Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Arinday: The emerging 'power blocs' collision By GH Arinday, Jr. Sunfare
NO AMOUNT of rhetoric and carping over the issue of high electric power costs peddled by the Lopez-controlled Meralco as stridently claimed by GSIS President Winston Garcia can dissuade the average mind in not believing that politics has nothing to do with it.
While there is the denial coming from the government sector to take over the management of the electric-power firm, this is wildly at odds with the reality that the Lopez's share and that of the government's are almost equal with the independent stakeholders holding the balance of power.
No less that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has led the "crusade" to lower down the "power" charges of Meralco and exhorted the business sectors to join in the "tough legal" battle ahead.
On the other hand, Meralco through its soft-spoken consultant, former Comelec chair Christian Monsod declared no objection to the lowering of electric power costs but must be initiated by Napocor and Transco in order for an equitable reduction of the periodic billings to the consumers.
Passing the buck is not an unusual game.
Let-the-wholesalers-drastically-cut-their-price-and-we-will-follow-suit would seem the counterargument of Meralco.
It sounds reasonable and logical. But the argument does not end along the simplistic issue but stretched further by the GSIS top honcho that there is no transparency in the keeping of the books of account by the electric power firm. This is the alternative reality and cannot be seen readily through "nose-colored glasses".
A noted columnist of a daily broadsheet pooh-poohed the move taken by the GSIS with the crutch-aid given by the President that such strategies to take over the Meralco's management are "failed ways" by citing the same attempts made by the previous presidents-Diosdado Macapagal, the incumbent president's father, and Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Well, well, there is no harm in trying again. The arch critics of the administration sneeringly belittled the gambit as pure and simple politics. However, others see this event as opportunities for the ruling power to prove its sincerity in protecting the interests of the marginal or low-income consumers.
Definitely, this is not a petty squabble. Neither is it a passing aberration in the political scene. In politics, there is always the so-called tectonic shift in the economic landscape with the Right on the offensive. Surprisingly, the so-called New Left condemns the move as "Marcosian". So are the revolutionary radical right, composed of some boisterous members of the "civil society" -- who are frozen in their tracks.
While the country's giant radio-television network -- the ABS-CBN -- the sister company of Meralco has vowed to be fair and square in their newscasts, can they be prevented from giving more exposure to the anti-Macapagal-Arroyo dyed-in-wool critics on matters of national significance? This brings us to a more interesting collateral issues derived from the apparent factual and circumstantial milieus.
Once there was the powerful "sugar bloc" headed by the Lopez brothers: Vice President Fernando Lopez and brother Eugenio Lopez -- the economic genius of the family. The "New Society" came and the powerful political group, the kingmaker during their halcyon days, was blasted into smithereens by the unlamented dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. The rest is history. In a jocular vein, some people dubbed the "sugar bloc" becoming a "hollow bloc". It's really sad, indeed.
Now, we can see from the mist of the mirror the emerging collision of two power blocs: the Lopez group against the Garcia contingent. With the immense power and influence of both political factions and incidentally all coming from the Visayas, the competition between the goliaths shall remake the political landscape unseen before.
In the coming 2010 national elections, the influence of both formidable power blocs shall greatly influence the results especially in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
If the presidential wannabes are pretending to be non-committed on the electric power issue, it is just a cautionary measure not to alienate either one of them.
We can readily see that for instance Senate Presindent Manuel Villar and Senator Mar Roxas are obsessed on other "important" matters, a convenient distance from the electric power issue. Or just an embarrassed silence?
It would be a bruising struggle for both camps and should this happen, barring unforeseen events, politics shall never be the same again as often said.
