THE ADMINISTRATION of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) is like a student cramming at the end of a term. The avalanche of populist initiatives it has unleashed in the past two weeks exposed its desperation to get a passing credit. But it’s too late, very late for the administration to play a hero.

It’s only June, but this early the President had been playing Santa to the people Filipino, guided by a false hope it can gain even a little respect from them. The goodies are very enticing – lower electricity, lower school fees, free text messages, cash aid to poor families and lower toll fees.

High cost of electricity touches a sensitive chord among consumers. The administration seized the issue to dislodge the Lopez family from the management of Meralco, the country’s biggest electric firm. Promising to lower electric rates became the administration’s battle cry in the offensive against the Lopezes.

But the attempt ended in a failure with the Lopez family retaining control of Meralco and no changes in the electric bill of the consumers. It is highly doubtful if the administration can lower electric rates had the attack succeeded.

There are numerous factors why consumers are paying high electric rates most of which had nothing to do with the management of Meralco. Chief among these are high taxes levied by the government on electricity, the onerous contracts the government entered with independent power producers (IPPS), and the worsening graft and corruption in Napocor.

Unable to deliver on this populist promise, the administration turned to dole-outs. The President released Php 2 billion as a lifeline subsidy to four million families consuming less than 100-kilowatt hours in Metro Manila and in other provinces. In this one-time subsidy, identified families will receive Php 500. It looks like the administration is on a buying spree for respect and admiration.

School year begins in June and to score another pogi point to the populace, PGMA ordered a freezing of school fee hike in state colleges and universities and appealed to private schools to do the same. But again, the move had little impact. Eighty percent of higher education institutions in the country are private and school owners and administrators balked at the President’s proposal.

Private schools derive their operations from the fees they collect from their students. If they heed the President’s appeal, they cried, they might as well close down. The operating cost of running a school is staggering and private schools do not receive any support from the government. It is quite clear why such populist action of the President is doomed.

To further win public approval, the President also trained her guns at telecommunication companies. With the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on the lead, the administration wanted to make text messaging free. Philippines is known as the “texting” capital of the world, and one of the shortest ways to win the hearts of Filipinos is to make it free.

If the administration will succeed in this regard, it can gain instant public approval and even adulation. Mouthing a populist rhetoric is one thing, but putting flesh and blood to it is an entirely different matter. Telecom companies are crying foul at the proposal.

Making text messages free is not just about loss of income according to telecom companies. They fear doing it might cause a system overload. The system of telecom companies cannot accommodate a deluge of text messages that will result by making it free and it could collapse.

Officials of telecom also pointed out more than half of the amount in a 1-peso text message is tax and other expenses so they don’t get the entire amount. Anything that is free can be abused and this is the danger telecom owners warn.

From all indications, it appears the administration will have difficulty transforming its appealing rhetoric into a reality. This is the problem of advocating fake populism. The principal motivation of the President in advocating populist issues is to simply gain public approval at the sunset of her presidency. Her term ends less than two-years from now and she desperately wants to salvage her much despised and highly unpopular regime.

It is not out of genuine concern or love for the people that PGMA is making a pitch for popular causes. For if these issues are really dear to her, she could have done about them at the beginning of her “term” and not now where there is little time to do them. Resorting to fake populism has only succeeded in further damaging the already unredeemable image of the President.

Leave a Reply