Another oligarch lie, debunked

BEFORE proceeding, here is again thanking Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) secretary, Ramon Lopez, for being our guest during yesterday’s edition of the ‘Meet the Press, Report to the Nation’ media forum at the National Press Club.

NPC officers briefly bumped into the good secretary last November, at the General Santos airport, during the NPC’s visit to commemorate the 10th year of the infamous Ampatuan Massacre where 32 of our media colleagues were among the 58 victims.

Sec. Lopez, for his part, was also in Mindanao on official business and right there and then at the airport, we immediately took note of his humility and openness, personal traits that one usually does not find from figures of high social status. I mean, think of the Ayalas, the (other) Lopezes and MVP and you’ll get my point dear readers.

Anyway, among the many topics covered during the forum was the government’s ongoing “review” of privatisation contracts that carried “onerous provisions” to the prejudice not only of the government but more importantly, of the ordinary Juan and Juana dela Cruz, or the likes of you and me.

And it is unfortunate that many of the supposed ‘better-informed’ members of the press, especially those who made their reputation as economics/business journalists and those so called ‘expert analysts’ were not present yesterday.

For had they been there, I am sure, Ka Mentong Laurel, that there would be a lot of red-faces among them.

And this is because when I asked Sec. Lopez if it is “true” (as these so-called “experts” claim) that business confidence, especially among foreign investors has been “shaken” by the contract review ordered by PDU30 on the water concession (read: privatisation) agreement the Ramos administration gave to Manila Water and Maynilad in 1997?

As we all know, as soon as our country’s vulture capitalists, the Ayalas and the Pangilinans, got over the shock of PDU30’s railing against the sweetheart deal they got from the previous administrations, they wasted no time in mobilising their subalterns, err, “friends” in the media and in the political arena in support of their greed, err, contracts.

And mainly, their argument is anchored on the “sacredness of contracts” and that the President’s review order would “undermine” government’s credibility in respecting contracts it signed with the private sector, both foreign and domestic.

Indeed, these minions of the elite even topped off their hysteric by claiming that PDU30 is setting a “dangerous precedent” whereby government, at any time, can now freely dispense of contracts already “signed, sealed and delivered,” so to speak.

And what did Sec. Lopez said on the matter?

“No,” dear readers, business confidence is not affected at all by the President’s decision to review the water concession agreement. Translation? This is just another lie of the elite, debunked, yeheyy!

And as a member of the Cabinet directly in charge of promoting trade and investment, I am sure that Sec. Lopez fully knows what he is talking about.

In the first place, Sec. Lopez said the water concession agreements with Ayala and MVP is “peculiar” in the sense that it contains, even on the face of them, onerous provisions.

And over such onerous terms, PDU30 and any Filipino worth his salt, have the right to complain and to get mad, even.

In other words, this dire warning of private investors losing confidence in the administration over the contract review raised by these bunch of paid hacks is nothing but hot air, much like a dog whose barking is worse than its bite, hehehe!

Those warnings are, as the common saying goes, “a product of their imagination.”

And with P1.1 trillion in investments for the next two years approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) last year, one really wonders what is the basis of their fear-mongering.

In other words too, what Sec. Lopez did not say and which I now hazard to venture is that, first, any decent businessman silently admits that yes, Jose, those water deals are as onerous and as one sided as they can get. And if they are at the “receiving end” of such a transaction, they too, would be mad as hell.

Second, the government’s decision to review those “perfected contracts” now sends a strong and very clear message that those aspiring to do business in this country should better act and behave like any upright and self-respecting person should be: with integrity, honesty and transparency.

Translation? No more under-the-table and shady deals where at the end of the day, private greed triumphs over public interest.

And these “policies” now apply to all, the elite especially.