Is Raul Roco really leading 2004 race?

Unless the leftist Ibon data bank submits its research methodology to an independent panel of academics and professional researchers, my inclination is to dismiss their so-called surveys as mere entertainment. Actually, it is not beyond the leftist group to use so-called surveys as part of a total propaganda plan to achieve their objective of creating conditions that will make a political power grab easy.

Don’t get me wrong. I was not really displeased with the Ibon survey finding that Raul Roco is setting the pace for the 2004 race. I voted for Raul the first time he was in the presidential contest against Erap and Joe de V. I thought he was the best man for the job even as I knew he didn’t have the numbers to win against the popular Erap and the well-funded Joe de V.

I was surprised when Ate Glo appointed Raul to her Cabinet, with no less than the Education portfolio. I figured she must have thought Raul was a spent force and not a threat to her own ambitions. Or giving Ate Glo a little more credit, she might have thought that Raul was really the best man for the job and the country should benefit from his leadership.

Raul has not talked of politics openly, and the Ibon survey results may have even made latent fears from Ate Glo’s handlers burst out in the open. I remember asking Ate Glo when I last had dinner with her with some other journalists how she felt about Raul Roco’s stewardship of education. Before she could even answer, Dodie Limcaoco barked a strong "why do you ask?" It simply reveals that they are not discounting a threat from Raul and if they had their rathers, they would rather that he is not in such a high profile Cabinet post. That Ibon survey story may have made his tenure in the Cabinet uneasy.

But Ate Glo said she was satisfied with Raul’s performance and it is obvious that Raul has done marvels in that big bureaucracy. There is no doubt that Raul still has a lot more to do by way of marshalling the resources needed to educate our people. But at least the public school teachers are being taken care of, the loan sharks that whittle down their pay even before they get it have been neutralized. And the training of teachers is getting some attention.

I still think this country can benefit from a Raul Roco presidency. At the same time however, Ate Glo at the helm and Raul Roco continuing as Secretary of Education beyond 2004 isn’t that bad either. The important thing is that we need a strong willed Secretary of Education who can deal with a bureaucracy that could be as corrupt as that one in Public Works. We need an Education Secretary who feels that time is running out on our competitiveness in a globalized world because our young people are badly educated.

The latest bad news I heard is that of Chinese nurses starting to beat Filipina nurses in getting choice placements in England because among others, they are now getting fluent in English. We have to get our children trained to compete in this globalized world by being able to speak English well and by being proficient in math and the sciences. That’s what Raul is trying to do. And he will need a lot more time than what is available between now and the time election fever hits us for good.

Local development

Politics aside, it might be a good idea for Vice President Tito Guingona to accept the offer of Ate Glo to become the development czar for Mindanao. He must however, make sure his mandate is clear and that he has enough powers to move the bureaucracy into action. And not to forget, he must be given the financial resources to carry out his job.

Actually, in Tito’s version of the SONA, he had some good ideas on how to approach the task of economic development. Tito G said that perhaps, we could have an easier time attaining our development goals if we approached it from the perspective of greater local autonomy.

"Let the LGUs take a vital role in the process. We must evaluate and assess: product by product, category by category. Do we have comparative advantage in mangoes, in bananas, galunggong or daing – for how long? How do we improve? What of other products like chili and pepper? Can technology offset comparative advantage? How? When?"

Tito G thinks that if we give LGUs the task to increase production and integrate our economy, we give them self-reliance. "Infuse confidence and build resoluteness to the Filipino as a man. And if we build the Filipino, then we build the nation. We do not build a strong nation from above but from the base below - from the Filipino in the barangays, the towns, the provinces and cities across the land. Just as we build a strong house by building a strong nation by establishing a firm foundation of Filipinos at the base."

That sounds to me like the brick by brick analogy of Ate Glo. Maybe if they work together despite their political differences, then maybe people may see it is possible to move as a nation towards our loftier national dreams. If Tito can work wonders in Mindanao, he would have achieved something a lot meaningful than doing battle with the vicious Palace shadows that did him in.

Good news

A bit of good news from Philippine Airlines... it has surged back to profitability after slipping into the red last year when 9/11 happened. It has now posted a record P983.9 million net income for the April-to-June period this year, the first quarter of its current 2002-2003 fiscal year. When even the big airlines of America and Europe are spilling red ink, this is real good news.

PAL officials said the surplus is the largest quarterly profit in PAL’s 61-year history. Last year’s 9/11 caused a P1.6-billion annual loss for the flag carrier. What I found significant however, is that PAL was able to reduce its operating expenditures by nearly one billion pesos to a level of P8.67 billion, despite having essentially the same assets and organization. This means, our airline is approaching the efficiency level required of airlines today to be viable.

It is also good to find out that despite carrying slightly less passengers in the domestic network and flying less flights, PAL still experienced significantly higher systemwide load factors for the quarter: 67.6 percent in the domestic sector and 81.1 percent in international, for a pretty impressive 78.9 percent overall. This only proves we have what it takes to be world class competitive, if we are pushed to the wall as PAL was.

I know Ate Glo wants government to own PAL again. Given our finances, it is perhaps best that we leave it in the private sector so as not to squander the gains it is now slowly achieving.

Mea culpa

There was a bit of error on my part in last Monday’s column. The coal power plant I had in mind was the one in Masinloc in Zambales, not Matinloc. Actually, Matinloc is in Palawan and is where one of our early oil wells is located. The error jumped off the page as I read it over breakfast.

The Priest

Dr. Ernie E’s joke today is as hot as recent headlines.

Six people were on a plane. A doctor, a lawyer a priest and three children. The pilot comes on the radio and says the plane is going to crash, and there are only three parachutes.

The doctor yells out, " Save the children"

The lawyer yells out "SCR*W THE CHILDREN!"

The priest yells out "IS THERE TIME?"

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