Ducky Paredes

“The real truth is that many of the Marcos people were actually a lot better than many of those who came into the government after the Marcos years.”

by Ducky Paredes

During the Martial Law years, worse things could have happened to the Coconut Industry; perhaps, it might have gone the way of the Sugar Industry had it been managed by lesser creatures. The fact is that a large stake in San Miguel Corporation was bought for and in behalf of the Coconut farmer so that at the end of the Marcos years, the coconut farmer owned a coco-chemical plant, a bank, several coconut mills and even a confectionery factory in Europe.
Since then, of course, the courts have ruled that it is not the coconut Farmer who owns these enterprises but the government (since the funds used to buy these enterprises came from a virtual government tax called the coconut levy). Even then, the government has always taken the position that it has a responsibility to use whatever money can be raised from these investments for and in behalf of the Coconut Industry.
Now, however, the Secretary of Finance seems to have changed the government’s mind. Noting that the farmer’s stake in San Miguel Corporation is worth some P50 to P55 billion and that the Sandiganbayan has given him the green light to sell the shares (after talks with farmer groups – many of which do not have actual coconut farmers, who own coconut lands, as members have collapsed). Secretary Gary Teves says: “This could be a major pleasant surprise.”
If the coconut farmers had stuck with the original idea and insisted on it, the funds intended for them, which were collected from the coconut millers, might actually have come their way. Sadly, in all things Pinoy, politics becomes the all-important aspect.
Because the coconut farmer’s share came about during the Marcos years, succeeding administrations could not allow the farmer’s share to do any real good; that would have meant acceding to the idea that Marcos and his so-called cronies were never really all bad.
The real truth is that many of the Marcos people were actually a lot better than many of those who came into the government after the Marcos years. For proof, all one has to do is look at how many new millionaires the post-Marcos governments have produced from the ranks of the appointed and the elected – certainly, much more than the Marcos years produced, year on year.
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I find it amusing that the Priest-Governor says that God is telling him to go for the presidency. Is he actually hearing voices that speak to him of politics? Is he making this up? Or, worse, is he sure that the voice comes from God in Heaven or could it be coming from the lower spheres? A temptation is defined an act that looks appealing to an individual. What makes it a temptation is that, after the fact, one realizes that what he gave in to was illegal, immoral or shameful.
The Catholic Encyclopedia gives us the way to fight temptation: “Temptations are to be combated by the avoidance, where possible, of the occasions that give rise to them, by recourse to prayer, and by fostering within oneself a spirit of humble distrust of one’s own powers and of unbounded confidence in God. The resistance, which a Christian is bound to offer, need not always be direct. Sometimes, particularly when there is question of reiterated evil interior suggestions, it may be useful to employ an indirect method, that is, to simply ignore them and quietly divert the attention into another channel.
“Temptations as such can never be intended by God. They are permitted by Him to give us an opportunity of practicing virtue and self-mastery and acquiring merit. The fact of temptation, no matter how large it looms in a person’s life, is not an indication that such a one is under the ban. Indeed those whom God calls to special heights of sanctity are just those who may expect to have to wrestle bravely with temptations more numerous and fearsome than fall to the lot of the average mortal.”
It may not be proper for one like me with no great spiritual training to try to point a priest to the right path but, considering that the temptation he is getting is for something totally unreachable for him and not particularly for the good of anyone (considering that his term as Governor hardly contributed to the progress of Pampanga, he ought to examine where this particular thought in his head comes from – from up there or from elsewhere.
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Comelec Chairman Jose Melo compared their present deal with Smarmatic to the one that the Comelec, then under Chairman Benjamin Abalos had with Mega Pacific. Melo points out that Mega Pacific (like Smartmatic today) was also paid even before the machines were used in the 2004 election. (In fact, the Supreme Court paved the way for a Gloria Arroyo win via Garci by disallowing the use of the Automatic Counting Machines.)
There is really no comparison. The Comelec bought the ACMs from Mega Pacific. Melo is only leasing the Smartmatic Machines.
With Mega Pacific, it was a purchase; in the case of Smartmatic, it is only a lease.
The contract with Mega Pacific was that payment would be made only when the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has tested and passed the ACMs. Thus, after the DOST passed the ACMs after testing each individual ACM, Comelec paid a substantial part of the purchase price. After all, Mega Pacific had delivered and the DOST had passed the ACMs that were delivered. Thus. This is a perfected sale and the ACMs are ours now – government property.
In the case of the Smartmatic lease, it is entirely possible that not all of the 83,000 machines will work 100%. There will be no time for the DOST or another competent agency to test each and every one of these 83,000 machines prior to elections. Then, after the elections, the machines will return whence they came. In the event of any errors, there will be no way to check whether individual machines were programmed to deliver the wrong results.
But, what makes the deal really suspicious is that the machines leased by the Comelec for the ARMM elections did not work. Yet, the Comelec’s official report was that they worked perfectly and, thus, the leased equipment was paid for – in full. Will the scenario for 2010 be the same as it was in the ARMM?
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“Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?”
Hobbes: “I’m not sure that man needs the help”

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hvp 07.22.09)