LQ – Divorce or Separation?

If you are confused, well so am I!

After President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he was “separating” from the United States not divorcing, I instantly realized that political divorces or separations are similar to marital break ups, the children and the little people never get asked and are never entitled to an opinion! Someone is always deciding on what’s good for us but are actually just trying to get out of one imperfect relationship in order to chase after a new “romance” or in politics “a better deal.” We were certainly relieved when President Duterte clarified that he was NOT cutting diplomatic ties with the US but merely pursuing a different track. That of course was welcomed news but also added more to our confusion. Figuratively speaking, does this mean he will remain married to “Mama Liberty” but will now be shacking up with his China Girl or Russian mistress? Sorry but all this talk about separation and divorce has brought up so many scenarios and a whole lot of pain for those of us who’ve gone through the experience or suffered the injury of being in a “Broken Family.”

In the case of President Duterte’s Declaration of Separation from the United States, so many people from all walks of life expressed both concern and dismay that there was no public consultation before DU30 publicly wooed the Chinese in front of global media. While the majority of Filipinos support his maverick style, we are a country and people that’s all about relationships and that extends to foreign governments but most especially with the United States. We have both past and present ties, we have families or friends in practically 90 percent of the nations on the planet earth, so when the President starts talking about a separation or political divorce, he will hurt people’s feelings the same way couples who split up, end up hurting their kids more than they hurt their unwanted partners. The bad part is the hurt goes beyond feelings for kids and citizens alike. It also destabilizes our sense of security and economic status or comfort.

Yes the President speaks for 100 million plus Filipinos. But it might be a good idea to at least explain why the separation is necessary. Even kids know what’s going on and so do citizens. And like a responsible parent, DU30 should at least ask the people’s opinion or sentiments before committing the nation’s future down an uncertain path with an uncertain partner whose only attributes are wealth and power.

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When Power fails – Progress fails.

If you want real progress in any given area, one of the essential requirements is to have consistent uninterrupted power supply. It is not enough that there is electricity, there must be an ample supply and it must be available day and night. During my many trips to many provinces all over the Philippines with BMeg, I have observed that the problematic areas in terms of electricity are areas serviced or supplied by an “Electric Cooperative” that no longer has the ability to meet increased or commercial demand for electricity. The cooperative system used to work for residential requirements back when people simply needed power for lights, electric fans and television. But nowadays consumers even in far flung places are using washing machines, microwaves, computers, pressure tanks, air conditioners etc. Add to that the growing population and relative growth in commercial establishments. The problem is many cooperatives did not plan for future expansion of their market and increasing demand for power. They may have started out as being the solution to the electricity problem but now that businesses are coming in, the electric cooperatives and their inherent inadequacy have become part of the problem or one of the major obstacles to progress and commercial growth.

Last week, I found myself in Pinamalayan, Mindoro which is slowly growing out of its sleepy provincial town setting towards urbanization. The fact that they have a regular sized Jollibee outlet tells you the status of the place in terms of actual or potential consumer spending. It’s one of those coastal towns that holds promise in terms of tourism and commercial development. But one big headache for investors as well as visitors has to be the failure of the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative to supply electricity on demand. From the minute we arrived early evening there was already a power outage. This was apparently a regular thing because the locals would tell you how long it would be and when the power would be back. What I did not know of was that the power would get cut at least three times during the night which interrupted our sleep. You can only imagine what kind of impression the situation creates among businessmen as well as tourists who are inconvenienced and discouraged to make investments because of constant brown outs and blackouts!

In a day and age when we have wind - solar - and fuel based power generators such problems could easily be solved IF and only IF the government and the DOE or Department of Energy tried to do some matchmaking ventures between LGU, investors and equipment manufacturers. I can only imagine that mayors would be glad to hold hands with these groups just to make sure their town or city has power. I hope Governor Umali can give the problem a little more attention because his province has so much potential but barely enough power. We had the same problem in Lipa City and parts of Batangas until government officials both local and national got fed up and gave some people at BATELEC II an ultimatum: Shape up or we ask Meralco to come in. Right now there are so many business groups such as San Miguel who might be interested in setting up power plants in Mindoro. Perhaps the smell of the competition will be enough to get the management of Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative to start working on improvements.

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