A better idea

Government strategists are clearly trying to find “the right problem” which this administration can attack and harvest good public relations points and subsequently better ratings.

Unfortunately, their pick & choose approach versus business giants in power, media and telecoms won’t fly because many investors are willing to fight tooth and nail to protect not just their investments but more importantly their profits!

I hate to say it but just like other Presidents, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo blinked, folded her cards and moved on to another “crap” table. Last week it was poker versus the Lopezes, this week it’s a crapshoot versus the telecoms and who knows what industry it will be next month?!

Somehow, in one way or another we have all been taken for a ride, given information that simply makes us even angrier but in the end left hanging with no relief. Now the guy who can’t even get the NAIA terminal 3 operating wants to pick a fight with telecommunications companies by giving us yet another false hope….free SMS or text messaging.

If President Arroyo really wants “the right problem” which she can do something about, why not issue an executive order banning public schools from requiring students to wear “official uniforms”. Identification cards meet the basic need to know who your students are and they are much cheaper than uniforms which has become a profit center for certain school officials!

In the next two weeks hundreds of thousands of parents will once again be begging their employers, relatives and friends to borrow approximately P1,000 for 3 sets of uniforms and P500 for “official shoes”. In farming communities that is the equivalent of a week and a half of salaries.

People need to text and are already paying for SMS/texting. It serves many purposes such as business, employment and connectivity. Uniforms only serve the vendors!

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Heavenly tax on Satan's whisky

If the Arroyo administration is sincere (which I doubt) about addressing real problems, why not address the excessive use of alcohol among Filipinos because it is so cheap! Alcohol abuse has one of the greatest multiplier effects in terms of death and destruction but the government won’t tax the product the same way they tax fuel, electricity, telecoms etc.

Alcohol abuse immediately endangers the consumer in terms of health and personal safety. They are either preyed upon by criminal elements or become part of a criminal situation. As drivers and commuters they pose a threat to themselves as well as others. Many cases of spousal abuse and child abuse can be traced to excessive alcohol consumption. numerous incidents of rape were results of excessive alcohol use. Many fights and violent incidents stem from drunken behavior.      

The problem is many members of Congress who solicited and received campaign contributions from makers or importers of alcoholic drinks would rather let the Filipino people drink themselves to death, commit violence against their family, be hung over and useless sitting in front of their house instead of raising the taxes on alcohol so they don’t have “drink to death parties”, use tax money to create jobs and stop the businessmen from Hell from selling cheap and toxic alcohol!

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Some members of the Tuesday Club were alarmed when I suggested that we should just allow the gas companies to implement or raise their prices in one go instead of the “Piso-Piso lingo-lingo” system.

The trickle effect is actually a trick being used to desensitize Filipinos or to get us used to the price hike slowly but surely! The bad thing about this is we the consumers don’t wake up to the need to conserve fuel and to redesign our way of travel and living.

If Pinoys got whacked with a P5 one time hit, we will all surely take notice and we will all start using less fuel, start planning our trips and the ultimate revenge would be to cut the profits of the oil company by cutting our consumption. Of course a side benefit would be a more open attitude to mass transit, a natural reduction of jeepneys, and increased scooter and bicycle use.

So next time you fight a one time-big time increase think about it; are you the pig roasting on the spit, the pork being fried in your own fat or the frog in a pot slowly being stewed?

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Commentators have only recently picked up on the highly irregular activity of elected officials, particularly lawmakers acting as models and product endorsers for just about every imaginable product.

For the longest time we have been trying to convince our colleagues in media to put their foot down against elected officials and government officials buying in as anchors or hosts in any area of media particularly news and current affairs. We have even opposed and criticized officials maintaining entertainment work for TV or movies.

The point first of all is that we prohibit police officers from doing any moonlight work don’t we? So why should elected officials be exempted!

I pity actors and actresses who can’t get jobs and have to sit down and watch SENATORS Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada in their latest movies. The least they could do is produce or help find producers and create jobs.

If media practitioners are prohibited from having conflicts of interest, prohibited from endorsing products or be seen in a competing station, why should the KBP allow its members to further their particular corporate interests by giving airtime to politicians? Why allow paid interviews for product endorsers promoting products with “No therapeutic claims”? Or create shows designed to suck off money from government PR funds or Intelligence funds?

Why should members of media, graduates of mass communication schools end up in other fields because mayors, governors, Congressmen, Senators and Cabinet members have all just about taken over the airwaves?! 

The Office of the Ombudsman as well as the Commission on Audit should also investigate money being spent by PAGCOR, PCSO, SSS, and PAG-IBIG & PHIL Health in order to subsidize certain radio programs designed to promote certain officials instead of their Office and their services.

As for endorsements, the best revenge is to list down all the products which these politicians endorse and investigate what other products and companies belong to the owners of the product being endorsed. Maybe we can even check if they made campaign contributions. In the end, only credibility really matters.