High political cost

With the election season moving into high gear, we could be in for a new round of political brickbats. Over the next few days until the mid-term elections get underway, we will most likely read about one or another riveting tale about this or that official. Going by past practice, the more explosive the tale, the better – for it will surely grab the headlines. By now, all of us are pretty much aware what purpose these exposes serve. This is why many of us have grown indifferent to the goings-on in the political scene.

Few may be aware of the high cost of political brickbats. No, I’m not just talking about the distress these inflict on the victims of black propaganda or how it undermines our national psyche. The high cost has to do with our progress as a nation. Many analysts have cited political instability as a recurring risk in the Philippines. This is one of the factors often cited for investors’ wait-and-see stance on the country. Thus, even as billions of dollars worth of foreign investments have flowed into Southeast Asia, less than one percent went to the Philippines. Our lackluster investment scene of the last few years has, in turn, undermined economic growth. Mercifully, the situation has been looking up since February. More recent news on the economic front have been almost euphoric: the peso has hit a four-year high, the stock market is on a roll, investments have soared, interest rates and inflation have fallen, the fiscal crisis has been licked, remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to zoom, and economic growth has been positive for 22 consecutive quarters. In view of the outlook upgrade by Moody’s Investor Service two weeks ago from "negative" to "stable", there is no doubt that the Philippines is on the verge of an economic take-off that had been stunted in 1997 with the Asian financial crisis.

But the specter of political turmoil arising from the mid-term elections looms over this momentum. If the specter becomes reality, we may just as well kiss our second wind goodbye. Is that what you and I deserve from our politicians? Certainly not.

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It must be déjà vu for Senior Associate Justice Reynato Puno over the upcoming selection of the country’s next chief justice (CJ). Just like last year, he is the top contender for the post to be vacated by CJ Art Panganiban on December 7. This time around, he is pitted against Associate Justices Leonardo Quisumbing, Antonio Carpio, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, and Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, as well as Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

While I agree that Senator Miriam’s nomination to the CJ post is unassailable, I must point out that the good senator is already well positioned in the Senate. She has attested to this herself. In a recent interview, Senator Miriam said that the Arroyo administration would be better off having her as one of its allies in the Senate, where such support is crucial in pursuing the President’s reform measures. On the other hand, if she is appointed as the next CJ, not only would the President have lost a Senate ally, she would have to contend with the simmering unease in the judiciary over a second bypass of Justice Puno. Certainly, he does not deserve such a fate. No less than CJ Panganiban has lauded Justice Puno for his "razor-like precision to excise fabrication from truth and pretension from reality."

To me, his consistency despite the intervening years between the Delfin petition in 1997 and the people’s initiative (PI), speaks volumes about Justice Puno’s integrity. In the Santiago vs. Comelec case, Justice Puno displayed profound wisdom when he reminded his colleagues to refrain from being imperious with regard to R.A. 6735 just because it did not seem to be written in impeccable English. "With all due respect, I find the majority’s position all too sweeping and all too extremist. It is equivalent to burning the whole house to exterminate the rats, and to killing the patient to relieve him of pain. What citizen Delfin wants the Comelec to do, we should reject. But we should not thereby preempt any future effort to exercise the right of initiative correctly and judiciously."

That discourse also manifested his progressive mindset when he wrote, "No law, no Constitution can chain the people to an undesirable status quo…Change is the predicate of progress and we should not fear change."

After almost a decade, when Justice Puno rendered his opinion regarding the PI, the same sharp wit and level-headedness was still evident. "This court should always be in lockstep with the people in the exercise of their sovereignty," he wrote, noting that "stripped of its abstractions, democracy is all about who has the sovereign right to make decisions for the people and our Constitution clearly and categorically says it is no other than the people themselves from whom all government authority emanates."

When I learned that Justice Puno is a lay preacher of the United Methodist Church, I came to understand the strength of character he showed with this statement regarding his bypass last year from the CJ post: "Indeed even pain has a purpose. The Almighty has a plan for all of us and I agree that the All Seeing Eye does not play dice with our destinies."

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Long before environmentalism became a trend in the Philippines and the government imposed stringent environment rules for development projects, the PNOC-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) was already blazing the trail for the emerging green bandwagon. As early as 1978, the company created its own Environmental Management Department (EMD) to develop and implement a holistic and integrated environmental and watershed management program in all phases of all PNOC energy projects.

Also among PNOC-EDC’s so-called environmental firsts is its pioneering efforts and sophistication in environmental protection and management technology. The company has gained a solid reputation as a genuine environment-friendly company for this. Most of its environmental measures have already been adopted by the government as regulating standards not only for new geothermal projects, but also for other energy and/or development projects with similar operations.

The company’s Social Forestry Project (SFP), which it started in 1988, has also emerged as a model for many reforestation programs not only by the government but also by private corporations. Under its SFP, PNOC-EDC engaged former kaingeros to reforest the areas and manage the areas’ resources.

The SFP has brought many significant changes to its beneficiaries as mirrored in their enhanced economic status and positive attitude toward themselves, the community and environment. A majority has already crossed the poverty threshold level. They have imbibed positive values ranging from cooperativism to genuine care for the environment. They are now more confident of themselves, of what they can do and the bright future they have started to build today.

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My e-mail: [email protected]