Can we blame FedEx for junking Subic in favor of China?

"It never rains but it pours" goes the old saw. The current turmoil and trouble is accelerating its domino effect. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which was never too friendly to us (barraging us annually with critical reports and findings) has now turned another screw: it has declared it will halt new lending if fiscal consolidation, tax collection, and "key sector reforms" falter.

Now comes a bigger blow. FedEx, the international carrier which established its regional Asian hub in Subic with great fanfare in 1995 is abandoning the Philippines for Guangzhou (Canton) in the People’s Republic of China. This was announced last Wednesday by FedEx Chairman Fred Smith who asserted his company would build a $150 million hub in Guangzhou Baiyun airport, its largest hub outside the United States.

Smith tried to be polite by underscoring the limited space in Subic, and adding that "we simply do not need two major middle-Pacific hubs… You have to go where your customers want you to go."

It has to be noted that one of the "Hyatt 10" who junked President GMA, told her to resign and give way to Vice-President Noli de Castro, was Customs Commissioner Bert Lina (brother of former DILG Secretary Joey Lina). If you’ll recall, Bert ran FedEx in the Philippines from its very inception. It’s bye-bye Subic, hello Guangzhou (with no ringtone) very shortly.

Booming China, indeed, is sucking in investment from every corner, and FedEx notes that exports soared by 33 percent to $343.3 billion there in the first half of this year, while imports went up 14 percent to P302.7 billion.

Here, business appears to be shakey, the government under siege, the courts interfering and intrusive, the bureaucracy corrupt even at lower levels, and "tax holidays" are revoked retroactively, leaving investors stripped of their profit predictions.

Can we blame FedEx? The current turmoil may have been the last straw, although it was apparent months ago that FedEx and other foreign firms were growing apprehensive and reconsidering their options.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is also decamping and will build a hub at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. This writer just returned from Shanghai and I can say that the development in Pudong and Puxi – only seven years ago mostly rice fields, swamp and hovels – is fantastic, with real estate skyrocketing at too fervid a pace that fearing a burst in the bubble the Chinese government has stepped in to slow the pace of runaway speculation – decreeing that properties not be resold until mortgages are fully paid.

The fact is that soaring high-rises and swanky hotels have mushroomed with such speed that it can be said they’ve built the equivalent of ten "Makatis" since 1999 – and they’re still building. It’s said that one-fifth of the world’s construction cranes are working there.

In sum, we’ve been left behind eating their dust. Since it has been raining heavily in Shanghai-Pudong the past four days, I might reword that phrase to "eating their mud." The truth is that there are no potholes or mud-puddles on the expressway to the Pudong International Airport. The highway is smooth, roomy, and traffic, while heavy downtown, moves with ease once you hit the airport speedway.

Or you can take the ultra-modern MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) train which zips you from Pudong’s Long Yang train station to the International Airport, some 30 kilometers away, in just eight minutes. (When we previously went by road, the same journey took 45 minutes).

The German-built MagLev is the fastest train on earth, outrunning even the fabled French Tres Grand Vitesse (GTV) and the Japanese bullet train, the Shinkansen. The train uses no wheels, but flies by "electromagnetic levitation" to a top speed of 430 km (267 miles) per hour. You don’t even feel it begin to move, then, within three minutes you’ve hit 430 and have to start slowing down to whisk down the final two kilometers.

The German-led consortium had hoped to get the contract for a MagLev line to the capital Beijing, but will instead, since it’s so costly, extend their train only to Hangzhou, the tea capital and former royal capital of China, on romantic West Lake.

In our case, what has happened to us? The Chinese have had to agree to help us build the North Line, but our once-proud Philippine railways are inefficient, grimy and inadequate, and our railroad right of way has been encroached upon by FVR’s "bahay along da riles" projects and other squatter colonies.

We’re a nation in disrepute abroad as having no national purpose, and where it’s virtually "every man for himself", or herself, as the case may be.

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I don’t know why some people are still praising Cesar Purisima, Florencio Abad, Dinky Soliman and the so-called "Hyatt 10" as having tried to save the economy – from their own President La Gloria, who else?

How can Cabinet betrayal give the world confidence in our government and in the way we do things? The pretentious "Hyatt 10" destroyed the economy. How can any foreigner entrust his money to a country where Cabinet ministers actively plot to oust their own President, then tell her to "resign" and give the job to the Vice-President? A military coup attempt may be destabilizing, a successful coup even worse. But a "coup" attempt by civilians, worst of all members of GMA’s own official family, gives every foreign observer the impression that ours is a nation in which nobody can be trusted.

The media supporters of the "Hyatt 10" rebels continue to ululate that Purisima and company did what they did as patriots seeking only to "save" the country. Would toppling a President give them and our economy more credibility at home and overseas? If GMA were thus ousted, her replacement as President (Noli, or whoever else) could in turn never trust such people. Nor could the rest of the world. If these are our "saviors", heaven save us from them!

As for the Communists and the Radical Left, they see this as an opportunity to seize power through infiltrating the ranks of the Opposition and provoking mass actions and rallies.

