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Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Kintanar: Why blame Veco?
By June Kintanar
The notice sent by the Cebu Private Power Corp. (CPPC) to the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) about the plan of the former to increase its power rates or close shop by June 15 looks to me like a routine business communication. If an establishment feels it can not survive with its present prices and yet can not impose increases for one reason or another, then the letter was proper and in order.
Veco should have known what to do under that circumstance. The problem is, some people are making an issue or even a political capital out of it. Is this what they call creating a tempest in a teapot?
My point is, there are ways for CPPC and Veco to solve the problem. Veco, for one, can very well ask CPPC to reconsider its decision on the ground that any increase would mean hardships for its consumers. In short, there would have been a mature and intelligent discussion on the matter had not some quarters, whose only purpose is to ride on the issue for their selfish personal or political motives, muddled it.
Now, collateral issues are being brought up, ones that have no bearing at all to the problem. And this, indeed, has muddled the real issue.
It appears that some people are venting their ire on Veco. But why? Is it because some people are out to extort money, as a local official said?
If one looks back, one would realize that Veco is not that bad as what some people would want us to believe. Veco, for example, is not a fly-by-night venture. It has served Cebu City and its environs for so long a time it has earned the phrase, “a partner in Cebu’s progress.”
Besides, those running Veco are not unknown in Cebu’s discriminating society. Like its present president, Cheling Garcia, they are all of unquestioned personal integrity. As such, they don’t deserve to be pilloried as if they have committed crime in protecting a legitimate business.
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It’s very obvious that the impeachment complaint Erap’s lawyers are filing against Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. and some associate justices of the Supreme Court is a dilatory tactic. They say the best defense is offense.
What these lawyers apparently intend to do is delay the trial of Erap for the crime of plunder, which is now pending with the Sandiganbayan. Among the claims of Erap’s lawyers is that their client is still the country’s president, thus, they want the justices impeached for formalizing the assumption of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the presidency.
Some of my lawyer-friends said Rene Saguisag and company want an impeachment tribunal to intervene in the plunder case hoping that the question of Erap’s still being president will be decided first. In short, said my lawyer-friends, they want to present the issue of Erap still being president as a prejudicial question that should be decided first before the plunder case can proceed.
My lawyer-friends said it is the contention of Erap’s lawyers that if he is still president, then he is immune from suit and the plunder case is not in order. But I think Saguisag and company are getting too far away from reality. What do you think?
(June 4, 2003 issue)
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