has mushroomed into an almost complete monopoly -- that's what it seems.

The OPEC, -- formed in 1960 by Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, and now includes Libya and Algeria -- has been pushing relentlessly since the "oil shock" of 1973 to shoot up the world prices of oil. Its most spectacular achievement in 1980 was to force the cost of oil to soar to $30 per barrel, when in 1973 it had been only $3 per barrel.

This week, by pushing hard, the OPEC is now close to upping the price of oil back up to $30 per barrel from $29 -- and, with the United States and Europe still locked in winter (which requires much oil-heating and burns up fossil fuels like nobody) the cartel is making this stick. Never mind all that oil industry razzmatazz about oil prices being set on the basis of West Texas, Dubai/Oman, and Brent (North Sea oil). It's all the same -- we, the consumers around the planet, are getting royally plucked. (I was tempted to use the "F" word, but this is a family newspaper).

What can we do in an emergency, with the rising costs of oil, fuel and other petroleum products threatening to rise, week after week. Grandes males, grandes remedios. The government has not been forthright and honest in telling the harassed Filipino users and customers of fuel who see their gasoline and bunker oil costs ballooning that 30 percent to 38 percent of the price of oil and oil products consists of the "specific tax" that the government collects. Yep. They're taxing us that much -- in part, to finance the Congressional "pork barrel."

The oil companies -- who insist that the government cannot possibly persuade the international refiners to keep product prices down, or prevail on the ruthless OPEC to relent -- have confidentially offered a deal to the government. If the government reduces its specific tax (45 to 63 percent of cost is due to the "landed cost of crude"), they will cooperate by bearing part of the burden and also reducing their share commensurately.

This is not a sweetheart deal; it may not even be an attractive deal (since the International Monetary Fund keeps the pressure up for our government to raise and collect more taxes rather than "forgive" them), but it may be the only way. Otherwise, let's face it, we'll have social upheaval and unrest.

There is no shortcut to meeting the oil-price crisis. Over the longer haul, we must reduce our dependence on oil -- which is easier said than done. For starters, let's get rid (okay, it's reductio ad absurdum) of those oil-gobbling EDSA traffic jams and other traffic snarls. The only way to teach the OPEC a thing or two is to develop our geothermal energy as quickly as possible, revert our oil-fed power plants in time to hydroelectric power (which means reforesting our watersheds and cleaning up our silted dams), and find "oil" ourselves somewhere in our archipelago. I've long had a suspicion that the oil giants know where there's oil here -- whether on land or undersea -- but they don't want to "find" it.

Otherwise, what else can we do -- but pray. Among our prayers should be a strong one, begging our Lord for a more enlightened, earnest, and honest government. Alas, as Abraham Lincoln once said, "A people get only the kind of government that they deserve."

Gee whiz. Why are the former "rulers" of North Greenhills, who governed there through various stratagems for ten long years, still desperately trying to keep the "power" which two-thirds of the North Greenhills voting members have already taken away from them?

A new, hardworking North Greenhills Board, elected last February 6 (with 229 or 71.9 percent of the 319 qualified voter-residents voting for it) has already taken over the running of the village, including the clubhouse, the office, and Johnson Park. A new security force, Mega Force, has temporarily replaced the "El Tigre" security force which did the bidding of the old Board, but a final contract with any security group (even "El Tigre" again) is still being negotiated.

Everything is running smoothly and normally. Garbage is being collected. The gates are being manned by both Mega Force and "El Tigre" guards. Security is -- secure. The new board has brought annual dues down to a reasonable ten pesos per square meter, the way things used to be before the previous Board in 1998 slapped an outlandish 18 pesos per square meter on each resident. Owners' vehicles come and go, using the same old stickers, without hindrance.

And yet, the old board is trying to create a false impression that the new North Greenhills Board is "illegal." What nonsense. Let them accept the government's ruling on the matter, when it is finally and formally declared. In the meantime, the elected Board 2000, under the presidency of Atty. Eliseo "Benny" Villamor, quietly and without incident took over the offices and other facilities of the village and are running them effectively. New Board Resolutions have been passed and circulated to all.

The turnover was made by the sheriff of the San Juan Municipal Trial Court who served the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) of the Home Insurance and Guaranty Corp. (HIGC), the official entity that franchises and adjudicates homeowners' associations. There was no "blitzkrieg" as scurrilous unsigned letters claim, which were being circulated surreptitiously. No fuss. No resistance.

Now, the old Board claims that power reverted to it (given by their own candidates, whose composition -- wow -- is almost identical with the old board, whose authority lapsed last December 31, 1999), is trying to collect "dues" from the residents. How can this be legal? They are finished, kaput, gone. Would not their collecting dues be a case of estafa? They should ask their own lawyers to clarify this to them. At least, though, their machinations are public.

What's disgusting is that the villagers are being bombarded nightly with a cowardly and lying sheet of outrageous allegations, unsigned, but only labeled, sanamagan, "From concerned and law-abiding residents of North Greenhills."

Give us a break. Those peddlers of smear can't be called "law-abiding." They're just scum.