14 subsidized state firms need review

Robert Racasa and Johann Abrina barely had time to practice for the recent Memory Championships in London. Their pal and subsequent coach Marlon Bernardino had heard about it only months before. Another friend who acted as their manager, Reli de Leon, had to scrounge around for cash to send them to the world’s most expensive city. But Racasa, at 34 a chess master and former cockfight kristo (bet taker), and Abrina, 28, a nurse, just had to compete. An event like this happens only every other year. They felt confident enough to pit skills against the world’s keenest memory athletes. Something told them they could make a name for themselves.

They did. Downloading from the Net whatever materials they could, Racasa and Abrina honed brainpower in ten disciplines. Shuffling up to four decks of cards, memorizing their sequence in seconds, then reciting it back was their favorite. Too, associating several pages of alien names with faces. Easy enough was remembering up to 1,000 binary codes of 1’s and 0’s, or random words, or historic and future dates. Toughest was recalling as many random sequences of abstract figures or numbers from 0 to 9.

Many believed in them. Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos gave travel cash. After begging for a UK visa and airline fare, off went Racasa and Abrina with no government backing, unlike their foreign rivals. After all, memory is not one of the official Olympic sports. The Philippine embassy staff in London warmly feted and fed them.

Not bad for first-timers. Racasa landed 11th of 16 veteran contenders from ten countries. Abrina was 9th, and got silver medal in speed card, scanning a shuffled deck in 1 minute-20 seconds, then correctly reciting the sequence. He also notched Memory Grandmaster for beating the record of two minutes. If he earns two more norms, he will become the first Filipino Memory GM.

Certain it wasn’t just luck, the two are preparing for the big time — the World Memory Olympics in Guangzhou in December. Er, guys, don’t forget to bring winter clothing.

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That only 14 government corporations will get 37 percent of the 2011 national budget is distressing. It means they will corner P532 billion of the total government allocation of P1.441 trillion. The matter requires serious review.

The 14 state firms can be grouped into two: those designed to lose money, and those losing due to mismanagement. The Light Railway Transit Authority is the prime example of the first. LRTA’s clashing mission is to provide rapid mass transport at lower than free market rates. So it charges only P15 for the 22-km Baclaran-Monumento length, when the breakeven train fare should be P47. Commuters are livid that the government is mulling to scuttle the P32-subsidy for each of the 200,000 daily passengers. But there are good reasons to bite the bullet. For one, the P15-fare end-to-end has not increased along with fuel, labor and maintenance costs since 1999. Too, it is unfair to subsidize 11 million Metro Manilans with a light rail yet deprive 84 million other Filipinos elsewhere. Most tellingly, Metro Manilans complain not about paying tricycle fare of P18 for less than a kilometer.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System is top example of the mismanaged type. President Noynoy Aquino exposed its profligacy in his State of the Nation last July. On top of a P98,000-per diem monthly, MWSS trustees have awarded themselves 25 bonuses each worth the same amount. Sen. Franklin Drilon exclaimed that there’s not enough letters in the alphabet to concoct anymore new acronyms for their Christmas bonus, pre-Christmas bonus, post-Christmas bonus, midyear bonus, yearend bonus, foundation anniversary bonus, privatization anniversary bonus, hazard pay, housing pay, and so on. The trustees shared the same perks with MWSS managers and staff. Yet they haven’t paid pensions to retired employees. And Metro Manilans are short of water five months each year.

If some of the 14 firms are hybrids of the two types, the National Food Authority is the best personification. NFA’s contradictory job is to stabilize grains prices for farmers and retail prices for rice consumers. So it buys higher than grains traders at farm gate, then sells lower than rice retailers in markets. Never will NFA make money. From latest audit, it is P250 billion in hock. Worse, past admins used the agency for fraud. Very onerous was a pact with Indochinese suppliers for NFA to import 250,000 tons of rice each year — for kickbacks in the overprice, the lease of ships, and the purchase of sacks.

The 11 other favored but losing state firms are: National Reclamation Authority, National Electrification Administration, Local Water Utilities Administration, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine National Railways, Philippine Ports Authority, Home Guaranty Corp., National Housing Authority, National Irrigation Administration, Philippine National Oil Company, and National Power Corp. (including its spin-offs Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. and Transmission Corp.).

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 “Those who do not love use force. Those who love use love as a force.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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