Oil & dizzy Mr. Chizzy

Yesterday morning, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said something that got my attention concerning our current dilemma about oil prices, executive orders and fuel supplies. She appealed to the oil industry to cooperate and to realize that we all have to make some sacrifice for the public good.

My question is: what sacrifice is the government and the Arroyo administration making? The government continues to collect billions of pesos through multiple taxes imposed on the importation, distribution, delivery and retail sale of petroleum products which we the citizens pay for.

Government officials continue to enjoy their petroleum-fueled lifestyle. And all they ever do in tense economic-business conflicts is to take a populist stand by being pro-consumer, imposing ill-studied or ill-conceived administrative orders such as price control on products that we do not have an abundance of or naturally produce.

An Executive Order may sound good but it will never make people understand the true market situation. In a worldwide market where we are relatively insignificant, and where prices are controlled by unseen economic powers, the best solution to the consumer-business conflict is transparency and public information.

Lawsuits will just enrich or popularize lawyers or interest groups and politicians. Media hype and hysterical pronouncements as well as threats on both sides only brings in grandstanding politicians who want an excuse to conduct a Senate investigation.

This is where the Department of Energy can redeem itself by moving forward and holding a serious conference where all sectors can present and exchange real information in order to arrive at logical and real solutions. Digging in and playing tough will not make the problem go away, it will simply make things worse.

Let the petroleum companies tell us the score. Tell us the facts, the supply status and why the EO can’t control supply and prices. If everybody needs to make a sacrifice, then we must all have the correct information – not some political solution. This is a problem that can spin out of control and hurt more people who won’t be angry with gas companies alone, but the government as well.

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Simply for creativity sake I started this piece with Senator Chiz Escudero, but it is not exclusively about him, but applies to his contemporaries or his political generation.

His declaration of independence from the Nationalist People's Coalition was both shocking and disturbing. His reason and statements were vague, intriguing and disappointing. But ultimately, just like many of the young guns of his generation Chiz Escudero’s departure from the NPC was a classic example of how this generation of politics have a flair for the dramatic, a total absence of transparency and a serious inability to hold themselves responsible for whatever situation they got themselves into.

Just like his contemporaries in politics, Senator Escudero’s announcement was designed to be sensational, dramatic and certainly attractive to the media. Let us not forget that this is the generation of the “Spice Boys”, Villar’s Guapings, the BORA and CAMSUR crowd.

Their generation has become the evening news crowd of media manipulators who have learned how to use media to promote their version of the truth.

Sadly, when things don’t work out the way they want, their version of the truth is one designed to make them the martyrs and the heroes while conveniently disengaging themselves from a situation that no longer suits their tastes or expectation.

To this day, I have not heard a single candidate publicly state that he or she is withdrawing from their candidacy because they rated poorly or did not rate at all. Plain and simple honesty in this generation of politicians has been in serious lack because all their philosophies and rules about “Imaging” are centered on pride and conceit instead of an honest acceptance of public opinion.

Even in defeat or disappointment, they still prioritize how they end up “looking”.

After a short run of advertising and infomercials, the field is now full of NPAs or Non Performing Aspirants who never achieved a respectable rating in the surveys. 

But instead of living by the standard of transparency they so demand from others, they come up with all the dramatic scenes such as the many press conferences timed just before the nationwide evening news where they withdraw “to give way”, resign because of integrity, or jump ship to another party for political alignment rather than honestly admit that all these was just a bunch of convenient excuses to save face and save pride.

If dishonesty is their first mortal sin, their second one is blaming others for their failures, disappointment or their mistakes. Even though I have never been a member of the NPC, I found it painful to listen to Chiz Escudero speak in generalities about “tanikala” or a chain around his neck.

His vague reference to independence or his discomfort with special interests seemed like an accusatory finger raised by someone who in the last year was referred to as “the anointed one”. 

Perhaps the behavioral style of this generation of political Bratinellas is what happens when political parties invest on the basis of popularity, winnability and cult myth. It’s almost like recruiting athletes and TV personalities who get everything they desire instead of “raising” or training leaders and party members based on what a political party stands for and what a member is expected to contribute.

In terms of Philippine politics, this sin may simply be the karma for the senior politicians and party bosses who failed to appreciate the values and virtues their own parents and mentors tried to inculcate in them.

As for “Chiz” my personal advise would be to find a copy of “Desiderata” and then take your lovely wife and the twins on a long, long, long vacation until you find the “REAL CHIZ”.