The world according to G

Let’s see if we got this right: power rates are sure to go up in the coming months, and we should brace ourselves for the return of rotating blackouts.

In many places in the nation’s regional capital, if there’s no electricity, there’s no water.

No power, no water, and the international airport is out of order.

Such is life in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Second World. And all along we thought the term referred to socialist countries with planned economies that were doing better than developing countries. The term is supposed to have disappeared with the end of the cold war, but maybe President Arroyo wants to give new meaning to "Second World."

That world, according to President G, has the best performing currency in the region, with good macroeconomic figures and prospects for growth.

The strong peso is double-edged, hurting exporters and our overseas workers with their remittances but reducing our debt stock and the cost of imported fuel. Critics of the government will quibble with the macroeconomic outlook. But many economists, including officials of multilateral lending agencies, will generally agree with the President’s positive assessment.

Living in the world of G these days, however, it feels like we could one day slip into the category of the Fourth World – the poorest of the Third World economies, although these days the term "Third World" is supposedly no longer politically correct.

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I like to tell foreigners that salary rates in this country are deceptive, that because the cost of living is so low, you can live like a king on a British pauper’s welfare allocation.

I may have to revise this rosy assessment as it becomes increasingly evident that you get what you pay for when you live on the cheap: intermittent water supply, flickering electricity (and coming soon — rotating blackouts), soaring health care costs because all the heath workers are going abroad, rotten education. This is Metro Manila in the 21st century. Residents must endure polluted air, polluted water, polluted everything. And the quality of life continues to deteriorate. We used to say that we were poor but we felt rich. These days we’re poor, and we feel poor.

What good are positive economic figures if you can’t get a good night’s sleep because there’s no air conditioning or electric fan and you can’t sleep with the noise of power generators?

The power crisis from 1991 to 1992, when we endured blackouts of 8 to 12 hours a day, did not end with the restoration of light by (let’s give credit where credit is due) Fidel Ramos. That steady supply also meant higher electricity costs years later as the economy failed to absorb all the available power.

Over the years power sector reforms failed to take off, held back by populist politics and battles over who gets to pocket the biggest commissions.

In the past months we have seen our power bills soar. Now we are told that the spike was likely triggered by price manipulation in the wholesale electricity spot market.

Malacañang and Congress have ordered separate investigations, but no one is holding his breath. How many people have been punished in this country for price manipulation of any sort? Did anyone pay for the stock market scandal during the Estrada administration?

Suspects are identified but they quickly disappear, running away with the money and enjoying it in some not-too-faraway land where the air is clean and fresh water is safe to drink straight from the tap. The arm of the law in this country has a short reach, and it can be made shorter if the price is right.

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Foreign chambers of commerce, in a recent workshop, identified the energy sector as one of the promising areas where there could be a substantial increase in foreign direct investments – if the government could do its homework.

The foreign chambers later submitted to Malacañang what administration officials described as a "very long list of complaints" to attract more FDI.

If President Arroyo wants to sustain economic gains, she must straighten out the energy sector – and soon. Unless she wants the worst predictions of Raul Concepcion to come true, and she wants to be known as the Queen of Darkness II.

Concepcion’s Consumer and Oil Price Watch has warned that we could experience rotating blackouts as early as next week until mid-November because of the growing problems in the energy sector.

The warning must be the reason for the spread of rumors in various areas especially in southern Metro Manila about the start of the blackouts. There were such rumors the other weekend; last night the rumors were circulating again.

Either the warning triggered the rumors, or water suppliers were spoiled by the days without electricity during Milenyo when they made a killing because water pumps weren’t working, so now they are spreading rumors to drum up business. The sources of these rumors must be traced and hanged by their scrotum.

The foreign chambers, it must be noted, did not mention the water distribution sector as a promising area for higher FDI. They have seen what happened to the foreign partners of Maynilad Water, which to this day has failed to provide 100 percent coverage to its concession area in Metro Manila’s western sector.

There was no mention either of possible increased investments in airport or railway development, seeing how foreign interest in those sectors are faring.

In 1991 and 1992, we saw how the lack of electricity crippled the economy and sent investors packing. Now we face not just a looming power crisis but also an acute lack of safe water supply. We can’t sleep, we can’t do the laundry, we can’t take a shower.

And we’re supposed to have graduated from Third World category.