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ANOTHER President is going after the business empire founded by the
late Eugenio Lopez Sr. This is supposed to be what is behind the
demand of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), a
part-owner of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), to the power
monopoly to compute its bills correctly.
Meralco is often referred to in media as being
owned by the Lopezes. The fact of the matter is that the Lopezes own
33.4 percent of the power firm while the GSIS and other government
agencies hold 33.3 percent. The Lopezes control Meralco as a result
of the support from other stockholders. Nevertheless, any
stockholder is entitled to know certain aspects of its operations.
In its demand for more transparency from Meralco
in its billing system, the GSIS has sought the cooperation of other
major industrialists. This is crucial for electric power is not just
a sensitive political prime commodity of the masses and the urban
poor, it is also a vital resource in industrial production. That
this is a sensitive aspect of social development may be gathered
from the denunciation of a leftist leader in Congress.
Defending the poor from being exploited by big
business, by a monopoly as a matter of fact, is something that is a
knee-jerk reaction from the Left. And if big business now does the
same thing, it would seem to be muscling in on other people’s
concerns. It might seem a little cramping for the Left if by taking
the cudgels for the poor, it may also appear to be taking the side
of business capitalists dependent on power. For what big industry is
not?
Actually, the position of Bayan Muna party-list
Rep. Teodoro Casino was that there was no need for the government to
ask the help of big business because cheap power is a basic need in
industry—big and small. Which might seem nitpicking. But another
member of Congress, Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, agreed with the
government’s call but asked that it should ask big business to
join it in all aspects, “otherwise, the people might think that
this is a continuation of the adversarial relationship between
them.”
Whatever are the reasons of the GSIS in going
after the Meralco management, it will need to have a noble motive,
public relations or otherwise, to make it stick.
Let’s face it, the advances in technology have
made power a prime commodity in industrialization and national
development. Communication, media, along with journalism, and
entertainment have become technology and, therefore,
power-intensive. In its reporting of the power story, ABS-CBN has
always made it a point to mention that Meralco is its sister
company. In its reports, it insists that it is just doing its
journalistic duty, and these reports are part of the information the
public needs for the proper appreciation of the situation. And ABS-CBN
also reminds its audience that it is the most trusted reporter of
the news.
There are suggestions that because of the
standard adversarial position between the owners of ABS-CBN and the
government, GSIS is putting pressure on Meralco. What all these
may be, the final verdict will be from the public. The Meralco
controversy is not just a dispute between business behemoths. Or a
social question about helping the poor. It may have repercussions on
journalism which provides the information needed by a free society.
In the end it will depend on journalists who see their duty, not
just the side where their bread is buttered.
And here we know that what needs to be done will
be done.
Good news
No news is good news. Just glance at newspaper
headlines and the “exclusive” news reports and one may almost
take this for granted. Except that, of course, there are also events
that are as dramatic as the usual media bill of fare. Except last
Sunday, when it was reported that former President Corazon Aquino
was responding well to chemotherapy for her cancer of the colon. It
couldn‘t happen to a better person. There was a time when she was
our last hope out of the oppression and the economic troubles that
the dictatorship brought us.
As a presidential candidate running in an
election she could not win under the circumstances it was held, yet
she not only did trump an expert, but survived attempts at a coup
d’etat by the military that many said made her assumption to the
Presidency possible.
But, of course, it was prayer that saw her
through the vicissitudes to become the leader of the nation, in the
same way that it is helping her survive the major trial she faces
today. In the end, the final say will be that of “the way, the
truth and the life,” which she has long prepared to accept.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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