Impatience rising!

The latest Pulse Asia ratings showed significant declines in the public approval ratings of our top officials from P-Noy to VP Jojo Binay and a rather sharp drop for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. While the ratings are nowhere at the level of Ate Glue during her time, the trend seems to indicate impatience setting in.

The President’s latest overall trust rating decreased by 12 percentage points, from 78 percent in November 2012 to 66 percent in the survey, conducted from Jan. 19 to 30, 2013. I wonder if this significant drop in public trust for P-Noy shocked an administration basking in favorable reviews from economists but falling behind in infrastructure deliverables important to the masses. If it didn’t, it should have.

“Marked changes occurred in the National Capital Region (NCR), Balance Luzon, and the Visayas (from 74 percent to 59 percent, 77 percent to 61 percent and 79 percent to 67 percent, respectively). Declines in President Aquino’s approval rating between the two survey periods are also noted in Class D (from 78 percent to 64 percent) and Class E (from 79 percent to 70 percent),” Pulse Asia said.

The official Palace reaction was largely nonchalant. But I am hoping they would use these numbers as a stick to get administration officials falling behind to shape up. But P-Noy must also be ready to ship out those who just can’t measure up.

As P-Noy goes into the second half of his watch, people are going to be less forgiving and more impatient about seeing so called deliverables actually delivered. No more excuses about having to clean up Ate Glue’s mess. It is time to get P-Noy’s show on the road… at last.

During the economic briefing last week our economic managers extracted every ounce of goodwill from the current positive mood for P-Noy. Feeling extremely good about themselves, I will not be surprised if they didn’t hear the message from the private sector representative who spoke.

“Work has to be faster. Patience in the business world only runs so far,” Dr. Francisco Sandejas, Managing Director of Narra Venture Capital declared. “The bulk of accomplishments are just the beginning. There’s so much work to be done,” he added.

Not surprisingly, Sandejas called for faster implementation of key government programs such as the public-private partnership program, which has been marred by bureaucratic delays. For background, only the DepEd has successfully implemented a PPP project so far… Classroom construction has actually started. The others are just all talk, all press releases.

The logjam in PPP brings up the possibility that P-Noy may not have the right people on board. If that is so, Sandejas thinks non performing government officials should be replaced with people who can do the job. The venture capitalist stressed that this is how it is done in the world of private business.

“Get the right people in the projects… If things are not working or not moving fast, normally the problems are on the top,” he said. In Silicon Valley where he used to work, “CEOs are fired if the organization is not performing well. We need to get used to firing people.”  

Sandejas, whose company invests in high-tech companies, urged government officials to put friendships aside because targets must be met. “Even if it’s politically hard and with friendship [as a factor], we sometimes need to make changes and need to fire our friends,” he stressed.

It is a good advice to give P-Noy who is known to have a very small circle of friends he has tapped in his administration. NAIA for instance, would do a whole lot better if it was being managed by a professional who knows how to run airports. After all, a Filipino is running world-class Changi International Airport. The current NAIA general manager, a retired air force officer who probably hasn’t managed a sari sari store in his life, is a close personal friend of the president.

Of course we also have to realize it is not simple to do anything in government with its many complicated regulations. But many of our officials have served for years in various capacities and should by now know how to get things moving.

Maybe P-Noy will still be given the benefit of the doubt by voters in the May election, which he calls a referendum on his leadership. But that is also because the choices offered by the opposition are simply horrible. People are weary of non-stop politics and may be inclined to give P-Noy what he wants so no more excuses for non performance can be made.

But make no mistake that impatience is setting in. The earlier our officials recognize that, the better it is for all of us.

MRT 3

I received an e-mail from a reader who seems knowledgeable about the details of the MRT 3 problems. He requested anonymity for obvious reason but I think his e-mail provides a good idea of the legal mess involved.

This is why I have always thought that the fastest and most painless way of quickly rehabilitating MRT 3 is to accept the proposal of Manny Pangilinan. But this administration wants to do it by itself and tasked the worse possible bunch of bureaucrats to do it --- DOTC.

Here is the e-mail.

As early as 2004 it had been recommended that more trains be acquired for MRT 3 so as to alleviate what was obviously becoming, at that time, a problem.  The problem is with the concession agreement between MRTC (the concessionaire) and DOTC where it is generally said that only MRTC owned trains can run on the line but that in the event that Government decide to acquire said trains, the owners (MRTC) would have the “right of first refusal”. 

Today, the “owners” of the concession are led by the Metro Pacific Group who controls the shares of the concession however, the economic interests are controlled by Government. The Government acquired the “future” equity returns of some of the owners by buying 80 percent (more or less) of the bonds during the days of Secretary Teves.  By doing so they made a deal with the owners that Government would control the Board. Thus some 10 or so board members are from government and 3 (if memory serves me right) are owners representatives.

Together with the acquisition of the bonds, government acquired some shares however, only a non-blocking minority with the owners still controlling close to 80 percent of the outstanding capital stock.

What happens here is that should the MRTC Board (controlled by Government) decide to acquire more trains, to be effective, this resolution must be brought to the shareholders for capitalization, equity infusion, authority to borrow etc….  This is where it would become tricky as the shareholders may not have the same interests as those of the Government…

The current “buy-out” that you have described in the past is not that simple as, even if the current owners agree to sell the equity returns, it is the shares that are needed by Government to assume full control and, as of the moment, it would appear that MRTC (apparently controlled by Metro Pacific) is not selling.

On another note, you may wish to look into the MRTC – DOTC structure as there are in fact three companies known as MRTC:  MRTC (the signatory to the concession agreement), MRTC 1 which owns 100pct of MRTC and MRTC 2 which owns some 84 percent of MRTC 1 with the balance owned by FilEstate Holdings and another very small shareholder.

To complicate matters there is also an entity called MRTDC (Mass Rail Transit Development Corp) who appears to control the development rights for the project (real estate, etc…) and still controlled by the original shareholders (Greenfields, Ayala, Fil-Estate, etc…).

There is much more to be said, especially on projects currently asleep in the DOTC.  We hope that as you state facts in your columns, senior individuals in Government will realize that under the excuse of wanting to be 100% right in decision making, nothing is achieved but much is wasted. 

More power to your column.

Post Valentine

Husband and wife have been arguing and quarrelling for months and were on their way to a marriage counselor. They were still at each other’s throats when the husband who was driving the car failed to see a big truck going right to him. A big crash and both died.

They were still arguing when St Peter found them at Heaven’s gate. He told them to be quiet and asked what seems to be troubling them.

The husband quickly spoke, “I have only one question… whatever happened to ‘till death do us part?’”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco