No token enercon program, please!

I want to believe the story being peddled by Ate Glo’s apologists that it was the serious economic implication of the $60 barrel oil that made her take the unusual step of seeming to apologize for her "lapses of judgment" related to her conversations with unidentified "election officials". But it seems a stronger fear factor, as in fear of being hounded out of office by a Truth Commission, made her do it.

If it were true that fear of an energy crisis was uppermost in her mind, Ate Glo would have come out with a real energy conservation program that demonstrated a stronger resolve to deal with this very real crisis. Instead, all we got from her was a call for ordinary Filipinos to begin with simple energy-conserving measures while industrial and commercial establishments "will need to be more creative by streamlining their use of electricity, or better yet, start looking at alternative sources of energy."

She also recycled an old press release directing all government agencies to cut their energy consumption by 10 percent and listed energy-saving measures, including limiting the use of air-conditioning systems between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. each workday. The President also said government vehicles should use alternative fuels such as one percent coco methyl ester blended in diesel. She said she will sign an executive order reducing the tariff rate for ethanol from 10 percent to one percent to encourage its use as an alternative fuel.

As for the National Power Corp., Ate Glo also said the state-run power firm will reduce its bunker and diesel consumption by 470 million liters, corresponding to P5.9 billion in savings. Napocor will also increase its use of hydroelectric and geothermal plants, "which are the least expensive among the generation sources."

Ho hum! Clearly, none of these are earthshaking enough to qualify as a response to a serious crisis that supposedly led her to "apologize" as a first step in uniting the nation to meet this crisis. The voluntary program for the private sector and the token program for government will not produce the needed results to mitigate the negative impact of escalating oil prices. The use of various alternative fuels, while laudable, is too long term in nature and therefore, cannot be expected to produce significant results in the short term.

And the supposed Napocor measures are things Napocor should be doing anyway, even without the crisis for the simple reason that those are the right things to do. Besides, with the economy what it is today, there shouldn’t be enough demand for power that would make it necessary to use Napocor’s bunker fuel plants that much.

Ate Glo must also be told that the typical knee jerk response of calling for a conference to discuss energy conservation will likely degenerate to the usual talkfest. Even a conference would require a solid program that could be discussed. A free for all photo op event is a waste of time and resources.

What I am looking for, is a real and well thought out program that not only responds to the rise in oil prices but also anticipates possible disruption in supply for one reason or another, or even simply because we can no longer afford it. Given that our oil import bill is already at the level of $6 billion a year, we should have taken active measures to cut our consumption some months back.

Someone should start worrying about how the cost of oil, if we do not start conserving, could elbow out other sectors of the economy from our relatively limited foreign exchange pool. I am sure that if simulations are done, we would be horrified to learn that the oil import bill could easily consume the $8 billion our OFWs remit. With electronics in the doldrums and traditional agricultural exports not expected to move up to pick up the slack, we only have our OFWs as our main dollar earners.

We need to introduce measures similar to those we had during the energy crisis years of the 70s and 80s that would discourage profligate use of energy. We need to tax conspicuous consumption of energy, or even ban them. And we should have a task force that would prepare the mechanics of a fuel rationing program, just so we are prepared with one in case it is quickly needed.

If, as Ate Glo says, the energy crisis we face now is worse that those in the past, how come government is not moving with as much sense of purpose we had in the past?

Purisima scores

I don’t know who is advising Ate Glo by way of communication strategy, but whoever he or she is, he or she must have been a scriptwriter in a teleserye… a soap opera. Instead of making her announce everything she needs to say in a "shock and awe" fashion to get public attention and maybe, sympathy, she is apparently being advised to do it bit by bit, keeping people dissatisfied and in suspense.

I was told the big strategy was not only to say she talked to an election official and that she’s sorry for the indiscretion but to also announce at the same time, the exile of husband Mike, son Mikey and brother in law Iggy. It was also part of the plan to announce the firing of known Mike lieutenants to include the heads of Pagcor and GSIS as well as members of their boards of directors to include Atty. Jesus Santos, Mike’s lawyer-spokesman and a former Agriculture Usec who was rewarded with a GSIS board seat after being involved in an election campaign related scandal.

That would have been, well... WOW! People would stop and notice and wonder if she finally really means business. After all, her confession would have been complete with an act of contrition and appropriate penance. But they decided to be stingy with the public morale boosting announcements, doing things in stages. They obviously want to assess public reaction, to see if they have to deliver on the all the sacrifices.

Because the public didn’t seem appeased after the confession, Mike Arroyo was offered on the sacrificial altar. If that’s not enough, as it seems it isn’t, she will probably announce the sacrifice of Mike’s altar boys as well... and so on down the list. Purging Mike’s boys is important because the practical significance of Mike’s exile would be negated in this age of high tech communication, if his boys are still in positions of power.

Then again too, I heard Ate Glo had to make the announcement on Mike to pre-empt another bugged conversation featuring Mike talking to a Chinoy businessman who has a colorful reputation as a duty free trader. I am told it is worse than any of the bugged conversations we have heard so far...

But even prior to the confession, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima was flexing his muscles and provoking a showdown with Mike. That’s why he cleared the filing of tax evasion charges against Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, said to be Mike’s connection to the rice traders. If Ate Glo stopped Purisima, the Finance Chief would have resigned and that would have been one potentially fatal blow to the administration’s ability to hang on.

In the on-going battle between the good guys and the bad guys within the Arroyo Administration, score that one for Secretary Purisima. He has also authorized the tax probe of Iggy Arroyo and we have to admit, he is one brave Cabinet member. That’s such a ray of hope! We must simply cheer Mr. Purisima on.

Georgetown U alumni

Georgetown University alumni Bill Clinton and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo share a number of similarities aside from being classmates in the Jesuit-run school. For example, they were both Presidents of their countries and they both had to apologize to their countrymen for lapses in judgment... in the case of Clinton, it had to do with a cigar... and in the case of Gloria, it had to do with Garci.

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