Priorities

Upon Aquino III’s return from his visit to the US of A, numerous local mainstream newspapers emblazoned the growing critical outspokenness of even the most conservative sectors in Philippine society. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI); the Philippine Steelmakers Association (PSA); the Philippine Exporters Confederation (PhilExport); UP National Engineering Center; the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), including the Associated Labor Union; and, ironically a group that advocated privatization of the power industry, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), spoke out on one major issue: The Philippines’ highest power cost in Asia. In a joint statement, they bewailed the fact that “there appears to be no specific and strong action program or roadmap coming from the executive department” to address the current power rate crisis.

TUCP Party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza, not always the most assertive labor leader, worked up the courage to state: “We ask the Aquino administration to bring power rates down” — this, as the chief operating officer of PhilExport, citing figures from the Department of Energy (DoE) on RP’s power rates at 24 US cents per kilowatthour compared to Thailand and Malaysia’s eight and seven US cents per kwh, respectively, added that it is “the biggest disincentive to the entry of new foreign direct investors to our shores.”

More pointedly, the ALU’s Gerard Seno demanded that Aquino III “make the necessary bold policy interventions… including the suspension and review of all pending power rate increase petitions in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” with Mendoza calling for the scrapping of the 15.8-percent “Performance-Based Rate” (PBR) formula and the restoration of the 12-percent Return on Rate Base (RoRB) price setting mechanism by the ERC, adding that high power rates eat up as much as 11 percent of workers’ income.

Power company director Jojo Borja of Iligan Light, who has been helping us in our fight against the ERC and Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) with documented evidence of the latter’s overpricing, called me to highlight these headlines with enthusiasm, while expressing frustration over the wishy-washy stance of many so-called business leaders. Raul Concepcion, for instance, whom he has sought out for help against the ERC and power companies’ abuses and provided with all the hard evidence, given the former’s leadership of the Oil Price Watch, a supposed consumer protection watchdog that often publishes comments on electricity rates, has sadly only given lip service. This is precisely why Borja stresses that consumers themselves must keep up the pressure.

Still, we should all be happy that the aforementioned groups are now speaking out more boldly, even as they are still short of taking legal and demonstrative actions such as pickets and rallies — maybe even “planking” at Meralco to force the issue further.

As vital as the power price crisis issue is, the other headline that came out of Aquino III’s US trip was his “buko” (coco water) discovery, as if it were a new and fantastic development from his tête-à-tête with Obama.

Readers of this column know that for the past two years, we have promoted the coconut industry as a definitive economic lifesaver for the country. From the development of coco water, to coconut milk as replacement for imported dairy that will save us $1 billion in imports regularly, to coconut fiber textiles against soil erosion, to soil conditioners for many desert regions such as those in China, to high tech coco-chemicals for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical purposes, as well as for fuels and explosives, our coconuts can work wonders.

We have long reported that after commercial beverage brands Gatorade and Powerade were exposed as frauds, their manufacturers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. shifted to coconut water as the base for these sports drinks.

It is enough, however, for the Aquino III government to finally realize the importance and potential of the coconut industry as a game changer for the economy. It is, after all, a sector that it had nary a care for when it appointed a small-time Quezon province lawyer who is ignorant of the coconut industry to head the Philippine Coconut Authority.

Among the coconut’s many applications, which we have enumerated in previous columns, there is also a product from it that will not only help the economy but those infirmed in old age with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s. Scientific tests reveal that “monolaurin” from virgin coconut oil (VCO) reverses this scourge of the world’s aging population.

But one does not need to be at risk for Alzheimer’s to understand that unless government wakes up to its perilous neglect of the coconut sector, the once 500-million strong coconut tree population that has been reduced to 300 million today may soon no longer provide the miracles it is touted for. From being the top coconut products producer, the Philippines has now been overtaken by Indonesia, with India fast catching up.

The government of Aquino III has been going around in circles with its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects (that have been delayed for another year) and its expensive Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, with all sorts of rationalizations from foreign case studies (such as from Mexico, now reeling in macro-economic decay and drug-induced anarchy) citing upticks in child nutrition based on doleouts that do not increase a country’s economic viability.

In the power and coconut industry sectors, Aquino III can resort to ready-made high impact projects that can turn around the economy in both the near and medium term. With drastic power rate cuts, the people’s economic hardship will be reduced in as short as a few months’ time. With a crash diversification program for the coconut industry, a bountiful harvest will be reaped in two to three years. Aquino III should therefore set these two as his government’s priorities over and above the prevailing programs that have been proven to be serious duds. –Herman Tiu Laurel, Daily Tribune

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