Candidate Noynoy should transition smoothly to President Noynoy. This early, he must make it clear to his followers that he must now pick his battles. The worse thing that could happen is for the incoming President to be seen as politically vindictive. He has to be a unifying influence, the President of all Pinoys.
A deluge of problems will greet him after he takes his oath of office. He has to fight battles on many fronts. That’s why he must carefully select the battles that will command his full personal attention. He needs to establish his credentials a little more strongly and a little more quickly given the general observation that he won on sheer emotional appeal of his parents.
Sure Ate Glue must be made to account in accordance with our legal processes. But Noynoy must not personalize this nor make it look like it is his overwhelming obsession. He should let the legal structures of government work this out.
It is the same thing with the Marcos wealth issues. Imelda Marcos was reported by media to be in a fighting mood about recovering their wealth after she and her children won in last week’s elections. The new president should just abolish PCGG and let the Justice department put up a special panel to audit and follow through the cases that had been pending at the PCGG for ages. Current PCGG officials should also be made to account for reported abuses of public confidence.
The new president should focus on the major problems of the country today and these all have to do with the economy and poverty. Noynoy is inheriting a plundered treasury which limits his mobility. Ate Glue front loaded expenses in the first three months of this year which means Noynoy will have little left when he takes over.
Noynoy needs extremely good, honest and street smart people on top of internal revenue and customs if he is to get the resources he needs to meet urgent national needs. He can start by stopping oil smuggling. The fiscal deficit problem will be closely watched by the international financial sector. Even as some risk rating agencies are talking of an upgrade because we managed a relatively peaceful electoral process, in the end they will still crunch the numbers.
Confidence building will have to be at the top of the new president’s agenda. What he has going for him is that Noynoy seems to be the anti-thesis of Ate Glue in the sense that he can lead by example. He had been living a pretty unpretentious life and it isn’t likely he will change his lifestyle much, if his mother’s behavior while in power is any indication.
Noynoy must do something dramatic in the area of curbing corruption, looking forward. People voted him precisely to do this job. Noynoy’s credibility will be greatly affected by what he does or fails to do in his first 100 days in the matter of corruption in government.
Even the international community is watching. In an editorial last Wednesday, the Financial Times urged Noynoy to do better than Tita Cory: “First, he must make good his electoral pledge to stamp out corruption. Transparency International rates the Philippines worse than Liberia or Pakistan. Such a sense of all-pervasive moral bankruptcy not only corrodes people’s sense of purpose in this 90m-strong nation, it also deprives the state of billions of dollars in taxes.”
Dealing with corruption, according to the FT, “is just one of the six impossible things Mr Aquino must do before breakfast if the Philippines is to recapture anything like the potential it once seemed to hold when it was (unbelievable as it now seems) bracketed with Japan.” In other words, the new President will rise or fall on how effective he is with corruption.
The other items on the agenda, according to the FT, “include ending a long-running Moslem insurgency in the south; creating a business environment that can employ some of the 8m talented Filipinos forced to find gainful employment abroad; breaking up business cartels; delivering workable land reform; and rebuilding the credibility of institutions, such as the Supreme Court, eroded after years of government co-option.”
The task is not easy the FT concedes and it is not sure Mr Aquino “has such ambitions, let alone whether he can carry them out within a fractious political system.” But the FT also pointed out our situation is not hopeless.
“First, the Philippines’ economic performance, while not stellar, has been reasonable thanks to the $17 billion in remittances expatriates send back each year. To be sure, that reflects the economy’s inability to crate jobs. But it is a sizable chunk of money that has underpinned domestic consumption, and could kick-start a better economic trajectory if supportive policies are put in place.”
I share the FT’s view that we voted more in hope than in expectation when we rallied around Noynoy, the way we did for Tita Cory. “That gives him a chance to make a difference.”
Indeed. The next move is Noynoy’s and here is hoping he prioritizes his battles well.
Fast break at EC
Ate Glue’s boys are trying to fast break a midnight sale of PNOC-EC’s Malampaya shares. And when its board of directors insisted on getting a Comelec clearance that this could be legally done during the election ban for such transactions, they will be changed in a special stockholders meeting next week, May 21, in violation of another ban for making appointments during the election period.
A report on Business Mirror last Friday reveals they are planning a P16 billion negotiated sale of the shares of PNOC EC in Malampaya. Some of the displaced directors thought proceeding with the sale is unlawful and disadvantageous to the government.
Sources told Philippine Star energy reporter Donnabella Gatdula that “selling the Malampaya asset at this point will simply transfer public revenues to the private sector without the benefit of future public revenues. The intention to sell the Malampaya asset without any public bidding is a procedure that is highly questionable on several counts.”
Whenever government gets into multi billion peso transactions without bidding or going into negotiated sale, alarm bells ring. This particular transaction easily qualifies as a midnight sale since the term of the present administration ends on June 30.
From a purely business point of view, Ms Gatdula’s sources pointed out the absence of a public bidding and general lack of transparency will further reduce the likelihood that the Malampaya asset will be sold at a fair price. In other words, madaling magisip na may kikita dito ng malaki on the side.
It was also pointed out that the DOF and its financial adviser Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) have been very mysterious about the identity of the supposed buyer. They have also not shown a letter of intent to the PNOC EC board from the supposed buyer. We all know who are the influential friends of the DBP head.
I had written against the sale of PNOC-EC’s shares in Malampaya because we need to keep those shares in the national interest. It is the only way we can really know what is going on because technical data can be withheld from regulatory agencies but not from partners or shareholders. Shell and Chevron are currently drilling a new well in this contract area which is likely to be another major discovery. That means, the value of those shares could be a lot higher.
The entire Camago Malampaya natural gas complex has delivered $1.3 billion in royalties to government from 2001 to 2008, 10 percent of which represents PNOC-EC’s share. PNOC has paid dividends to the national treasury of P1.5 billion for 2008 to 2009.
The other point I raised is that without the income stream from this asset of PNOC-EC, both EC and its mother company PNOC will have no money to carry out whatever mandates they may still have. That means they will become dependent on budgetary outlays from the treasury. Teves may solve his short term fiscal deficit problem with proceeds from the sale (or the securitization of the future income stream) but cause long term problems.
Noynoy’s transition team should point out this problem and vigorously object to the last two minutes, fast break sale. Joey Leviste, as well as other reported new directors, should not risk the damage to their reputations and possible suits from the new administration by playing dummy directors in getting this questionable deal through.
Noynoy’s oath taking
President-elect Noynoy’s plan to take his oath before his barangay captain is pretty symbolic, better than before a questionable chief justice but maybe a little extreme.
If Noynoy keeps the ceremony within the judicial branch, he can look for an obscure judge who is known for outstanding performance to give him his oath of office. If the judge happens to be working in troubled areas or on dangerous cases, or a woman or Muslim, the symbolism will be also be quite awesome.
First Lady
I received this text message.
Sayang natalo si Gibo. Maganda sana ang ating First Lady. Ngayon, we are stuck with Boy Abunda.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. This and some past columns can also be viewed at www.boochanco.com