God the Father speaks in Ilocano - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

A blackout that strikes at 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday and lasts all day – and, in some places, up to 10 p.m. – is a great leveler, striking poor and rich alike.

You’d think by now, after a few previously disastrous "brownouts" (the euphemism we normally use, which is silly because what you see is "black", not "brown"), the National Power Corporation should have learned to cope more swiftly with any breakdown in the system. Crime flourishes in the dark, domestic and international flights are all screwed up, machinery stalls and – in this the hottest week of the year – everybody sweats it out. "Offer your suffering up in sacrifice for the Lenten season," the pious will say. What many would like to do, really, is offer the Napocor up in one big bonfire for its perennial inability to react more effectively.

Those with their own agenda, that of snapping the Napocor up cheaply invoking the battle-cry of "privatization", will weigh in with the self-serving argument that the weekend "blackout" is a signal for the Napocor to be turned over to private management. Whoa there! "Privatization" does not always improve matters – in fact, it often makes matters worse. Look at "Maynilad." The fiction was that "privatizing" the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and bidding out the former NAWASA to the private sector would improve water service. "Maynilad Water Services, Inc." owned by Benpres Holdings Corp. (of the sprawling Lopez Empire) and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, a French group, won the bid and took over servicing Western Manila. Now, the private firm is on the verge of throwing in the towel unless the government "gives" it more concessions! (Isn’t the principle involved caveat emptor? They should have factored in all possibilities when they submitted their "low" bid to clinch the contract). That’s the way "privatization" operates in this country. It’s similar to Russian roulette.

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Privatize the gigantic Napocor? The massive "blackout" crisis of last weekend ought to make us think twice about such a perilous move. When you sell at a "bargain price", the bargain-buyers sometimes don’t live up to their obligations.

Just consider the giant American state of California, so rich and upmarket, its economy in the city of Los Angeles alone several times bigger than that of the Philippines. Yet, California is suffering rolling "blackouts", even before summer begins to bite.

This is because the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s electricity grid, has discovered it can’t handle things. Last March 19 alone, the private "investor-owned" utilities desperately called on electricity-users to cut off as much as 1,000 megawatts – or enough electricity to power as many as a million homes.

In short, California’s much-touted utility "deregulation" plans have gone haywire. The two major investor-owned utilities under the privatization and deregulation scheme – the Pacific Gas & Electric unit of PG & E Corporation, San Francisco, and the Southern California Edison subsidiary of Edison International in Rosemead, California – haven’t been able to pay the smaller power producers, and these small firms have stopped producing electricity.

That’s a warning that deregulation and privatization aren’t the answer. Let’s go back to the drawing boards and reconsider our options. Government may be "inefficient", but at least it can be held responsible – while private operators, faced with adversity, sometimes manage to cop out and run away.

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I made a quick trip to Baguio and flew back by helicopter yesterday afternoon. Baguio is packed with thousands of Metro Manilans and "lowlanders" who rushed up there from the sweltering plains to take advantage of the long weekend (it’s a holiday today).

If you’re planning to drive up to Baguio tomorrow or Wednesday, be prepared for traffic along the way. It took friends of mine almost six hours to drive up, and you can be sure the Wednesday exodus up the mountain will be even more difficult. Part of the way, incidentally, the Kennon Road is lined with squatter "homes", auto shops, and junk establishments. The fairytale Baguio of happier days, many years ago – with the sweet scent of pines perfuming your nostrils even before you clear the summit is long gone. Baguio suffers from overpopulation, broken roads, squatter colonies, and now, crowds of refugees from the cities down below and the pitiless summer heat.

There are so many holidaymakers, in fact, that people literally have to fight for a place in the city restaurants. Session Road is one big traffic jam. Our old friend, "Mos" Cating, who’s retired from most of his businesses but remains a director of the water system, told me yesterday that water is growing scarce – and expensive.

Baguio, it has to be said, still retains some of its charms, shopworn though they may have grown. Towards the Loakan airport, for instance, there are still thick stands of pine – but, again, the ever advancing squatter colonies are beginning to encroach. Strawberries there are, naturally, but stocks of these traditionally sweet berries are fast being gobbled up by arriving Metro Manilans.

The Country Club remains an oasis of upper-class living, and the famous veranda still serves wonderful chocolate and its delicious bibingka (but you have to wait forever for your order). My host, Texas Instruments CEO Marquez "Mark" Go (incoming District Governor of Rotary International, District 3790), took us for lunch at the posh new Clubhouse of Camp John Hay, constructed by the Fil-Estate developers. It is airy, redolent of "imported" pine, and full of ambiance – and serves excellent chop suey and chili hotdog, depending on your whim. The cottages are neat. I didn’t get to see those notorious log cabins up on the hill, but what I can say is that John Hay’s golf greens are superb and have been vastly improved. (I speak from the perspective of one who prefers to play indoor sports, I’ll have to add.)

