The pro-Manila bias vs. the rest of RP

Before I throw away the day’s newspapers, I always review them lest we miss some very important articles. Lo and behold, I did miss an article in the Business Section of PDI last Monday, Sept.15 that headlined , “Congress Warned on New Free Port Bills.” This piece of news came from Finance Secretary Margarito Teves who appealed to the Senate to exercise caution over the 20 bills creating Economic Zones and Free Ports all over the country. One of them is the bill proposed by Rep. Raul del Mar that would have made the entire Province of Cebu an Economic Zone and Free Port.

This move was enthusiastically supported by then Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) President Francis Monera, yet a few days after the publication of this report, we haven’t heard any comments from the Cebu Chamber or even Rep. Raul del Mar. Can we assume that the CCCI is no longer pursuing this plan? Pray tell us!

I was alarmed that there are now 20 such proposed bills creating Economic Zones and Free Ports throughout the country. If all 20 bills would be passed, the Philippines would be competing with each region in finding investors to plunk into the numerous economic zones. Soon, everything will be bust! Congressmen from other places also want their respective districts to become a Free Port. Granted these 20 districts would be given Free Port status, would they attract foreign investors there? I seriously doubt it because the advantage of Cebu is our having an International Shipping Port and an International Airport, which the other districts don’t have.

I can understand the apprehension of the Finance Secretary; he must collect taxes from all over the country so that the government would have money for development. But Metro Manila gets the biggest slice of the pie, like having three Light Rail Transits even though the people in Metro Manila wouldn’t care to pay the right fares to make this project viable. But then, the people in Metro Manila couldn’t care any less if all Filipinos pitched in their tax money to subsidize a commuting lifestyle that the rest of us can only envy.

The current controversy in the Senate where Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson accused Senate President Manny Villar of putting a P200 million “insertions” was vehemently denied by the Senate President and his cohorts. That was no insertion; rather, it was two flyovers on one road in Sen. Villar’s district. Here in Cebu, we have to fight tooth and nail to get the road widened so that the flyover being constructed in Banilad would truly ease the traffic situation there. But Cebu could only get one flyover, while Sen. Villar’s district gets two? I rest my case. The evidence is overwhelming. There is indeed a development bias for Metro Manila projects. That should be food for thought for our political leaders. The time has come to change things! At the back page of that article was the column called “No Free Lunch” by former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Chief Cielito F. Habito whose topic was entitled “The Metro Manila Advantage”. If you read that article, he was almost boasting that Metro Manila indeed had “a clear advantage over the countryside in our current bout with inflation.”

Incidentally Habito’s column a week earlier he wrote about “Favored Manilans” saying, “The good news with the latest inflation report is that food prices stood still between July and August, although they were up by 17.2 percent from a year ago. This gives a reprieve to poorer Filipinos, whose family budgets tend to be dominated by food. In fact, the data tells us that food prices actually fell in Metro Manila in the past month by 0.2%, once more highlighting the seemingly favored status of Manila folk over their provincial counterparts. Further indication of the advantage enjoyed by Metro Manilans is that prices in the provinces rose four times faster (0.4 percent) than in Metro Manila (0.1 percent) in the past month.”

Dr. Jose Rizal once quipped, “Where there are no slaves, there are no tyrants.” That’s because when people refuse to be slaves, they revolt against who wants to oppress them. For the past 46 years we have been oppressed by Imperial Manila and the favored ethnic groups are the Tagalogs. This is why Cebuano or Waray or Ilonggo are not taught in the schools where these languages are spoken. Instead, we are forced to learn Tagalog under the guise of Philippine Nationalism under the Tagalog mold. That same Metro Manila bias exists on infrastructure development, yet we sit idly by and allow Imperial Manila to oppress us. When will we Cebuanos be truly indignant about this imbalance? We should put a stop to this! But who will lead the charge? Our weak political leadership?