Still on our loan to the IMF: A new twist!

Last Saturday, President Aquino was in Cebu for the official coalition signing of the Liberal Party (LP) and the Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (Bakud) party of Danao City Vice-Mayor Ramonito Durano. Bakud for many years allied with Gov. Gwen F. Garcia’s One Cebu Party. But with political winds favoring the LP, it was expected that Ramonito Durano would sign up with the LP for the coming 2013 polls.

If the LP thinks that they got the 5th District of Cebu in the bag, we just have to wait and see. Notice I did not say that the “Duranos” signed up with the LP? First of all, it is because the Danao votes is no longer as solid as it was in the past when political icon Don Ramon Durano was alive. It has since splintered into factions within the Durano clan. The last time the Duranos were all together was way back in the 1988 elections when Ramonito ran against Inday Nita Daluz and won because all the Durano siblings supported him.

But in 1992, Don Durano ran for mayor against his own mother Ate Durano and supported by Ramonito, but Boy Durano gave his support to Don and they won the elections. When Boy Durano ran against Don Durano, Boy won the race because he was supported by Ramonito. But the Bakud’s signing up with the LP got Don Durano sore at this arrangement, which he said was concocted behind his back. Don was LP district head in Danao and now he felt betrayed by the LP deal that did not care to include him.

So for the 2013 elections, Don Durano will be allied with Mayor Boy Durano and it is time to put Danao’s political history to a test, whether when two Durano brothers side with each other… they would win the race. So in the end, even with the presence of -P-Noy in Danao City, it was not a huge plus for the LP Party as the two other Duranos would certainly marshal their forces to win the 2013 elections. But of course, as I’ve been pointing out, if the PCOS machines are used… tapos na ang boxing!

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One favorite subject in Cebu’s coffee houses is about the pledge by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to lend $1billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so the money could be lent to poor countries, including Euro zone nations that are in financial bind like Greece and Spain, which of course got the blessings of P-Noy.

Our arguments are very simple and valid and we’ve already outlined these in our previous columns. More so when I watched the TV interview of Prof. Leonor Briones in Erik Espina’s “Republika” on GNN where she pointed out that the BSP still have billions of loans in the World Bank, which is why she asked, “Why didn’t we use that money to pay part of our many other loans?” At this point, I still believe that the BSP $1billion pledge to the IMF was totally wrong. Alas, the Aquino regime doesn’t know where their priorities should be.

Just as I was about over and done with this issue, I opened up page 11 of last Saturday’s Philippine STAR and I couldn’t help but notice a report which was headlined “Phl eyes P7-B loan from Japan.” As the report goes, the money we would loan would be used to acquire 10 Multi-Role response vessels (MRRVs) to upgrade the Philippine Coast Guard. To be perfectly honest… I support such a loan provided that these multi-role vessels would be built in Philippine shipyards for the reason that we can build it here.

We’ve been harping on this issue years ago, because of the presence of the FBMA Marine Shipyard in Balamban, a wholly owned Filipino company, which churned out fast craft vessels for commercial and naval use for the United Kingdom. They even came up with the first commercial application of the ultra high-tech Slice Boat, which was designed by Lockheed Martin that cost $9 million to build. It was purchased by the Mexican State Oil Company Pemex for use in their oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

But before I could finish this particular article… I came across another report, still on last Saturday’s issue of The Philippine Star this time on page A-20 of the World News, which was headlined, “Japan gov’t could run out of cash by October.” Japan’s financial troubles stem from a standoff in Parliament, which blocked a bill to finance their deficit. As the report goes, Japan has to secure a 31.8 Billion Euro tranche from the European Union so it could stay afloat. Hmmm, maybe Japan would be able to avail of our US$ 1 Billion loan to the IMF.

So we have a situation where we need to loan money to purchase those badly need Coast Guard vessels. I suggest that the Aquino government look elsewhere to countries like Australia that could be of great help for this project. After all, Austal just acquired the FMBA Marine facility last December and they will continue to build those very same vessels we want from Japan.

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