Narco politics is the scary part

The scary part in our saga of weird events that is transpiring today is the specter of narco politics taking hold on top of everything else. We are talking of people with a despicably ruthless human rights record during the Marcos dictatorship. We are now being told they seem to also have the money to buy political control. Drug trafficking is one hell of a profitable business and together with money laundering, those in it do have the means to do what they want.

We can only guess the size of this criminal business from the money they launder. Michel Camdessus, the former managing director of the International Money Fund, has estimated that the worldwide magnitude of money laundering is between two and five percent of world gross domestic product, or at least $600,000 million.

In some emerging market countries, like ours, these illicit proceeds dwarf government budgets. The sheer magnitude of these illegal wealth can be used to corner markets – or even small economies. Governments lose control over economic policy or just plainly lose control over everything including the country.

In plain language, narco politics or the use of large amounts of crime-based wealth has the potential of putting criminals and criminal syndicates in control of governments. I don't think life in a country led by drug dealers, terrorists, illegal arms dealers, rogue former police and military officers is something anyone would like to have.

Rapid advances in technology and the globalization of the financial services industry have made the work of the international criminal gangs easier. Modern financial systems allow criminals to order the transfer of millions of dollars instantly using personal computers and satellite dishes.

In other words, if there is even an outside chance that some of the allegations of Rosebud and Col. Victor Corpus are true, we are already in deep danger as a democratic nation. What bugs me now is why there isn't more visible assistance from the US government on something that is supposedly of highest priority to them? Could they be helping very quietly and will release their bombshell at the right time, like after we give up Mark Jimenez?

Thus far, the only public indication of US government cooperation was a supposed confirmation by the FBI of an account of Ping Lacson's wife. But there has so far been no follow-up and no details released about this account. In fact, couldn't that solitary piece of documentary evidence be used to accept the challenge of Sen. Ping Lacson that he will voluntarily go to jail if it can be proven he has any account whatsoever abroad. Maybe, we have been confused by all the little details of this daytime soap opera at the Senate to miss this important piece of documentary evidence. Or maybe the honorable senators don't think that is enough.

In the meantime, we simply have to be extra vigilant. The large amount of cash that narco politicians can raise may prove to be too much to resist when used to subvert our democratic institutions and processes. We definitely have to uncover the threat and neutralize it. If the Senate can do it, well and good. Otherwise, a citizens commission like the one which looked into Ninoy's assassination may be needed.

Not that good

Now they tell us the boom economy the United States had just before the dot com bubble burst wasn't as great as we thought it was. Government statisticians had marked down US growth rates in each of the last three years, with the biggest markdown for 2000 to just 4.1 percent. Well, that's still pretty good, but not as good as we thought it was.

It now seems that the great Alan Greenspan is guilty of irrational exuberance himself. Up until he testified early this year before Congress on the Bush tax cut, he was pretty sure that productivity gains would save the day for the American economy. The gains are there, but as it is turning out, not nearly enough to get the spirits up at Wall Street and at Main Street.

I bring this up in the light of what I think are premature expressions of optimism by some politicians and media observers based on the most recent local economic indicators. As in the US, statistical data on economic performance are not always that reliable. While those charged with gathering such data may be professionally competent, not every activity can be accurately measured.

In this regard, I like the advice of economist Paul Krugman: Hope for good news but don’t count on it.

Telecom oligopoly

Further on the matter of our current situation in the telecom industry, I have been asked how we got ourselves in an oligopoly situation with PLDT and Globe. Not too long ago, there were about a dozen participants in a program supposedly designed to deregulate the industry. The simple answer is that government goofed.

In hindsight, it is now clear that the Ramos administration was not sincere in its supposed desire to deregulate the industry and dismantle the PLDT monopoly.

Firstly, it allowed too many players fighting over what turned out to be crumbs of a market. Precious resources were wasted setting up expensive state of the art facilities in areas that couldn't afford them. It was silly trying to improve the telephone to population density ratio without due regard to overall economic growth. We now know that the reason they don't have phones in the outlying areas is because they can't afford the cost of the service.

Secondly, if government wanted real competition in the industry, they should have leveled the playing field. Instead, they allowed PLDT to bully the rest in the matter of interconnection. Even Manny Pangilinan had this problem before First Pacific bought control of PLDT.

By the time government started to do something, the brand image of the new players have been seriously tarnished in the minds of the market.

In the end, mergers became the only solution. So, now, we have two instead of one when four or maybe even five would have been better.

Protocol

This one's from reader Chito Santos.

What do you call a member of Congress with an IQ of 50?

Your Honor.

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])