Nobody listens to speeches anymore

The President intends to deliver a major policy speech on November 30 – the end of this month. What’s that? A mid-term SONA, or State of Nerve-Paralysis Address? Our problem is that we’re a great speechifying nation, prone to delivering bombas (the old term used to identify big exposés) and verbal attacks such as those ridiculous privilege speeches in which the usual cowards malign or libel others behind the protective cloak of parliamentary immunity.

As a result of our verbosity and bombast, we too often mistake speech for action. After the dust settles and the fur stops flying, it’s business as usual. The evildoers insolently continue to strut around and milk the suckers and victims undeterred: They’ve got the last laugh.

President Macapagal-Arroyo ought to know by now that it’s time for action, not more speeches. If there’s going to be a Cabinet revamp, then for God’s sake revamp the Cabinet. If heads should roll, then let heads roll. The trouble is that the angry public sees officials appointed to investigating bodies or committees, when they ought to be the ones investigated. What ails this administration is not just sleaze which is truly bad in itself – but, just as deplorably, a rudderless sense of drift.

The Chief Executive should not try to explain that her problem is "temper". She must have a temper, but it has to be turned on the right culprits and slackers. (Never mind that loose talk about her "thyroid".)

I’m glad, at least, that GMA has backed away from personally presiding over that foolish "soft opening" of the controversial PIATCO Terminal 3 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The onerous provisions in the PIATCO deal are still being questioned, so why in heaven’s name should the President "inaugurate" Terminal 3 and thus give the impression she has blessed Cheng and Company?

However, she has done the next worst thing. She has appointed a "smaller" Cabinet committee to handle the "renegotiation" with PIATCO. The committee is reportedly composed of Secretary Larry Mendoza of Transportation and Communications, Justice Secretary Nani Perez, and Tourism Secretary Dick Gordon. Shucks: The Presidential Adviser on Strategic Projects, Secretary Gloria Tan Climaco, isn’t even in the picture, despite the fact that she is the only one who thoroughly investigated the PIATCO deal. Sadly, for having done an honest job, Climaco is now the person being tarred, slandered and pictured by the PIATCO propaganda machine as the "villain", not the heroine. Perhaps Climaco should resign, and tell the world why.

Let me say it loud and clear: What kind of Cabinet committee is this? Larry Mendoza and Dick Gordon, during the Cabinet debates, were ALL FOR PIATCO. Nani Perez was sitting on the fence. What sort of "decision", then can we expect that group to make? It’s already pre-ordained. They’re singing hosannas to what a nice-lookin’ building the "new" Terminal 3 edifice is. But Juan de la Cruz ought to look into the fine print of the contract. Some people will get the gravy, while you and I, the taxpayers, will probably end up footing the bill.

As for the German Fraport AG, what the heck. They’re out of pocket and bad-mouthing us, understandably, all over the European continent. The Germans, it could be said, might have taken a multimillion euro pratfall owing to their trusting too much, or due to their own folly and carelessness, but they’ve got to be repaid. Fair is fair; otherwise, no foreign investor will ever risk his capital in our unfair country again.

What bothers me most of all is that the latest Cabinet committee to be hastily formed was constituted by GMA on the recommendation of the bigger Cabinet Review Committee headed, incongruously, by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Dante Canlas. If you’ll recall, Canlas was one of the officials most responsible for this mess.

And you wonder why the GMA regime has begun to lose credibility? Could the saga of GMA be someday summed up in a book entitled Gullible’s Travels? I hope so. For, if the President is not gullible – the next conclusion to be drawn can only be worse.

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The President is planning to declare Makati City, in conjunction with Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, a Tourism and Shopping Center – with a view to attracting more foreign visitors, particularly Japanese. The program calls for Makati to be extra-well-secured: A so-called "protected zone" in which tourists and fun-seekers from abroad can walk around or drive around completely free from worry about violence, kidnapping or attack.

Sounds great. But how can such a zone be protected – let’s say from criminal gangs, much less terrorist bombers or destabilizers? When we can’t trust even our own police (who let suspects already in custody get away), whom can we trust? Among the foremost in the "target market" are Japanese women, who’re no longer classified in the office tea-lady or tea-pourer category but have scads of yen or devalued dollars to spend on their holidays and overseas adventures. We can expect GMA to high-profile this "Visit Makati" concept in her coming trip to Tokyo next month.

While I’d like nothing better than to be able to proclaim Makati a safe and sound "fun place" where the shopping’s wonderful (indeed, Metro Manila, from the viewpoint of merchandising price and value, is one of the world’s best places to shop), we can realistically give no guarantees. If you’ll recall, Bali and Phuket (Thailand) were, in the past two years, believed to be Asia’s most desirable and secure travel destinations. Bali’s now gone bust. Phuket is now suffering from the fall-out – and its beaches are going empty.

Didn’t we just have a bus explode in Quezon City only a few weeks ago? Didn’t we have those bombings in Kidapawan and Zamboanga City, and, last Saturday, that bombing of a gas station in Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao province in central Mindanao? We may claim that Mindanao is "far away" from Luzon – but Quezon City is ten minutes away from Makati.

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In case the government hasn’t noticed, the well-known London security consultant, Control Risks Group, has named the Philippines one of the sixteen most "high-risk countries" from the viewpoint of "terrorism, civil war, and other factors".

This was reported in The Asian Wall Street Journal last week – on Thursday, November 7. The story was headlined: "Corporate Clients Keep Security Hot Lines Ringing". The subhead of the article, written by Marc Champion and datelined London, was: "Demand for 24-Hour Phone Help for Traveling Employees Grows with Global Terrorism Fears."

During the year since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, Control Risks says it has doubled the client base for its CR-24 service to about 120 companies. For that matter, the client list at Kroll Inc., a New York risk-management firm known for its corporate investigative work, has increased its "hot line" clientele 60 percent to about 90 companies. The year-old Virginia-based hot-line service of Armor Group, a division of Armor Holdings, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, has swelled to 30 companies.

In short, as Kroll’s security-services "chief operating officer" Jeff Schlanger says: "It’s a recognition that the world is a more dangerous place than five years ago."

Here’s the danger list as drawn up by Control Risks Group of London, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.,

I guess this has, by now, already been translated into Japanese.

* * *

Don’t you think GMA ought to declare, once and for all, who are going to be "out" (and who’ll remain "in") with regards to her Cabinet. For the past few days, she has been compelled to play "catch up" in reaction to front- page reports in a daily newspaper (not The STAR, it’s customary to say) naming Cabinet members expected to be "fired" in a coming revamp or purge.

When it was declared that Environment Secretary Heherson "Sonny" Alvarez would be the first to get the axe, she had to assure Alvarez it was not going to be the case. When Energy Secretary Vince Perez was named "next", she rang up Perez – who’s just returned from an oil-seeking trip to Iran and Russia (where he laid a wreath, with Joe de Venecia, at the site of the Moscow theater Chechen "hostage" tragedy – that he, on the contrary, was going to stay. When Labor Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas was identified on page one as on the verge of being ejected, GMA had to telephone Sto. Tomas, who was in Bangkok for a conference, that this allegation was untrue, and that her job was safe.

Why not accentuate the positive then? Let us know who’s going, and who’s going to stay put? Stop the gossip and rumors with fact.