The economy on a dive / The Senate, shame again

It passeth strange, really strange, that as the world’s economy wobbles precariously on the shelf and things could even get much worse, the Philippine government announces the staging of an "economic summit" to "move the economy forward" and "ensure the well-being of the Filipino people." Whoa. These are the words uttered by presidential press secretary Roberto Tiglao quoting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo verbatim – and we wonder. Has the president gone bonkers? With all the economic storm signals forecasting a world going into sharp economic reverse – recession for the most part – our president foresees the Philippines riding the skateboard and moving GDP (Gross Domestic Product) up, up, up like the swirling, rising skirt of Marilyn Monroe. Mama mia.

As for the well-being of the Filipino, it has been the worst in half a century. Just look at the garbage, strewn just about everywhere.

I am sorry to disappoint GMA, but there is nothing she and her economic and financial advisers can do to stay the brutal hammer of increasing poverty. Remember that old ditty about San Roque, bayan ng mga pulubi? You had the pilay, the bulag and the bingi sauntering into the sunlight and believing and behaving, if I remember right, that they had rid themselves of their infirmities. Yes, we have our Alice, rather our Gloria in Wonderland, with a magic wand to flourish at the economic summit and set things right. Ma’m, how do you send a mud-slide back?

That’s just what’s wrong with our government and our leaders.

They don’t think. Proof of that – if I may digress a little – is the appointment of former BID (Bureau of Immigration and Deportation) Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez as Philippine ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Germany. I must join the angry chorus against Rodriguez’s appointment. At dinner several nights ago, somebody had the group in stitches when she said the appointment of Rodriguez to the prime ambassadorial plum of Germany was like naming a donkey to the post of concierge or manager at the Ritz Carlton. Mrs. President, you must eat humble pie. Retreat. You must withdraw Rastus, rather Rufus, give him another assignment – Timbuktu would be appropriate – and save the Philippines from being the laughing stock of the diplomatic world.

Back to basics. The president must understand – and she should because she has a doctorate in economics – that since September 11, virtually the whole world has shed its political skin. What does this mean? With Twin Towers and the Pentagon going down at the hands of international terrorists, the world of politics came close to being a howling wilderness. There’s one thing the economy recoils against – fear, uncertainty, paranoia, a leap into the dark. The fear is cold and clammy.

And that is what is happening. Tens of thousands are now losing their jobs in America, and there will be tens of thousands more, as transport, travel and tourism get suddenly squeezed and squashed like a compressed accordion. The American people are now afraid to travel and they can’t be blamed. This will ricochet into industry, manufacturing, and even the world of entertainment. And as America, including Europe and Japan, have less money to spend and GDP contracts to recession and near-recession levels, the American and other markets will thin out like filament.

Sixty percent of Philippine exports are electronic products. The US can no longer import the bulk of them. August export of electronics went down by 41 percent. So will our garment exports suffer and the others. Factories will necessarily close down in the Philippines, unemployment will probably go up to 18-20 percent, underemployment to 25-30 percent. The poor, already more than 40 percent of our population, will soar to 45 percent or even more. Our middle class continues to shrink as money becomes more scarce. GDP slides down to 2.5 percent, at most 3.0 percent as our population of 78-80 million – largely the poor among us – writhe and groan like the hinges of a storm-battered ship. And woe to a nation that tosses and staggers like a drunk, unable to belch vomit because the stomach is already scraped bare.

What is worse is that Muslim Mindanao could be a very bloody battleground as US leaders confirm that the Abu Sayyaf – high on the list of America’s international terrorists and linked to Osama bin Laden – could invite ground, air, and naval attack from the American armada. This, believe you me, will ignite jihad from the Muslim population of Mindanao. Then we shall have ethnic turbulence the kind we have never experienced. This scenario is just too frightening to contemplate. Our own military, and that includes the most ambitious of our generals and top officers, will set up command posts alongside the Americans. This will enrage the Left, huge portions of civil society, activist elements of the church.

