The Tisoys score 2; the Celestials ‘zero’ - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

It took 40 days after her assumptioin of the Presidency for President GMA to pick her Secretary of Energy. (She still hasn’t selected a Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources). Why the delays?

Sure, yesterday she finally announced the appointment of bank executive Jose "Lito" Camacho for the Energy post. This means another victory for the Insulares or Tisoys, which I will explain later.

The reason President Macapagal-Arroyo took so long to fill the Cabinet slot for Energy is the fact that four groups surrounding her were lobbying fiercely for that vacancy. These groups are allegedly the Aboitiz Group (with their Osmeña allies), the Lopez Group, the Alcantara Group and the Yuchengo Group. These contending power blocs fought over the Energy Secretaryship with every weapon in their arsenal (I won’t annoy them by comparing the dust-up as similar to les chiens quarrelling over a bone, lest they take umbrage). But you get my drift.

The five names thrown into the arena were – aside from Camacho (who’s country manager of the German (Deutsche Bank in the Philippines) – Jose Cortez, Jr., a cement company operator in Surigao; Rufino Bomasang, a former Department of Energy Undersecretary during the Cory Aquino and FVR administrations; Cyril del Callar, a former Estrada administration DOE Undersecretary; and Raul Paredes, a former oil company executive.

The way I look at it, Camacho was finally pushed to the front row by the added backing (aside from that of Finance Secretary Bert Romulo) of another Tisoy or Insulares power bunch, the faction of Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, of whom President GMA’s close-in support staffer, Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary Vicky Garchitorena, is the prophet. Vicky used to be a ranking executive, remember, of the Ayala Group. She’s emerging as the new "force" in Malacañang, although it may be too early to begin calling her the new Dragon Lady.

The Tisoys of Cebu (the Aboitiz-Osmeña faction) and the Tisoys of Ayala avenue (Jaime Augusto Z. and the younger generation of the Council of Trent) are now riding high. The "Celestials", as represented by the Yuchengco Group are still potent, but not doing too well. Even the determined push by former Vice President Manny Pelaez to push veteran and retired Ambassador Al Yuchengco (who used to be our envoy to Beijing and Tokyo) for the Ambassadorship to the United States flopped on its face. Alas, Al didn’t belong to the aggressive younger breed of PAC-men who’re coming to the fore.

Instead, businessman Albert del Rosario was nominated for Ambassador to Washington DC by the President. (He’s one of the allies of Manny Pangilinan and the Sudono-Anthony Salim bunch, which gives him clout. Mind you, in my enumeration of power blocs, I haven’t yet spelled out the ex-Indonesian Mafia.)

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Actually, just a few days after President Arroyo took over the Presidency, Jesus N. Alcordo of the Aboitiz Group was appointed Energy Secretary. They were already celebrating in his hometown of Naga, Cebu, when his snap appointment was hastily recalled owing, as GMA said during our Greenhills Walking Corp. Forum the other week, to potential "conflict of interest." Yet, thanks to Vicky Garchitorena, all was not lost for Alcordo.

Would you believe? He was quickly "shifted" to the presidency of the National Power Corporation, armed only with a memorandum from PMS Secretary Garchitorena! It was only two weeks after his designation by memorandum that Alcordo got his official "signed" appointment from President Arroyo herself.

Vicky moved like lightning, ahead of GMA. But, at least, Vicky didn’t "snowpake" lucky Jess Alcordo’s name on the document.

The NAPOCOR presidency is a much richer plum, I repeat, than the Energy Secretaryship. But now, with Camacho in that DOE Cabinet slot, the two guys can interact, and "cooperate" (???), particularly in defining the Omnibus Power Reform bill. After all, they’re both backed by the Tisoy connection. (Cronies with one-syllable family names are no longer in fashion, but this must not be misconstrued to mean that cronies no longer exist.)

I hasten to point out that when Alcordo, who was Chairman of the East Asia Power Resources Corp. (owned by the Aboitzes), became the NAPOCOR boss, he came out with a statement that the version of the Omnibus Power Reform bill which had been approved by the bicameral conference committee of Congress during the Estrada regime was acceptable to him. He piously said there was no need to modify it. Forgive me my chronically jaundiced attitude, but I think that was the approved gambit of his entrenched backers. For Alcordo, surely, could not have been ignorant of the fact that the present Cabinet of GMA has taken the position that the old bicam version of the bill was faulty, and ought to be reviewed in order to expugn certain objectionable provisions.

Department of Energy "insider" sources suggest that among the objectionable provisions in the bicam version which are deemed detrimental to the public interest are (a) the part which seeks the elimination of the cross-ownership provisions between generating companies and distribution utilities, thereby allowing the increase of electricity rates through hidden transfer pricing. (If you’ll recall, when the US state of California mistakenly "deregulated" energy and power generation a few years ago, in the foolish belief that this move would bring prices down and make energy "cheaper", the exact opposite happened. The energy companies were taken over by business pirates, energy bills soared out of sight, fast operators pocketed the money while companies went bust, and California became plagued by blackouts and power cut-offs. Now, greedy vested interests here are promoting the same treacherous but "profitable" idea.)

More objections (b): The provision enabling the recovery of stranded contact costs by distribution utilities from the poor government consumers; (c) the bias in favor of foreign firms to allegedly "entice" them to become partners of the government transmission company; (d) the assumption of the outstanding liabilities of rural electrical cooperatives to the National Electrification Administration or NEA by a NAPOCOR spin-off corporation; and (e) the elimination of pro-consumer provisions and transparency safeguards which used to be contained in the original House version of the previous Congress.

