What’s the price of legitimacy? Just ask Gloria Arroyo.

For the past three months, her regime has pulled the populist tack out of nowhere, only to see the regime’s efforts crumble piece by piece. It began with the so-called rice crisis, which is global in nature. The regime tried to take advantage of the situation, only to see this effort blow in its face. By allowing Arthur Yap to take the first shot in bringing this issue to the fore, in the hopes that the people would see it in good light, the regime has only proven its ineptitude. For such a crisis cannot appear out of a vacuum; it builds up till the supply tightens and prices soar. This crisis had shown that the regime lack the foresight to know that it would come to this, even if the signs were already known to them.

Then, Winston Garcia, head of GSIS, trained his sights on Meralco, owned by the Lopez family, who happens to own ABS-CBN, who happens to appear critical of the current dispensation. He raised a lot of issues via the media, like the opposition is wont of doing (at least, according to the Fortress by the Pasig). He could be believable if he had raised his issues on the proper forum – the Energy Regulatory Commission, for starters. For an ardent supporter of Gloria Arroyo, he should have known better. The Fortress keeps on calling its critics to bring the issues to their proper forum; yet here’s an administration lackey, crying like his marbles were stolen. Also, the current woes of GSIS and its members make his calls for better management of Meralco hollow at best.

Next, we have the House of Reprehensibles gunning on mobile telecommunication companies. It is common knowledge that these telcos earn a lot of money from short message service (SMS) or text messaging, and in turn, the government earns taxes via the despised Value Added Tax (VAT). When the VAT was raised to 12%, text messaging is covered by the increase. And there were even efforts to impose more taxes on text messaging, to curb addiction to the service (making text messaging similar to beer and cigarettes). So to find the House take an about-face and entertain the idea of making text messaging a free service is not only ironic, it is also tragically AGREEABLE to everyone. In lieu of tax on text messaging, the House wants to re-impose franchise tax on telcos, who will surely pass this cost on to consumers. So a seemingly pro-consumer policy will not benefit the consumer at all. A tax, by any other name, is still a tax.

And the latest one? She just ordered state universities and colleges (SUCs) not to increase tuition rates (for those who had already increased their rates, to refund these increases). Nice, right? But this action places a big burden on SUCs, who are seeing their budgets slashed over the years. SUCs are hard pressed now to fund their operations, and without a budget increase forthcoming, we now wonder what would they do. And again, lukewarm reaction.

Despite the seemingly populists ideas by this regime (which are not), the reception by the people is lukewarm at best. Either because the people sees through the camouflage (which some commentators will dispute, though I won’t name names, since you know who they are) or they are weary of an administration whose legitimacy is suspect. If Gloria Arroyo has the undisputed support of the people, maybe the majority would hail her policies, specially the poor. If we have another person as president now, it might even be possible to pull off these policies and appear as a hero. But never with the current one.

What’s the price of legitimacy? Just ask Gloria Arroyo.

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I forgot to place this anecdote in the previous post, since the context applies to the current woes being faced by Meralco.

Last Sunday, I came from church, and my mother reported that a barangay kagawad (councilor) was making the rounds, asking people to sign a piece of paper. It was supposed to be a petition calling for lower electricity rates. But when my mom scanned the document, she found a list of reasons, and number one referred to the Lopez family. My mom refused to sign, knowing it was political in nature, most likely concocted by a local official allied with the current regime. My mom refused to be used by this regime for its political games.

There is nothing wrong with such a petition, but we must petition for the RIGHT reasons.

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Gloria Arroyo continues to claim that the country is a good place to invest in, that we have the best environment for business investments. With the Meralco and telco episodes, I will not be surprised if investors would use a ten-thousand-foot pole before approaching our country.

After rice, electricity, and text messaging, what’s next? The Internet?