Day of reckoning

Presidential crony Dennis Uy’s problems fending off attacks from critics for supposed impropriety in bagging government deals will haunt him long after President Digong steps down.

For one, Uy will be hounded by big business groups that question why his Udenna Corp., which lacks financial capability and expertise in gas exploration, was able to buy into the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project.

The following groups want his head: the Energy Lawyers Association of the Philippines, the Makati Business Club, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, the Filipina CEO Circle, the Integrity Initiative Inc., the Investment House Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Women’s Economic Network and the Women’s Business Council Philippines.

The Makati Business Club and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, in particular, are powerhouses with political clout. When they strike, it’s like being hit by sledgehammers.

If there’s nothing illegal with Udenna cornering the Malampaya deal, then its impropriety should have occurred to Uy and his advisers.

Uy and his advisers should also have considered the propriety of winning the public bidding to transport election materials for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the 2022 polls.

Even if they had the best of intentions, Uy and his subordinates should have looked at those deals from the angle of public perception.

Uy’s closeness to the President, even if he didn’t pull any strings, made those deals reek of cronyism.

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At last, the President has realized that defending the embattled executives of Pharmally Pharmaceuticals, as well as his friend Michael Yang, was futile.

The more he continues to defend them, the more his popularity among the masses, his political base, suffers.

Digong has dropped the Pharmally executives like hot potatoes for not paying taxes when they earned hundreds of millions of pesos from a government deal to supply it with facemasks, face shields and personal protective equipment (PPE).

The President’s characteristic rant against people who violate the law should be considered ominous by Pharmally executives and Yang, who are being investigated by the Senate for grossly overpricing the COVID-19 paraphernalia.

“Those in Pharmally not paying taxes, they should be made to pay… those they said who did not pay, put them in prison, (or) if you want, kill them,” said Digong.

The President said that people who don’t pay taxes are considered criminals.

So, the Pharmally people, as well as Yang, have become free targets for vigilantes who might want to please the President.

Like Dennis Uy, Yang will become a pariah when the President is out of power. Nobody will touch them with a ten-foot pole.

Yang will be particularly harder hit than Uy since he is a Chinese national, unlike the latter, who is Filipino and a scion of a political bigwig in Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro.

Yang has no relatives in the country, and the people he has rubbed the wrong way will bear down on him. Digong will no longer be there to defend him.

There is a saying: “Treat people kindly on your way up, because these are the very same people you will meet on your way down.” This now applies to both Yang and Uy.

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Guillermo Lorenzo “Guilor” Eleazar, the most loved chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), retires today, his 56th birthday, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age.

General Eleazar’s brand of discipline is a tough act to follow. As the head of one of the world’s worst-disciplined organizations, Guilor was able to make his men toe the line.

Erring policemen cowered in fear as they faced Eleazar, who held himself from striking them in the presence of journalists. There was no telling what happened after the reporters were gone.

Eleazar was as stern to abusive cops as he was friendly to ordinary, law-abiding citizens. Under him, the PNP became a civilian-friendly armed organization.

Let’s hope that Eleazar’s replacement, Lt. Gen. Dionardo Carlos, will be able to step up to the plate and deliver home runs.

By the way, Eleazar might run for the Senate, according to people close to him.

However, when I asked him, Guilor played coy.

“Bahala na,” he told me with an impish chuckle.

“Bahala na,” which has no direct translation, means “I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.”

If he decides to run, Eleazar will become a strong candidate in the very tight Senate race.

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While I agree with anti-tobacco lobbyists that cigarettes, cigars and vaping equipment are harmful to a person’s health, I also agree with the stand of Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. that taxes on tobacco products earn humongous revenues for the country.

“Tobacco tax laws fund our poverty reduction, universal health care and COVID-19 recovery programs,” Locsin, a non-smoker, told the Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“We underscore the importance of tobacco and funding of the state’s most important activities,” said the foreign secretary.

Locsin is one of the ten co-heads of the Philippine delegation to the six-day virtual conference that began on Nov. 8.

Yes, millions die of cancer and other illnesses due to cigarettes and other tobacco derivatives worldwide, but our government should strike a balance between keeping people from smoking and earning billions in revenues from them.

Yes, smoking is a vice, but so are cockfights, going to casinos and small-time lotteries which, like tobacco, earn billions of pesos for the government.

Money earned from tobacco, alcoholic drinks and legal gambling help prop up the economy.

People who smoke, drink and gamble know the consequences these vices bring.

Cigarette packs now have warnings to smokers. Cigarette commercials and advertisements have been banned in the media.

And yet people continue to smoke. So, let them inhale their own poison.