In short, if Alcordo and Camacho join hands in pushing the selfish agenda of their only half-hidden sponsors, then we – the unfortunate "consumers" – are lost.

Whatta development!

Who’s this guy Camacho, anyway? What I remember is that in 1986, after his parent organization Deutsche Bank took control of the Bankers’ Trust, which he headed, Camacho was active in getting the consortium of New York banks to whom the government owed billions to reject the "restructuring" of our foreign debts sought by the cash-strapped and fledgling Cory administration. I won’t impute any unpatriotic motives to him for doing this, but many Filipino bankers and executives remember, with loathing, this "blackball" campaign. What’s going to be the agenda of the "new" Secretary Camacho now? Abangan.

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Poor President GMA’s head must be spinning. We wish her well, but her recent appointments seem to be going a bit awry.

If you’ll recall, yesterday I asked why she was moving to impose her old friend (crony?) and political supporter Nick Alcantara on PETRON as "Chairman." PETRON, as you know, is the giant oil firm owned 40 per cent by the Philippine government, 40 per cent by Saudi Aramco, and 20 per cent by private stockholders. I cited, among other objectionable features of the move, the fact that Nick and the Alcantara clan are the Philippine representatives of Malaysia’s PETRONAS oil company, the pet organization of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, whose pride and joy are the twin PETRONAS Towers in Kuala Lumpur which Mahathir bills as the tallest buildings in Asia. What has gotten the Saudi Arabias’ noses out of joint is the fact that Malaysia’s PETRONAS is a bitter rival of Saudi Aramco, not to mention PETRON itself.

Moreover, as said, it may not be a personal reflection on Nick Alcantara’s management skills, or lack of them, or even his record of steering companies to profitability (or lack of it), and his responsibility in repaying debts, but the fact is that the Alcantara Group of companies is heavily in arrears. I mentioned the off-the-cuff figure of the Alcantara group owing more than P5 billion. I was short. Upon examination yesterday, I discovered that their Alson Consolidated Resources alone owes P11.25 billion to about ten banks. Wow! (I presume Alson refers to Alcantara & Sons). Don’t take my word for it. The figure can be found in the Bloomberg Reports of the latest "financials", dated December, 1999.

Since PETRON is the Philippines’ pride and joy (just as PETRONAS is Mahathir’s), why place this mega-corporation worth hundreds of billions of bucks in the hands of a political appointee without a proven record of success – except, of course, that friends, the Alcantaras, loyally, faithfully, and persistently, contributed to the success of Presidentessa Gloria’s ascension to excelsis in Malacañang. Thank you, and again, thank you! That’s the milk of human kindness, di ba?

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Who then are the Malacañang insiders, possibly the reincarnation in another form of Tita Cory’s former "We Bulong" brigade and the Mom & Pop connection? My Palace Alikabok identifies them as Executive Secretary Rene "Devil" de Villa, PMS Secretary Vicky Garchitorena, Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino "Nonong" Cruz (therefore, the point man of Carpio, Villaraza & Cruz law firm, with all their fruity-tooty clients) and Presidential Assistant Paul Dominguez, brother-in-law of the Alcantaras (Rosie) and brother of Sonny Dominguez.

In the "energy" battle, for instance, although the four potent business blocs which vied for control had their own preferred candidates, they did not mind the appointment of any of the rival recommendees as long as the anointed one did not belong to any "outsider" bloc.

The big pie to be divided, quite obviously, is the "coming" privatization of NAPOCOR. The thrust or "game plan" is that the mammoth government power firm’s "sale" to private sector "bidders" must be conducted under terms and conditions that are suitable or beneficial to the power players in their pangkat, both local and foreign. Sanamagan!

I am sadly reminded of the final chapter of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal’s second seditions novel, El Filibusterismo. (This was translated from Spanish to English by Charles Derbyshire, who gave the novel a more pungent title, The Reign of Greed.)

Rizal, speaking through one of his main characters, Padre Tolentino, explains to the dying Simoun (the frustrated and vengeful revolutionary and reformer) how the liberty of the Filipino can truly be attained:

"We must secure our liberty by making ourselves worthy of it, but exalting the intelligence and the dignity of the individual, by loving justice, right and greatness, even to the extent of dying for them."

The priest (who exemplifies the author himself) went on on a note of disappointment: "… While the Filipino people have not sufficient energy to proclaim, with head erect and bosom bared, their right to a free community, and to guarantee with their sacrifices, their own blood, this freedom; while we see our countrymen in private life shamed within themselves, hear the voice of conscience roar in rebellion and protest, yet in public life keep silence or even echo the words of those who abuse them… while we see them wrap themselves up in their egotism and with a forced smile praise the most iniquitous actions, begging with their eyes a portion of the booty – why grant them liberty? … Why independence, if the slaves of today will only be the tyrants of tomorrow?"

Rizal gave up his own life to refute Padre Tolentino’s fictional lament. But have we, for our part, redeemed his sacrifice with our own devotion to his convictions? Or was Padre Tolentino, in his despairing comment, right after all?

Manuel L. Quezon himself, in his own campaign for our freedom, wrote in a doleful letter to Teodoro M. Kalaw on June 30, 1913: "My patriotism fades when I see the selfishness in our people."

It’s time to tell Rizal and Quezon: We are determined to rise to your challenge! We will no longer praise the actions of the iniquitous! Can we do that? Or can we?