Ridiculous

The Palace propagandist pushing a conspiracy theory about the Sabah incident should bother to look farther down the road. It is a ridiculous theory and will therefore be unsustainable. It will only embarrass his principal in the end.

The conspiracy theory being peddled is funny to begin with. It blames the deployment of the Sultanate’s “royal army” to an “unholy alliance” that includes: Boy Saycon and therefore the Peping Cojuangco group; Bert Gonzales and therefore the Gloria Arroyo network; Oliver Lozano and therefore the Marcos loyalists; the communists, of course; and an assortment of others, possibly including commentators in the mass media.

When Nazi operatives burned down the Bundestag and blamed it on the communists, they had a sustainable propaganda line. They had one event and one likely suspect. On the basis of that lie, they caused a crackdown that enabled Adolf Hitler to consolidate power by peddling fear. That is a tight propaganda line incorporated within a clear line of action.

By contrast, the conspiracy theory now being peddled by the Palace is hopelessly cluttered. It includes everybody outside the yellow circuit. Just establishing the linkages will be a challenge. The broad profile of supposed conspirators makes this a mass movement rather than a conspiracy.

Other than wishing the present administration ill, no common motive is offered by the conspiracy theoreticians.  No imaginable political profit for any of the supposed parties is established. The whole theory is simply laughable.

Teddyboy Locsin shot down the conspiracy theory with one brilliant quip: If former president Gloria Arroyo could assemble such a grand conspiracy despite ill health and from the confines of hospital detention without phones and computers, she should be restored to the highest office.

Notwithstanding, the DOJ seems bent on putting flesh to an unsustainable propaganda line. According to reports, some of the alleged conspirators have been summoned to the NBI for questioning this week. NBI agents have, of course, been infiltrated into the Kiram house, posing as television crews, neckties and all. The usurpation of media identities caused outrage among journalists. The Kirams, for their part, reiterated their home was open to anybody, no need for false pretenses.

If the DOJ persists in finding substance to this delusion, the whole thing could blow up into pure comedy. It will only add to the embarrassment the administration courted by behaving so strangely through the length of this crisis.

The first flaw in the conspiracy theory being peddled to us is that it is irrelevant from the start. The public consternation in this episode centers on what the administration did after the Lahad Datu standoff and not what happened before the Sultanate’s partisans were deployed.

Even if we grant the possibility a conspiracy existed, leading to the deployment of the Sultanate’s “royal army”, we will have to grant the conspirators credit for pure genius. How else could they have so correctly predicted this administration will handle the matter the way they did, producing the total mess it has become and the grave national humiliation we now bear?

Optimize

Richard Gordon advocates a strategy for job-intensive growth in Central Luzon that deserves serious consideration for its merits.

Gordon takes into consideration the potential economic synergy offered by a triumvirate of free economic zones (Subic, Clark and the Freeport Area of Bataan) and the triumvirate of the three freeways (the NLEX, the SCTEX and the TPLEX) in close proximity. All the economic zones and the freeways are expensive built-up infrastructure presently underutilized.

In order to optimize the economic investments represented by the three economic zones and the three highways, Gordon proposes a specific investment strategy that will attract manufacturing plants on the open land along the highways and in the large open areas of the three free economic zones. Increased productive activity in these areas will make the available infrastructures worthwhile. We have to fully exploit what we paid for.

Such an investment strategy will not only produce the jobs our recent economic expansion so far failed to create. It will likewise help decongest the Manila metropolitan area, whose large population concentration creates added vulnerabilities to natural calamities.

Over the past few years, there was little region-specific investment planning done to orchestrate the growth of manufacturing specifically. Only manufacturing growth will create the volume of jobs which will make our economic growth truly inclusive.

Gordon should know whereof he speaks. After the Subic facility was devastated by Pinatubo and then abandoned by the US Navy, Gordon mobilized the power of voluntarism to make the former military base economically useful again. As legislator, he helped pass RA 9400 which secured Clark’s status as a free economic zone and RA 9728 which created the Freeport Area of Bataan.

All three economic zones have now become major drivers of our economic growth — notwithstanding that they have much more space for productive activities. The correct synergy with the upgraded expressways has yet to be achieved. We need the precise package of policies to achieve the full economic potential of this part of the country.

Trust Richard Gordon, the tireless one, to help push the innovative policies needed to catalyze inclusive economic growth for our country. He has an enviable record for getting things done and for providing a clear vision during moments of confusion.

It will be the nation’s loss if he is kept out of the policy-making process. A man capable of bringing together pure energy and incisive thought is hard to find.