GMA provoking public reprisal

Filipinos are polite, even to bad leaders. We give them graceful exits, unlike other races that behead hated kings or premiers. Easy to forgive, we also elect into office wives and children of deposed presidents. All that may change in the case of departing Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. With her booby-trapping the incoming administration with midnight deals and appointees, she is inviting public reprisal.

Flouting the truth could be the spark. Arroyo can’t seem to accept that Noynoy Aquino won 42 percent of the vote, the biggest slice in any presidential poll under the 1987 Constitution. Noynoy’s victory as the true opposition should have made Arroyo aware of the people’s will. Filipinos want change, so she must allow it out of gratitude, after being given a nine-and-a-half-year chance in the Presidency. At the very least she must accord the new President a smooth transition.

But instead of serving as caretaker in her last months in office, she is packing government agencies and corporations with loyalists. Among her appointments, antedated to skirt the election ban, are to tenured posts beyond Noynoy’s six-year term. Worse, she is signaling cronies to sign multibillion-peso deals, mostly 25-year concessions. Observers know it is not only out of spite, but more to collect on the appointments and fatten her political war chest. Arroyo and cohorts also are trying to incite the military against the incoming civilian authority. Unluckily for her the officers’ corps is not easily fooled. She is making political ambassadors stay put in foreign postings, as if to tell the world that she’s still in charge. Good that the only message she’s sending is that she’d need them where they are in case of a quick getaway from Manila.

Spokesmen flaunt that Arroyo is ready to face all lawsuits in relation to plunder and abuse. That makes law groups and students plan this early how to bring her to justice. Antagonized allies too are proposing that an independent body be formed to go after her ill-gotten wealth. Truly she is the most reviled leader after Marcos.

Filipinos are eager to write the history of Arroyo’s regime. She claims to have brought RP to the verge of first world status. That’s opposite reality. Co-opting all institutions — the legislature, judiciary, local officials, the military, even the church and the press — she brought us to the brink of a failed state. RP under her was ranked Asia’s most corrupt. Divine hand arrested the nation’s slide. With Arroyo ending, public hope and consumer confidence are at the highest ever.

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In a meeting mid-Jan. Bangko Sentral officials opted to hurry up the printing of 750 million new peso bills (Gotcha, 9 June 2010). Foreign suppliers were to give ballpark costs by end-Jan. Pre-bidding procedures were set for mid-Feb. Completion of “banknotized” New Generation Currency was Mar. 5, for submission to the Monetary Board in mid-Mar. Printing tenders were to be in by end-Mar. Award to the winning bidder was in end-Apr. Air freight of the first 45 million pieces is in Nov. 2010.

BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa Gunigundo e-mailed to deny it’s a midnight deal:

“It has taken BSP more than two years to conceptualize and develop new designs for all denominations. The process of international competitive bidding for printing is in its early stage. No pre-bidding conference has yet taken place.

“The new banknotes are to be signed by the new President. Issuance is by yearend.

“Central banks regularly change the designs of their money to guard against counterfeiters. By making it difficult to produce exact copies of our money, we protect the integrity of our currency against criminals. Public confidence in the domestic currency strengthens.

“Aside from new designs, BSP is upgrading security features in all banknotes to make counterfeiting more difficult. The new security features are also designed to make it easier for the public to detect counterfeits even without using special equipment that banks and the monetary authority do.

“We are proud of the BSP security plant complex that is operated by an all-Filipino team and continues to produce most of our currency. But we have to outsource some of our requirements simply because our plant’s production capacity is lower than our requirements. We are buying new printing equipment to increase our capacity to meet the demands of our growing population and economy.

“In accordance with global practice, preparation of metal plates and dies to print money is done by highly specialized ‘originators.’ Origination materials serve as basis for printing new currency, for which the bidding will be held. Then the BSP will print new currency using the origination materials.

“Our new banknotes pay tribute to Filipinos who played significant roles at various moments of our nation’s history. The portraits featured in the new banknotes have been cleared and approved by their families.”

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Six-year-old Alessandro Yoshiko M. Lao was to undergo final chemo and radiotherapy soon for potentially fatal Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Though jobless, his mom Janisah had raised the P30,000 for it. Sadly little Yoti’s platelets dropped last week, requiring confinement for massive daily blood transfusion and antibiotics. Costs have wiped out the savings.

Yoti needs blood donors of any type to replenish the stocks he used up. Just say it’s for him, at the UST Hospital Blood Bank, Sampaloc, Manila. To help raise new money for his final treatment to normalcy, there’s Metrobank-Baclaran Quirino branch account 0703070185211 in the name of Alessandro Yoshiko M. Lao. To learn more about him, visit the Facebook account with the same name, or search YouTube for “janisah”.

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“Conversion is easier for a man, the wearier he is of life..” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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E-mail: [email protected]