The business of politics

The tragedy of our country is that our largest industry is politics and it doesn’t contribute to economic growth, even hindering it. The President isn’t even a year in office and some people are talking of the next presidential election.

The recent demotion of former PGMA from senior deputy speaker to deputy speaker was brought about because she was suspected of undermining the Speaker who has ambitions to run for president. GMA is identified with the Vice President who is itching to be the next president.

VP Sara immediately resigned from the ruling party, in support of the former president. She also insulted the Speaker by comparing him to an indecent character in a Visayan alamat called Tambaluslus. That’s how to burn political bridges. Uniteam no more!

Someone on Twitter decided to run an instant survey on presidential preferences. The last time I saw it, Sen. Raffy Tulfo had over 80 percent and both the VP and the Speaker shared the remaining 20 percent. Sen. Tulfo’s tough and sensible questioning of Sen. Cynthia Villar and NGCP officials has given him favorable feedback.

Tulfo and Sen. Cynthia Villar tussled over an issue of immense public interest: the massive conversion of farmlands to commercial use. Tulfo said what many of us wanted to say and asked the Villars about the conflict of interest between their public positions and their family businesses.

In a recent column, Randy David said: “Whether he meant to or not, Tulfo had touched a raw nerve in our pre modern political order. This is the shameless interlocking of family-owned businesses and political dynasties, about which as little as possible is publicly said in the polite corridors of the legislature. Bravo to him!”

Randy continued: “I have taken note of his masterful grilling of former UP president and now Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual over the Department of Trade and Industry’s responsibility for the regulation of the sale of sodium-laden instant noodle products, a staple food among the poor. I have also listened to his exchange with Sen. Loren Legarda on how to ensure that lists of beneficiaries of government assistance are prepared with no interference by political patrons at all levels.”

The encounter with Villar was during a plenary session no less, as she sponsored the budget of the Department of Agriculture. Everyone thought it would be smooth sailing since the President is concurrent Secretary of Agriculture.

Tulfo asked how DA decides where to put the farm-to-market roads, which is a big chunk of the agency’s budget. It appears, he said, that many of these do not lead to farms, but to subdivisions, and even to cockpits.

Sen. Villar answered for the DA officials. She said the DPWH uses drones to determine where these should be located. It is the DPWH that builds these farm-to-market roads, she added.

Tulfo got the opening he wanted and went for the jugular like any seasoned broadcaster would. Tulfo, in reply to Villar, said: “So, if the DPWH and the property developers are in cahoots with one another, that’s the end for the poor farmers who are supposed to benefit from these roads. No wonder farmlands are getting smaller and smaller as big developers buy them and convert them into commercial and residential lands.  What is the DA doing about this?”

There… two birds with one stone. The Villars are big in the property business and the last DPWH Secretary, now also a senator, is Sen. Cynthia’s son. The intersection of politics and business and the inherent conflict of interest can’t be more clearly expressed.

I have reported on Tulfo’s performance in the Senate Energy committee hearing on NGCP last Monday, and it was another good show. If he keeps it up, neither Sara Duterte nor Martin Romualdez will be frontrunners in the next presidential election.

We are what we are today because of the unholy alliance between vested interests in our economy and politicians. The entrenched economic elite behind our heavily protected economic sectors benefit from favorable government policies at the expense of consumers and ordinary citizens.

In the first Marcos era, presidential cronies caused the decline of two major agricultural export sectors: sugar and coconut. Neither has recovered since.

Now, look at the party list system that was intended to give the marginalized sectors of society a voice. It has been bastardized beyond recognition. For the longest time, the richest congressman worth about P8 billion represented a party list group called 1-Pacman or One Patriotic Coalition of Marginalized Nationals. How’s that for chutzpah!

Political dynasties also assign some of their family members to run as party list representatives. How in the world can LPG dealers be a marginalized sector?

In LGUs, the local businesses have to be aligned with the local political warlords for survival.

One other thing to bear in mind is that Philippine politics is essentially entertainment. It is not supposed to run an efficient government. It is the family business of political dynasties whose obligation is to keep us entertained so we will not notice the bad governance. That is also why professional entertainers become politicians as they retire from showbiz.

The objective of our political dramas is to distract our attention so we don’t complain.

Almost one year on the job and no solutions yet to arrest food inflation other than the recent creation of another inter-agency committee to deal with it. Onion prices are threatening to go up again. Sugar prices have hardly declined despite the massive importations by crony traders.

The House, according to Rep. Stella Quimbo, has determined who are the onion traders responsible for bringing retail onion prices to unheard of levels. And it ends there.

This is why even skeptics like myself cheer Sen. Tulfo for speaking out for all of us against the most powerful in society. He may at some point join the Club, but for now, he is speaking for us. That’s as good as it gets.

Correction

Energy Secretary Popo Lotilla called to tell me that he was never an independent director of NGCP nor Synergy Grid. My mistake. I should have called him to verify the information from a usually reliable source.

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