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In this political maelstrom, that first victim could be our political system. It could collapse in 12 to 24 months. Poor Gloria.

Already, there are mounting signs that the whole of our Congress, including the once lofty Senate, has become a dirty, utterly corrupt bazaar. The Senate hearing yesterday was a disgrace, a farce, a gross insult. In the House, there is a Gang of Five scratching off all pretense and reportedly extorting millions in the open from business without being spanked by their elders. Our Supreme Court dances the dance of drift-driven dandelions, still unable to decide whether or not to reverse an execrable Court of Appeals decision that has absolved Ping Lacson of all blame on the Kuratong Baleleng massacre. The Sandiganbayan remains hostage to the legal and personal vices and vagaries of Joseph Estrada. This man should be in jail, surrounded by prison bars. Instead, his lawyers resort to every delaying tactic, treat justice like mahjongg chips melting from the hands of Salvador Dali. And guffaw.

So what can GMA achieve during the economic summit?

There was an earlier brag that GDP achieved 3.3 percent during the last quarter. This allegedly proved the resilience of the economy and the Filipino. And so – eureka! – like America during the Great Depression, our government could launch its own version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. The silver bullet was pump-priming, owed to the genius of British economist John Maynard Keynes. Public works projects would be set up in various cities and this would lead to employment and more employment. The New Deal never really succeeded. It misfired.

What reignited America’s economy was its entry in World War II. The US became the arsenal of the vast weaponry needed by the Allies against the Axis powers. In time, the economy boomed. After the war, America emerged as a superpower.

We go back to the Senate. I find it preposterous that a virtual unknown, Robert Rivero by name, can now twirl the Senate like a top with allegation that First Gentleman Miguel (Mike) Arroyo is the author of a scam utilizing P250 million of PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) money to bankroll the senatorial candidacies of Joker Arroyo, Juan Flavier, Obet Pagdanganan and Ernesto Herrera. I will not go into more detail because this story has gone the rounds more times than a carousel during the circus season. Besides, the Senate is now "damaged goods."

These allegations, I understand, are now contained in an affidavit handed over by Rivero to opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara just the other day with Sen. Panfilo (who else?) Lacson looking on approvingly. Of course, Rivero is hired hand of the Puwersa ng Masa and – I would strongly suspect – of Ping Lacson since Rivero’s wife works for Lacson as his press relations officer. If memory serves, Rivero was an obscure media journeyman who worked for the likes of M. Pareño, a notorious wheeler-dealer strongly linked to drug lord Alfredo Tiongco in the year 1997-1998. Pareño, "snatched" by the military while Tiongco escaped to Hongkong, "squealed" after several days of military grilling that Tiongco and the narcotics trade had strong links to Senators Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vicente Sotto and Bert Romulo. General Libarnes was then, I believe, head of military intelligence.

This, of course, was all bunk. At a Firing Line session, I had Bert, Gloria and Vic screaming damnation at Libarnes, the military, and of course then Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, a presidential aspirant who did nothing to denounce the vapid Pareño "expose." If I am not mistaken, Rivero was somewhere around, sloshing with a big, big grin in all this mudslinging. Know what? Eventually, President Fidel Ramos dispatched General Lacson to Hongkong to retrieve Tiongco, bring the drug lord back to Manila for trial. And so Tiongo was tried. Was the whole thing a charade? An operetta? If the testimonies of Col. Victor Corpus and Mary ‘Rosebud’ Ong are right, Ping Lacson at that time was already a big role-player in the drug trade. So why did FVR send Lacson to Hongkong, Lacson of all people. Despite strong evidence against Tiongco, he was acquitted by a regional trial court judge. Did drug money make all the difference?

And so this wrongo Robert Rivero is back on the scene and his staunchest Senate backers today are Edong Angara and Nene Pimentel, not to mention of course Ping Lacson. They all thread the needle that goes back to Joseph Estrada, capo di tutti cappi, whose almost three years in the presidency must go down as the most shameful since the dictatorship.