Grandstanding on Napocor mess - Gotcha

Expect traffic jams this Holy Week on Luzon North and South Expressways because they won't add toll booths and collectors at usual bottlenecks. These are: (North) exits to Balintawak, Valenzuela, Pulang Lupa, Meycauayan, Baliuag; (South) Sun Valley, Sta. Rosa, Calamba.

Drive carefully, because they also let in violators of basic tollway rules. Last weekend, both were full of cars with no tail lights, buses and jeepneys with open doors, and vendors on shoulders.

Expect more jams along MacArthur Highway from Dau, Pampanga to Capas, Tarlac where cops let trucks park on shoulders. Also along the stretch of Luisita Mall in Tarlac City where there are no cops at all. Avoid the Concepcion diversion; four stretches are under repair though passable.

At Pansol, Los Baños, Laguna, there are no cops too. Same with the roads going up to Tagaytay.

And, oh, pay your Road User's Tax religiously.

It's incredible for lobbies that will benefit from Napocor's fire sale to bribe two activist sectoral reps to vote against it. Why give enemies ammo to use for propaganda, as they're doing now?

Even more outlandish is the claim of two LAMP mavericks that the supposed bribe was coursed through House Minority Leader and LAKAS executive vice president Sonny Belmonte. LAKAS had blocked the bill for more than a year. Up to the closing hours of Congress sessions last week, LAKAS members stood up to point out its flaws. Too bad that after 20 hours of nonstop floor debates, LAMP won 146-30.

What's plausible is that money changed hands under the table to fuel LAMP to railroad the Omnibus Power Act. More so since it contains a dirty rider to pass on to taxpayers P570 billion in Napocor debts just so prospective buyers can start on a clean slate.

The bribery claim diverts public attention from the real issue. It's a case of sectoral reps yelling for months for a share of congressional pork, then yelling even louder that they were bribed when they finally got it.

LAKAS Rep. Heherson Alvarez and LP Rep. Wigberto Tañada had objected up to the end. They argued that the bill violates the Constitution by exempting power generation from the definition of "public utilities." It would thus let foreigners own and operate power plants, which is worse than the Build-Operate-Transfer Law that allows them only to own but not to operate.

Alvarez and Tañada also said the bill would lead to monopoly of the power business. It has no safeguards against cross-ownership, and thus does not encourage true competition. Huge local and foreign firms in Luzon can gobble up power plants in Visayas and Mindanao.

They also likened to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant the passing on to taxpayers of Napocor's P150-billion maturing commercial debts. Marcos had borrowed billions of dollars for the BNPP, and huge chunks of the loan went into his and cronies' pockets. Yet taxpayers were forced to repay the loan during the Aquino administration, although they never benefited from the mothballed plant.

Alvarez and Tañada also questioned the passing on to consumers of another P420 billion in Napocor "stranded costs." These are unexpired contracts with Independent Power Producers, from whom Napocor is forced to buy 85 percent of their electricity at rates 35 percent higher than Napocor's own generation rates. The two congressmen said Napocor's prospective buyers should take on the risk of stranded costs just like any normal businessman.

Another LAKAS congressman, Oscar Moreno, led the debates for six of the 20 gruelling hours. He pounded away on just one issue that LAMP congressmen couldn't adequately answer. He asked: If the bill would pass on to taxpayers-consumers Napocor's P150 billion in maturing debts and P420 billion in onerous contracts, then why sell Napocor at all? He argued out that, from a strictly business point of view, the P570-billion writeoff should allow Napocor -- not any prospective buyer -- to start anew on a clean slate and continue operating its many generation and distribution plants. Napocor could borrow again to modernize its equipment and retire its present crop of mismanagers.

Sadly, all this is lost on the public -- just because four congressmen chose to dramatize the bill's flaws with an unbelievable claim that LAKAS did nothing about it.

INTERACTION. Alex Macauyag, aol.com: Forced absorption of Napocor's mismanaged debts is swindling the masa (Gotcha, 17 Apr. 2000).

And there's more than just one of us born every minute, Alex.

Edward Cham, mozcom.com: Re cellphone firms' voice mail racket (Gotcha, 15 Apr. 2000), a caller is charged for a completed call as soon as the voice mail answers.

Yeah, Edward, and it answers because of the firm's poor signal.

Mira Castillo, manila-on-line.net: What voice mail? My CP still can't access it. At first, the CP firm said they'll set up the feature. Next day, they said they have problems with access code 919, esp. with prefix 3-which is my cell number. That was two months ago. My husband's CP firm has voice mail, but it doesn't work outside Manila. RP has a good variety of phones to choose from, but all CP firms have bad service. And what does government do? Anything that doesn't work -- roads, cellphones -- tax 'em.

If so, government should tax itself, Mira.

Veegee Garcia, livewire.net: Erap promised to rid main roads of tricycles, pedicabs and smoke belchers. Well, they're still there. In Diliman, QC, tricycles lord it over the streets, blocking roads, counterflowing against traffic, parking on sidewalks.

Benjie Alvarez, BF-Parañaque: They've been spending a lot lately to improve Erap's image. But no amount of packaging can improve a bad product.

YOUR BODY. If you're alone and feel a heart attack, apply self-CPR fast. You'll have only 10 seconds before your heart stops beating. Cough vigorously repeatedly, taking deep breaths every two seconds, until help arrives or the heart regains normal beating. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing squeezes the heart to keep blood pumping. This gives enough time to phone for help.

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