P-Noy can't live on hope alone

One lesson P-Noy must take to heart as he looks back on his year and a half at the Palace is that he cannot live on hope alone. There is no doubt that hopes are high he will do well, both from Pinoys and potential foreign investors. But I believe time is fast running out on hope unless results start rolling in.

While I thought that so-called paper of Ate Glue on P-Noy’s economic performance is so much political propaganda, I can’t help seeing the danger of this lack of early visible results damaging P-Noy’s continuing credibility. I feel bad that P-Noy and his economic managers gave Ate Glue an opening to say that this administration has no vision for the economy. It would have been nice for P-Noy to now tell Ate Glue that the infra projects she failed to launch or were mired in corruption under her watch are now being implemented graft-free.

P-Noy’s administration appears clueless on the economy because it offered too much, failed to deliver and then flip flopped. That’s the story of the PPP program which was billed as the cornerstone of the Aquino economic agenda early on. The premise for the program was the lack of government resources for needed projects making private sector investments necessary. A list of 10 or so projects was presented and that was the end of it.

After a year of dilly-dallying, fiddling with studies upon studies, a new Secretary at DOTC decides to change tactics. Instead of relying on the private sector, he wants to go back to the ODA route. And after more than six months, nothing has come out of the DOTC PPP pipeline because Mar Roxas the investment banker is checking and rechecking, which isn’t bad in itself so long as he also realizes time is of the essence.

Based on what has been made public thus far, it seems nothing much will happen to any of Mar’s projects this year. Look at it this way… the Palawan International Airport project was approved by P-Noy last November. But according to Mar, they can only break ground last quarter of this year. So what happens to his other projects yet to be approved by P-Noy? Does this mean no other project can break ground this year?

I am starting to think that because of Mar’s shift to an ODA approach, none will be completed before P-Noy’s term ends in 2016. I am also wondering why Mar is insisting on going the long difficult route of ODA financing when there are private sector investors who are willing to do it faster at no cost to the government.

It is also common knowledge that ODA financed projects, even if covered by cheap financing, usually cost more by 30 percent or so because donor governments insist on using their contractors who take advantage of having no competition. There is also the problem of forex losses from the rising yen that we overlook. And we don’t protest because it is cheap financing anyway. We forget that our taxpayers eventually pay for the increased cost. A good example is the SCTEX experience.

On the other hand, private sector projects financed by commercial loans have delivered, as in the case of NLEX. Provided the BOT bidding parameters are right, the private sector proponent can be made to worry about the impact of his financing cost on the allowable rate he can charge. Because a private sector led BOT proposal is subjected to a transparent competitive bid, it may turn out cheaper over all.

Then again, if Mar wants to change the original BOT plans for PPP, he can go ahead and do that but he should move quickly on BOT proposals already pending when he got in. Mar and Babes Singson should get going on the Swiss challenges to those pending BOT proposals (e.g. NLEX-SLEX connector road, MRT 7) before the interest of the private sector proponents wanes.

The Aquino economic managers must remember there is the need to show the public that they are on the ball. Press releases are no substitutes for performance. Nothing will convince the public that the administration has an economic plan unless everyone sees projects being feverishly implemented on the ground.

True, they had to spend time to make sure none of the public funds are wasted. The public appreciates the care the administration has given in the disbursement of funds. But the public will also be critical if nothing is done in the name of preventing corruption.

It would help if Mar and Babes came out with a public listing of their priority projects complete with approximate costs and target completion dates. It would also help if both communicated regularly, reporting on what they are doing to move their projects. They should do something like Mon Jimenez’s @MonJQuotes on Twitter that tweets developments in his area of responsibility many times a day.

The beauty of having this Twitter news feed is that it will not only inform the public and thus make everyone feel part of the effort; it will also put pressure on the cabinet member to get things moving. In this social media age, keeping in touch is a must for public officials.

For Mar, the public wants to know not only what is happening to his PPP projects, people also want to know what is going on with NAIA 3. P-Noy promised to open it in December 2010… December 2011 came and still no news. The news, if one can call a rumor such, is that someone in the administration is trying to get rid of former Supreme Court Justice Florentino Feliciano as counsel for government in the PIATCO case.

For those who came in late, Justice Feliciano led the legal team (that included now SC Justice Ma Lourdes Sereno) that won our case in the World Bank arbitration court against FRAPORT. The legal team won it even as the Arroyo administration was giving mixed signals that suggested they wanted to lose the case. The worse part of this rumor about this attempt to oust Justice Feliciano is that an influential government official has already come into some accommodation with PIATCO that is far from kosher, as in hindi daang matuwid.

If information about developments on this case is more forthcoming, a rumor like this would not have the credibility it now has. Is Mar really on top of negotiating a deal on NAIA 3 as he once said or is someone else doing it? What is going on? Is the civil engineering consultant on the NAIA 3 structure done with its report? Is Takenaka going to do the completion of the terminal or will some other contractor do that? When will the NAIA 3 be open for the foreign carriers now using the decrepit NAIA 1?

When is Mar going to Beijing to renegotiate NorthRail? I hear Pete Prado is there already and based on his track record and strong connections, Mar may find himself with a done deal that looks like the old one. That would be Mar’s fault because of his kilos pagong.

Let us get the information flowing. Let us get the projects moving. Otherwise, the Aquino administration validates criticisms that it has no idea where it is leading the country and is causing the economy to underperform.

Baguio

I got this e-mail from Rigo Gallardo of Baguio City.

I read yesterday (Jan. 9, 2012) your column about the fact that Baguio is no longer what it used to be some several decades ago. You could not be more correct. It is a sad but true commentary on the present dismal condition my beloved city is in.

I was born in Baguio in 1965 and permanently settled in 1969 and I have seen the steady decline of Baguio City since 1986. Indeed, the fresh pine scent is gone – replaced by the sickening smell of diesel fumes and the stench of swine ordure.  Your friend Rick Ramos is correct – there are too many people in Baguio City and the reason it is so is because of the informal settlers (squatters) who are being treated with kid gloves by the powers that be.  

To tell you the truth, Baguio City is a squatter’s haven.   But it seems that our officials are not doing anything about it because of lack of political will or just plain corruption. Take your pick, either choice will be correct.

I have tried to make a difference by calling the attention of the concerned government officials and agencies to the present “rape” of Baguio City even just in our area at Gibraltar Barangay (where squatters rule) but nothing is happening. If nothing is done about it, pretty soon, Baguio City will just be a figment of our imagination.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco