Acknowledging excerpts from Boo Chanco’s column on energy:

        “How did we get into this situation? Regulatory capture just about sums it up. Government was just too intimidated to do anything that may be misconstrued as tolerating corruption.

         And it isn’t just the power producers who are intimidating government into inaction. Environmental groups have also caused some big projects already started to stop, as is the case of that Meralco power plant in Subic and the Laguna Lake flood control project.

        The Aquino administration knew in 2010 that we don’t have enough power capacity to allow for reliable supply at reasonable rates. The Department of Energy knew, or at least they should have known, that unless the building of new capacity got started by 2011, blackouts are a strong possibility towards the tail end of their term.

        For an administration that kept on talking about the bullish economic sentiment, thanks to P-Noy daw, they did nothing about power supply. Shades of Tita Cory!

        Now we have new manufacturing locators who want an alternative to Thailand’s floods and political problems. Should they turn back because we have no power?

        The emergency power given to FVR during his time made it easy for him to sign negotiated contracts for new power plants through Napocor. That FVR’s energy boys abused that power to cause us outrageous rates we can’t shrug off up to now, is another story.

        This failure on energy brings us to the doorstep of the ERAP reign.

        Sen. Serge Osmena made an interesting observation with reference to DAP that can also apply to other things including the mess at NAIA. This is what Serge said: “He doesn’t have a good feedback mechanism… he tends to have a cordon sanitaire who are afraid to tell him the truth.”

        I guess P-Noy is too busy to worry about pressing problems that he himself promised to fix. Worse yet, the people around him that he trusts so much tell him all is well in the Philippines and sadly he believes them.

Port operations

        Last Tuesday, PhilSTAR carried a story about the complaint of the president of the Aduana Business Club on slow port operations at the Port of Manila. Some 20 local and international cargo vessels are unable to dock at the POM because of lack of available berthing spaces. Ships have to wait in line to dock and unload cargo.

        A ship able to get a berthing spot would take a long time to discharge containers because no space is available, and trucks are still loaded with empty containers. Sometimes trucks would be carrying these empty container vans for three days to more than a week, so how can they pick up the loaded containers out of the port?

        Vessel operators are rejecting Philippine-bound cargoes. They no longer want to make a port call to the Philippines. Some no longer want to dock at the POM and the MICP… the vessels are avoiding Manila.

        A reader who runs an export company in the Bataan export processing zone confirms the serious problems at POM.  “What I can not understand is why in 2013 the port ran fine and there was no empty container van problem. Was this build up of empty containers caused by the truck ban? “

        And that brings us again to another mess: Metro Manila’s traffic gridlock.

-o0o-

        Looking at all the above headaches for Pnoy, it appears that his administration has no effective forward planning.

        NEDA, which is run by people appointed by the incumbent president, has the PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2011-2016.  According to Wikipedia, PDP 2011-2116 is tasked to do the following:

        “It adopts a framework of inclusive growth, which is high growth that is sustained, generates mass employment, and reduces poverty. With good governance and anticorruption as the overarching theme of each and every intervention, the Plan translates into specific goals, objectives, strategies, programs and projects all the things that we want to accomplish in the medium term.

        Through this Plan, we intend to pursue rapid and sustainable economic growth and development, improve the quality of life of the Filipino, empower the poor and marginalized and enhance our social cohesion as a nation. Our strategic development policy framework thus focuses on improving transparency and accountability in governance, strengthening the macroeconomy, boosting the competitiveness of our industries, facilitating infrastructure development, strengthening the financial sector and capital mobilization, improving access to quality social services, enhancing peace and security for development, and ensuring ecological integrity.

        The Philippine Development Plan will serve as our guide in formulating policies and implementing development programs for the next six years. It enables us to work systematically to give the Filipino people a better chance of finally finding their way out of poverty, inequality, and the poor state of human development.”

        Obviously, NEDA’s PDP should straddle more than the incumbent president’s term to enable government to implement longer range planning. It is also obvious that GMA’s PDP was not considered in the drawing up of P-Noy’s PDP. 

        But that may again lead to charter change, which I dare not touch.

A WORD TO THE WISE IS SUFFICIENT.

        I would imagine all humans have each one’s fetish – an inexplicable attachment to some trivial object or deed. I found mine in my senior years.

        

        Since my wife and I started renovating our bedroom (the first one in 27 years) and vacated the room,  I have been feeling lost without my bamboo back scratcher.

        As soon as I wake up every morning, for the last so many years, I have had the routine of reaching for my back scratcher hanging on the wall beside my bed – and of course I scratch my itchy back and find enough heavenly relief for the day.

        Since I cannot find my back scratcher, I have tried to rub my back against the walls and the door – to no avail. I have asked assistance from my wife, who gave me her comb!??? My grandson assisted me with a hairbrush and tried to do the job for me. His generosity gave me some relief –  in spots – in some other spots, the assistance practically made my skin bleed.

 

        I remember buying this beloved stick from a travelling cart loaded with rattan-bamboo products and pulled by a bull. I also bought from the same salesman a hand-made decorated native dagger with carabao horn handle. I’ve already disposed of this weapon knowing that this is now classified as a deadly weapon. This type of ambulant salesmen has gone out of style and are already banned from the traffic-gridlock of the MetroManila. Hence, I am still looking for my back scratcher.

        Will somebody tell me where I can buy a similar back scratcher? Or what is the 21^st century equivalent of this ancient handy tool? Would you know what your fetish is? Or do you have a human back scratcher?