If you’re planning to go up to Baguio, be prepared for overcrowding, traffic, and seeing the same people you’ve been seeing all week in the big city. And don’t expect it to be "cold." It’s cooler than down here, in Metro Manila, but chilly it ain’t.

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Yesterday morning, in San Fabian, Pangasinan, I had a long talk with a remarkable churchman who’s known as the "Supreme Pontiff" as well as "Chairman of the Board of Directors" of the Crusaders of the Divine Church of Christ, Philippines, Inc. Yes, Monseigneur Dr. Rufino S. Magliba received me in his huge cathedral in Barangay Magliba in San Fabian. (I was brought there by ex-Governor and former Agrarian Reform Minister Conrado Estrella.)

The Temple, as they call it, was full of worshippers. As in Catholic churches, the parishioners had celebrated Palm Sunday, waving their palaspas in commemoration of the Domingo de Ramos. On the other hand, Msgr. Magliba a.k.a. as the Comforter-High Priest, His Holiness and the Divine Healer, whose soft voice projects a magnetic personality, preaches a rather different doctrine. The Crusaders of the Divine Church of Christ make the sign of the cross in a unique manner. They say "in the name of God the Father, God the Mother, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." In their belief, Mary, as the Mother of God, is herself God, too.

The believers also celebrate Christmas on September 25, not on December 25.

"It’s only logical," one of the Monseigneurs told me (their bishops are attired much in the same manner as Catholic and Aglipayan prelates). "If the Immaculate Concepcion took place on December 8, then Jesus must have been born nine months later!" Next September 25, by the way, coincides with the 80th birthday of His Holiness, the Supreme Pontiff Dr. Magliba.

Just as Moses was plucked by the Pharaoh’s daughter from a basket of reeds in a stream, the future "supreme leader" was found, as a four-months old baby, in a deserted place near their ricefields by Felipe Magliba and Petronila Sarmiento in Macalong, Asingan, Pangasinan, on January 25, 1922. (This means the Pontiff has the same hometown as our political "pontiff", ex-President F. V. Ramos.)

They registered the foundling as their son and gave him the name Rufino Sarmiento Magliba. He married at the age of seventeen, and had ten sons and one daughter. This brood of his is described in their church as "The Royal Family." The sons are addressed as "Prince" and the daughter as "Princess."

Rufino, who had no formal schooling, became a farm-helper, and tried several trades before becoming a fisherman. In 1952, the story goes, when he was 31 years old, God the Father appeared to him as a "spirit-being" and told him that He was his real Father. He then commanded him to go preach His word and the gospels of Jesus, and heal the sick. The published "history" of the sect goes that at the urging of God the Father, Msgr. Magliba registered the Crusaders of the Divine Church of Christ in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sept. 27, 1955 (Registration No. 010285).

What attracted many to Msgr. Magliba were his "healing powers", including the ability to pull out teeth with his bare fingers, or use his eyes as an X-ray which could penetrate the human body and diagnose any disease.

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In any event, the Church – the Supreme Pontiff Magliba told me – now counts four million adherents, not only in the Ilocos provinces and Pangasinan, but also in the rest of the Philippines (I met the resident Monseigneur from General Santos City yesterday, too), and in the United States as well. There are churches and chapters in Hawaii, in California, as well as in Hong Kong and London, I was informed. His daughter, whom I also met yesterday, lives with her husband near Fresno, California, and is called Princess Lourdes M. Andres (her husband is Bill Andres, and she’s normally called Gloria). I found her sprightly, intelligent and down-to-earth.

The family’s influence is not confined to religious and saintly concerns. His Holiness’ son, Mayor Romulo V. Magliba, is mayor of the municipality of San Fabian. A younger son, Dr. Celso V. Magliba, who’s asst. majority floor leader of the Sangguniang Bayan is now running to succeed his third-term brother as San Fabian’s mayor.

We spoke to each other, of course, in Ilocano. Msgr. Dr. Magliba uses the "Ilocano language" in his ministry since, he says, this is the language God the Father uses "in conversation" with him. God the Father comes to speak to him, especially during Holy Week "to give revelations," I was told.

One chronicler, Msgr. Poliento M. Meriño, wrote in the Church’s Millennium Festival brochure dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul: "It is truly worthy to learn the Ilocano language. In the Kingdom of God there will be one language, wherein people will call the name of the Lord to serve Him in one voice."

Don’t worry. The Crusaders’ gospel has been translated into Tagalog, too. So don’t despair that the Kingdom of Heaven is exclusively for us, Saluyots.

Do you know what? I’m a self-admitted (despite Cardinal Sin’s frowns) Catolico cerrado, but I came away from visiting the Monseigneur and his great Basilica Church of Sta. Cecilia, with its mammoth and elegant Crown on top, (and its air-conditioned Sports Complex) impressed with the fervor and sincerity of their faith.