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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Famador: Slight aberration
By Joel Famador
It looks like the short-term foreign investors in this banana republic are selling out in the stock market. How else would you explain the big drop in the market (more than 4 percent) and the plunge of the peso-dollar exchange rate (56.20 to 1)?
And it is not because the foreign investors are scared of the politics in this republic. They are selling because they have already made big fat profits. They are taking their money and running away to another third-world country where they could play their dirty game again and again, manipulating small-time stock markets like ours.
In 1997, when Asia was hit by a huge currency crisis because of manipulation of some big-time investors like George Soros, Malaysia fought against the giants. Its then prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, bravely stopped the foreign investors from getting their dollars out of the country for at least one year. That radical measure prevented the big foreign players from destabilizing the Malaysian economy further.
And everybody thought that Mahathir was crazy to lock up the mighty dollars of the foreigners. They thought it was suicide. But look at Malaysia right now. It’s not dying, like you know who.
What our banana government should do is to put a lock-up period on foreign money coming in, like six months or one year, so that our economy would not choke once the foreigners suddenly pull their money out. Like what they did to our lilliputian stock market recently. Just imagine the huge surge of demand for dollars by the foreigners when they sold out their peso investments in the stock market and bought dollars from the spot market.
So don’t worry about the peso plunge. It’s a slight aberration caused by foreign speculators, who are now laughing their way to the big foreign banks.
And so that our peso would not plunge any further, it would be wise for our Commission on Elections (Comelec) to drop the petition of lawyer Victorino Fornier (as in hornier, meaning more horns?) for the disqualification of the “man of the masses,” Fernado Poe Jr. or Da King. The commissioners should now pass the buck to the Supreme Court, which is the sole judge on any question involving qualifications of the president of this b—republic.
What’s the point of delaying it? Do they want to make the obvious more obvious? You know what I mean, right, Joe Banana?
The hoi polloi would have felt secure that the disqualification case of their hero, Da King, was already in the hands of the Supreme Court. After all, it was the High Court that blasted into smithereens the highly questionable computerization program of the Comelec.
So the betting now is whether or not the Supreme Court would grab the bull by the horns (here’s that word again), and assume jurisdiction over the disqualification case against the Da King.
My bet? Only in your dreams, baby. The court will throw out of the case for being premature. And amateur.
(February 5, 2004 issue)
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