Wednesday, December 27, 2006 Ledesma: Oil firms are tools of Imperial Manila By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
EVEN the petroleum companies are rubbing it in. They announced a P2.00-rollback but the beneficiaries are only Metro Manila and Cebu. Beat that? The decision makers of corporate giants in Metro Manila are just as imperious as the lawmakers in the Senate. They think only of Imperial Manila forgetting that we Mindanaons are just as eager to have some relief from the high cost of fuel.
They're not only unfair they are also sadists. They add salt to wound by saying that only Metro Manila and Metro Cebu will be getting some price cuts on fuel. Is it because the militants and transport groups there are more intimidating and noisy than their clones in Mindanao? Are the motorists in Mindanao lesser mortals than those of Metro Manila and Luzon?
Mindanao should wake up from this iniquitous bias. Remember that monstrous oil spill off the coast of Guimaras? They spent millions of pesos there to retrieve the oil spill. Where did they dispose of the oily murk? In Mindanao. One boatload of oily refuse sunk as the waste cargo approached its destination. Did they bother to recover the barge and the cargo? Nah!!! Mindanao doesn't matter to them.
Talking of oil, there's a group of OFWs who are working with Aramco in the Middle East who, reacted quite passionately to our column entitled "Manila Prevails?" Their e-mail was printed in Sun.Star Davao's op-ed section last December 2. In their e-mail they pointed out that the OFWs are in full support of Parliamentary-Federal form of government in order for other regions to grow. The group's spokesman, Lucio D. Novabos, expressed frustration over the opposition, the militants and CBCP for impeding the move to amend the Constitution.
I always believe that charter change can only happen during the term of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It was the centerpiece of her party platform. Although some of her partymates in the senate had abandoned ship at the time when Arroyo was in deep trouble, the President is going it alone with the help of the Lower House and the local governments. She cannot really rally her former allies in the Senate for they have turned traitors to her and to the party agenda they stood for during their campaign. Now that they are elected, one of them attempted to have a shortcut to the Presidency. They forgot about the charter because of that consuming lust for power and for their own self-preservation. They charge GMA as having an ambition to perpetuate herself in power when it should have been cut short if an interim parliament was in place. Truth is, the senators want to preserve and prolong their existence for they shall have become extinct if a parliament pushes through. But then the same fate will happen to the lower house. The tragedy here is that the religious intervenes and so we continue to retrogress in a global climate of competitiveness.
Thanks to Novabos and his fellow OFWs. We are surviving, but then, for how long?
May I take this opportunity to extend my Christmas felicitations to our overseas Filipino workers. Indeed you are our modern day heroes. I hope you persevere. Your voices are heard so wherever continue with your crusade to help prod our politicians to push for Charter change.
