No to tomorrow’s rally

Tomorrow, we can perhaps do our country a favor if we stay indoors and pray. The opposition and leftist groups are feasting over the people’s disaffection with the House of Representatives over the latter’s miscue about rushing the con-ass mode for Charter change (Cha-cha). After last week’s backlash, Speaker Joe de Venecia has called off the rush agenda for con-ass, and is now focusing on the constitutional convention mode for Charter change. But the opposition has chosen to seize the moment, hoping to gain political ground from this tumult.

There are two things that are bothersome about these turn of events. One is that its opponents are almost succeeding in making Cha-cha anathema in our country. Second, that our politicians seem indifferent to our urgent need for stability.

It is so easy to make inflammatory remarks suggesting that Cha-cha is a scourge. All that needs to be done is to couch such remarks in political terms, such as what we have read time and again. These include suggestions that those who advocate Cha-cha merely want to perpetuate themselves in power. This was the case during FVR’s time, as it is now.

This is a ruse, of course. The fact is that Cha-cha will change the way things work, and that’s why every obstacle is being thrown in its way. That’s why it is more convenient to keep postponing it, in hopes that it will be forgotten. And whenever it comes up, whoever its advocates are, are demonized in order to turn the people’s wrath against Cha-cha, in whatever mode it is sought. This year, we came closer than ever to attaining Cha-cha. But none has prospered so far, because the establishment is not ready for the sea change Cha-cha will bring.

While it’s convenient for our politicians to turn their backs on Cha-cha, it is not necessarily so for us ordinary citizens. We need Cha-cha to remove protectionist economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution that have served as deterrents to foreign investors. Ask any local businessman and you will find out that local capital is not enough to fund our development, which is why more foreign investments must come into our country.

Keeping the Cha-cha momentum is important not for the careers of our politicians, but to stabilize the economic momentum we have achieved so far. Just last Wednesday, the peso hit a new high in four-and-half years, as it surged anew against the dollar. The peso continues to perform strongly because of strong inflows not only from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) but also from exports, portfolio and foreign direct investments.

Last Wednesday’s initial public offering of PNOC-Energy Development Corp. became the largest IPO this year, generating proceeds of P16.7 billion, because foreign investors came in with some P10 billion to cover over 70 percent of the PNOC-EDC IPO. These investors included the International Finance Corp., the investment arm of the World Bank, which has acquired five percent ownership in PNOC-EDC through the IPO. With the success of the PNOC-EDC IPO, the stage is set for new heydays in our Philippine Stock Exchange, where trading had earlier been so lackluster. Finally, the PSE’s moribund days are over – unless we shoot ourselves in the foot again with the political turbulence being incited by the opposition.

And that is why I am hoping you will decide in favor of our country tomorrow, by not taking part in the political circus that the opposition would like us to join. Even maverick Senator Joker Arroyo refers to the rally as an activity over a dead issue. Foreign investors have already given us the vote of confidence. What we need now, in view of our truly divisive politics, is a vote of confidence on ourselves and the future of our nation, by refusing to take part in any more of the grandstanding exploits of our politicians.

Instead, what we must demand from them is a definite timetable on Charter change, specifically on the economic provisions that need to be reviewed and revised in order to move our country further forward. Now that we seem to have sorted out exactly what political provisions are unacceptable, perhaps it would be easier now for our politicians to put it on paper, specifically in the Congress resolution for a constitutional convention. It seems the flashpoint between the Senate and the Congress is whether or not it should be held during or after next year’s mid-term elections. Given the mistrust earned by the House of Representatives from the populace over its slapdash ways, perhaps it should just give way to the Senate preference to define a post-May 2007 timetable.

What is imperative, though, is that a definite timetable be set now, not later when everyone will have conveniently forgotten about what needs to be done about the 1987 Constitution.

* * *

Let me congratulate Edu Manzano, chairman of the Optical Media Board (OMB), whose work in anti-piracy has earned for the Philippines the first-ever Asia-Pacific Copyright Enforcer (ACE) award presented by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) during the recently-concluded CineAsia film industry trade show held in Beijing, China from Dec. 5 to 7, 2006.

The ACE award recognizes outstanding enforcement officials and officers, many of whom risk their lives on a daily basis to protect intellectual property. According to Mike Ellis, MPA senior vice president and regional director for the Asia-Pacific, MPA introduced the ACE category to the CineAsia awards ceremony this year to support local enforcement efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, which have fostered creativity, aside from enabling economic and societal growth.

Ellis described Manzano as one of MPA’s closest allies in the fight against copyright theft, citing his having substantially raised awareness of intellectual property rights issues in the country and his hard work in the seizure of millions of pirated optical discs.

Edu has noted that the government’s united front in the anti-piracy campaign was the key to the MPA’s recognition of the country’s efforts against IPR violators. In his report to President Arroyo, he said that the combined efforts of the Office of the President, Department of Trade and Industry, Intellectual Property Office, Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Customs, made the accomplishment possible.

An estimated 78 percent of the movie market is lost to piracy in the Philippines, translating to some $173 million in lost consumer spending on the motion picture industry. Following the creation of OMB two years ago, the Philippines was stricken off the US IPR blacklist. There has been heavy coordination between the OMB and the MPA since then, resulting in stepped-up efforts to combat IPR violations in the country, thanks in large part to Edu’s dogged determination.

My e-mail is [email protected]