Is P-Noy's house too divided?

When P-Noy delivers his SONA today, the nation will hopefully get a good idea of what he is thinking by way of leading us not just out of GMA’s leftover mess, but more importantly, how and where he will lead us. Beyond what he will say in his speech, I am also worried about the stability of the house he is building.

Even if P-Noy is getting a very high 88 percent approval from the people, he is not about to get full benefit of all the political capital that such support could deliver. This is because his house is very much divided. Political termites will yet bring it down.

P-Noy earlier explained that the differences among the people who supported his candidacy are normal in a broad based coalition like what he had. If that is so, then it is his task to make sure that all these different groups with different agendas unite behind his leadership now that he is President. Or at least, they should not undermine each other.

I get the impression that the factions supposedly supporting him are out to get each other. A good example is the determined campaign to demonize the Abad family. P-Noy has already explained why he needs all of them in his government and I, for one, believe that the country should not be deprived of their talents and dedication to the new President.

But the media leaks are persistent and as far as I can determine, the anti-Abad sentiments are internally driven… can be traced to a rival faction within the P-Noy camp. The Abads, with public service in their DNA and never a hint of scandal and impropriety all these years, are being unfairly pilloried. If they keep this up, there will be so much back stabbing within the Cabinet and close-in support staff that the success of any P-Noy initiative could be imperiled.

It is the same thing with the so called Communications Group. I do not buy the press release that they are reorganizing for greater effectiveness. From my many years of experience in the field, there can really be only one boss orchestrating the communication effort if they honestly want to be effective. They can’t have four people of co-equal Cabinet rank. The reason P-Noy can’t appoint one of them as top dog is because they belong to at least two different factions P-Noy isn’t inclined to displease.

But leadership means having to make choices. I see the fratricidal division within the House of P-Noy as an indication that this administration will find it difficult to make any real positive achievements early in the game. They should not be lulled by that high initial approval rating. P-Noy is getting a free pass in these early days. Soon, people will be looking for results for them to continue believing in him.

In the end, P-Noy needs to make people feel that their lives have improved or like in the case of President Obama, he can watch his approval rating plunge like a dead weight. The first order of business is for P-Noy to show his leadership by uniting the folks in his own house. Divided, this administration will have no credibility in efforts to unite the rest of the country.

Finally, I want to share what my colleague, economist Romy Bernardo once wrote with reference to his experience as Finance Usec under FVR. According to Romy, the lessons from the reform experience during those years can be summed up under the following headings: articulating a vision; scoring early success; political will; effective communication and constituency building; and opportunistic timing, pragmatism, judicious haste and persistence.

I hope P-Noy keeps those lessons in mind as he delivers his SONA this afternoon. And as soon as he gets back to Malacanang after his moment in history, he should address the first real challenge to his leadership: unite his house behind him.

GPRS

I just found out my two assistants have been victimized by unreasonable billings from their cell phone service provider. If you are a Smart subscriber using a blackberry or one of those smart phones, you may be a victim too of a program glitch that will cost you big money.

One of them, Carla Paras Sison was billed for mobile Internet service (GPRS packet data service) at the rate of P9.09 per 30 minutes practically 24 hours a day for one month. The billing statement for the period June 15 to July 14 showed the internet service was continuously billed even at midnight when Ms Sison was sleeping, or at hours when she was driving to and from work. Total data charges (browsing subscription) for the period amounted to P9,780.84.

The customer representative at the Smart Wireless Center in SM Megamall told her she failed to exit the browsing feature correctly. But Carla contends that a historical review of her account shows she had never used the internet for 24 hours straight. Besides, the settings and configuration were automatically sent by Smart’s system to her phone when she replaced her broken phone with a Nokia E72.

In the case of Rosan, my other assistant, she explained that her average bill would be PhP 5-6,000 a month. Last year, while traveling twice to Europe and once to the United States and her bill would only cost P7-8,000 or at the most, P9,000 only to already include roaming, data charges and even voice calls.

But last month her phone bill amounted to P27, 958.72 which is an increase by 386 percent from last month’s bill. 53 percent was data charges and 31 percent roaming charges. This month’s bill was a shocking P21,166.69. This time 78 percent was due to data charges amounting to P16,493.61. Ms Cruz said she has not changed her data activity and wasn’t even abroad.

She wrote a letter to a Ms. Grace C. Plata, her account officer’s supervisor (Jeffrey Santiago) on July 5 and followed up on July 12 but did not get a reply. She asked around and found out that hers is not an isolated problem. It seems that the new Blackberry phones automatically turn on the browsing feature. She insists she didn’t access and/or surf during the time period and thus, did not use the GPRS being charged to her account. Her Blackberry is a service unit from Smart with obviously faulty software.

We brought up the problem of Ms Cruz to the PR staff of Smart when they visited the Tuesday Club last week. Ms. Sison on the other hand, furnished the NTC a copy of her complaint to Smart.

In fairness to Smart’s PR staff they acted within 24 hours of getting the complaint of Rosan and to her satisfaction. In the case of Carla, she has not received a response from the normal channels.

I prefer that Smart quietly settle the complaints of their consumers but the widespread nature of the problem seems to indicate more people may be victims of this glitch but do not know it yet. By making this problem public, I am helping Smart reach out to their other subscribers in the assumption that it is not their corporate policy to profit from such a glitch. In fact, Globe subscribers of smart phone services may have the same problem too and they should carefully examine their bills.

For me, I feel so good that I don’t use my cell phone for anything other than text and voice. I don’t miss my e-mail and Facebook that much to want a smart phone. As it happens there are very expensive flaws in the system that would have raised my blood pressure if I were in the place of my assistants. I am sure MVP and my college buddy, Doy Vea will make sure these problems are addressed.

Miracles happen 

This one’s from Robin Tong.

One night, an 87-year-old woman came home from Bingo to find her 92-year-old husband in bed with another woman... She became violent and ended up pushing him off the balcony of their 20th floor apartment, killing him instantly. 

Brought before the court, on the charge of murder, she was asked if she had anything to say in her own defense.

“Your Honor,” she began coolly, “I figured that at 92, if he could screw, he could fly.”

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