'Na-sampolan'

Some people are either pretending to be ignorant or are simply clueless regarding the resignation of DOTC Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus.

But from the looks of it, Secretary Ping may actually have been the recipient of what qualifies as a PR double tap or a figurative two shots in the head for being on the wrong side of an argument, or to be more precise for being outspoken about his views on the merger of PLDT and Digitel.

However or for whom ever the government decides in favor of, it seems that Secretary Ping de Jesus has expressed his opposition to the plan merger of PLDT and Digitel.

Although he has not publicly stated his opinion, he has been quoted as stating “off the record” that the pending merger will result in a virtual monopoly of the telecoms market.

Ping de Jesus should have known that in this matter, the walls have ears.

While people may praise Secretary Ping de Jesus for his frank and transparent views, it goes without saying that being in government precludes officials from having a “public opinion” on matters that involves multi-billion peso transactions.

However correct his view was, any alleged statement whether made in private or public, ultimately impacts investors confidence and complicates what has already been a very twisted and complicated process involving Digitel and Globe in the beginning and now Digitel and PLDT.

In addition, being transparent can also land you outside the circle of power, or even worse put you on a hit list.

As a result, sources claimed that the double tap or sample of things to come first occurred when no less than the President or his alter ego sent out instructions, that the now contentious issue be placed under the direct jurisdiction of the National Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Science and Technology.

Short of being told to “back off”, the act or alleged instruction was a signal for Secretary Ping to cool his heels or take his principled stance elsewhere. The matter of interest to the media should be to find out “who” managed to convince President Aquino during his last overseas trip to issue such an order?

The second blast intended to maim Secretary Ping was the announcement that Usec. Virginia Torres was going back to work sometime June 19. More than anything, “the return of the comeback” of Virginia Torres was intended to stir attention away from the Smart vs. Globe conflict and make the whole thing look like “a matter of pride” on Secretary Ping de Jesus’ side.

It seems that some PR operators were so hard at work that they tried used every thing to redirect public attention. Even the NAIA 3 legal issues were floated in order to make De Jesus look incompetent but the truth is, the NAIA 3 negotiations and legalities has been on the lap of Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa who has discreetly tried to solve the problem in spite of efforts of some to let Mar Roxas take over.

Business and politics is undoubtedly a difficult balancing act and the President may have to step in from time to time to deflect “friendly fire”. However, the President also needs to let people know that he will defend those who do right and do good, or he may find it increasingly difficult to find people willing to go to battle with him.

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While speculations were ripe about why Sec. Ping left the Noynoy household, one thing that gained a lot of focus was the fact that the Department of Transportation and Communication was a Mega department that was too big to manage even for a Super Secretary.

I pray to GOD and ask our “different minded” President to please consider breaking up the DOTC into several departments as soon as possible. Even the department of transportation is too big to stand under one roof because we are a country of 7,100 islands depending if it’s high tide or low tide.

We have so many islands in major need of a modern, working and efficient maritime transport system and yet it operates like a network of feudal kingdoms subdivided among politicians, bureau chiefs and government.

Our air transport system, instead of improving from competition has deteriorated due to lack of improvements; expansion and pricing that in reality are not competitive. In spite of all the PR and advertising, industry insiders have time and again lamented the fact that national and locally, both the Maritime industry and aviation are virtual monopolies in the hands of politicians, associates or supporters.

As far as Telecommunications is concerned, there seems to be too much attention focused on the “cellphone providers” and too little attention being given to anomalous ownerships, contracts and transactions involving “media facilities”.

Instead of having a nation with a robust and progressive media particularly through radio, what we have is de facto monopolies held by a handful of families or politicians.

Beyond the apparent monopolies and the resulting deterioration of our maritime, aviation and media industry, the President and his advisers should also consider the fact that breaking up the Mega departments of government makes it easier to find real experts who are competent and informed about the specific industry.

For instance, in the many occasions I’ve looked into the affairs of the NTC or media related matters involving the NTC, you always deal with an “engineer”. Yes you need rocket scientists to operate telecoms and to know telecoms technology, but you also need “social” scientists who know the story and the personalities manipulating or misrepresenting matters with the NTC.

The DOTC would be good as a start up project, followed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which again should be split into Department of Environment, and the Department of Natural Resource.

For whatever reasons Secretary de Jesus may have resigned, I hope that the President can at least get some good out of it by way of revelation, a lesson or even better, Change that causes good for both government and the governed.

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