The rallies they tried to mobilize in the province fizzled out miserably. Last Wednesday, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Courage attempted to rally in the vicinity of "McDonald’s" in Tacloban City, but only 50 persons showed up, and the demonstration melted away in 30 minutes.

In Davao City, Bayan Muna and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) managed at least to gather 1,000 persons at Rizal Park’s DAR office in Ecoland and Freedom Park, but the demonstration didn’t last long and there were no incidents of violence or any troublemaking. In Naga City, 250 rallyists belonging to militant groups congregated, with a German woman militant prominently in their forefront. The police and Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) took the lady in for questioning, but may have released her by now.

There was a rally organized in Zamboanga City but reportedly managed to attract only 15 persons!

Don’t laugh. These may look like pinpricks – but these "tries" reveal that the Leftists are striving very hard to create what they classically call "a revolutionary situation". Fortunately, thus far, they’ve issued invitations but very few people have come to their Revolution. Yet there’s a clear and ever-present danger from them.

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The good news in a bleak season is that life goes on in our country, with most of the fuss and bother occurring in Metro Manila. If you ask me, switching precipitately from our present form of presidential government to "parliamentary" may not be the quick fix which could save our democratic system, or, as some pundits believe, a "graceful" exit-strategy if she so contemplates it, for the embattled President.

A parliament works in mature societies (it took the "mother of parliaments" in England more than a troublesome century and cruel civil wars, to refine it to its present state. Parliament even beheaded a king, and gave Oliver Cromwell, as Lord Protector, many years of dictatorial rule.

So, jumping into parliamentary mode in our immature society, where votes can be bought for P200 apiece, and ballots rigged by dagdag-bawas, or Radical Leftists infiltrate through Party List dodges, can be chancy.

* * *

It was exhilarating to fly down to Kamaya Point in Mariveles, Bataan, to address the Alumni Parade of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The fastest way to get there is by helicopter, and fortunately I got the company Eurochopper to get me there in less than half an hour from Greenhills – flying over Manila Bay and Corregidor island to the very point from which the Imperial Japanese forces once overran the peninsula and mounted their assault on the last hold-out, Corregidor.

Winging in on the MAAP cluster of buildings, it was impressive to see what a big campus they have down there. The main building is the former Land-Oil Hotel which the Associated Marine Officers’ and Seaman’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP) which owns and operates the Maritime Academy completely renovated and refurbished, then added other modern buildings.

The Midshipmen (cadets) were just as militarily disciplined, and attired in snappy uniforms as our Philippine Military Academy, or West Point and Annapolis. Much of this is due to Vice Admiral Eduardo Ma. R. Santos (retired), former Flag-Officer-in-Command (FOIC) of the Philippine Navy, and former Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces until he retired on October 16, 1999.

In the past six years, our friend Admiral Santos developed the Maritime Academy into one of the most advanced and computerized in Asia – with spacious air-conditioned classrooms, workrooms, a modern library, and a Navigation Simulator Complex with a 235 degree 7-channel full mission visual bridge, almost as impressive – though slightly smaller – than any I’ve inspected in Norway and Denmark.

Students and Midshipmen have 55 ports in the world to choose from. Last Wednesday, they demonstrated to us entering the port of New Jersey by steaming past New York Harbor and the Statute of Liberty towards the Verazzano (Narrow) Bridge. You could even see the waves in the harbor from the Simulator’s "Bridge" as you navigated the "ship" towards your destination.

Time or space won’t permit me today to describe the Academy’s amazingly up-to-date facilities (one never imagines such exist in the Philippines). But the training of Midshipmen and expert seamen under these conditions makes sense in this competitive world. Military discipline is just part of the daunting but excellent curriculum. The school’s motto speaks for itself: Virtus, Fides, Disiplina.

As guest of honor and speaker at the "Alumni Parade", I watched a Silent Drill just as precise as that of the PMA, and a Pass and Review equally splendid. The Midshipmen shifted from military precision to dancing without a break in stride!

* * *

The Chairman of the MAAP is Captain Gregorio S. Oca, who’s Chairman of the Associated Marine Officer and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), the largest seaman’s union in Asia – with 75,000 members. In the last 44 years, MOSUP has championed the rights of Pinoy seamen by negotiating for better salaries and improved working conditions aboard international ships.

Filipino seamen (now including women ship’s officers and seafarers, even on Japanese vessels) still dominate the manning rosters of the world. The London-based International Maritime Bureau records that last year 80 percent of all cargo was carried aboard 50,000 types of ships, manned by over a million officers and ratings. Twenty five percent of those ratings, or 229,000 plus were Filipinos. (They remitted home through the banking system US$1.416 billion).

Today, the MAAP is graduating 141 midshipmen and cadets (four of them women). The guest speaker at the graduation is Vice-President Noli de Castro.

I can only say, it was truly inspiring to see that the Philippines continues to be Number One in one important field, but the Chinese are trying to catch up. They’ve now got seven percent – all of these seamen and officers proficient in English! The MAAP, too, if you’ll notice, is an English-speaking campus.