The oligarchy strikes back

Romy Bernardo, among the best wisecracks Manny can’t buy, sent me this delightful gem: The difference between genius and stupidity – genius has its limits.

I’m not sure why, but when he sent me that I presumed immediately he was talking about the Senate. It is, after all, a chamber where genius is limited and stupidity abounds.

Too, at about that time last week, the senators were bearing down on the esteemed economists who consulted for Accelerated Growth Investment Liberalization with Equity (Agile). They were making strange noises that had nothing to do with either reason nor the work done by the policy experts hired as part of a technical assistance package agreed upon by USAID and the Philippine go-vernment.

Sen. Manny Villar, still smarting from the passage of a version of the SPAV law that might make it difficult for him to retrieve his former properties now held by the banks, asked why the economists of Agile presented one policy option and not its opposite.

Well, Manny, there are no two sides to best practices. The role of a policy consultant is to propose the best and not the worst. That makes a policy consultant very different from a politician.

Which is why policy consultants are hired in the first place: some of the best policy solutions to our nation’s dilemmas require decisions that are unpopular in the short run. Politicians are constantly hesitant to take those decisions, especially if their own wealth is at stake.

We saw that in the case of Manny Villar and SPAV. The most unforgiving wits in the banking business have, in fact, tried spelling out SPAV as Special Protection for the Assets of Villar.

Unfortunately, unlike in the case of boards directors or judges, legislators do not inhibit themselves in the face of conflict-of-interest issues. On the contrary, they are most assiduous when conflict of interest is most glaring.

Sen. Serge Osmeña, trying to wring political grease from a dry sponge, accused Agile of having a hidden agenda. That’s funny. I thought Agile’s agenda of acce-lerated growth, increased investment and liberalization with equity was written out in the very name of this program.

Come on, Serge, we worked together with Agile and then Ralph Recto at the House for the passage of the retail trade liberalization law.

We were up against vested interests with large war chests, trying to keep the inefficiency of our retail sector at the expense of poor consumers. We needed the most compelling research to help us demonstrate our correctness – and prevailed over the large war chests of retail oligarchs.

You knew the agenda then, a more efficient economy where the poor are not victimized by special protection put in place by oligarchs who controlled political power.

Sen. Ralph Recto, too, has been ranting about Agile's objective of improving the investment climate so that foreign investors could come in.

Come on, Ralph, we had many discussions about this. As a self-styled economist, I thought you understood that an improved investment climate is not contradictory with the popular interest. In fact, improved investment inflows are indispensable to lifting the poor from po-verty.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, for his part has raised national sovereignty issues on the Agile debate.

I know Joker well, too. He is a man with good intentions and bad work habits. Because of that he is eminently susceptible to demagoguery.

I consider these four gentlemen good friends and, at times, real patriots. I am not sure what indecent thought or motive has since crept into their thinking since they began sitting in that bizarre chamber we call the Se-nate.

I would suggest these four gentlemen take Romy Bernardo out to dinner one of these evenings. The cost of a nice Japanese meal should be more than compensated by this man’s insights about what needs to be done with our economy and our constantly failing institutions.

As undersecretary of finance during the most difficult years, Romy lost much of his hair restructuring our republic out of a crippling debt crisis. Having completed his mission with plausible results, a grateful republic has allowed him to earn real incomes in the private sector.

Romy is about as hard-nosed as a technocrat can be. He constantly reminds us about not confusing soft hearts with hard thinking. What is right must never yield to what is merely popular.

It was that attitude, and a shared despair over how easily our leaders yielded to special interests, that brought us together to establish the Foundation for Economic Freedom. This band of unrepentant reformists has been involved in pushing reforms in our economic policy architecture.

We are quite convinced that the recent fracas about Agile is an "operation".

All the elements are there: the highly paid PR men, the fabricated feeds to sloppy political mouthpieces, the disinformation and the contrived hysteria.

Perhaps, after the good senators are done bearing down on the hapless technocrats consulting for Agile, they might try and serve national interest better by getting to the bottom of this "operation" to smear a technical assistance program.

The oligarchy has struck back against nerdy consultants proposing liberalization of air policy, competition in our monopoly-ridden ports and developing a more efficient logistical framework for our food products. The oligarchy wants special protection for inefficient air companies, continued monopolization of vital port operations and a high intermediation rate for bringing food from producers to consumers.

Joker, Ralph, Serge and Manny: The truly patriotic thing to do is to unmask the evil oligarchic empire, not persecuting those who dare challenge our backward economic policies.