Press Release June 8, 2000 SENATE SCORED FOR RUSHING THE NAPOCOR
SALE STATE workers criticized the Philippine Senate for passing in haste Senate Bill (SB) 2000, which is a counterpart bill to House Bill (HB) 8457 that aims to "reform the power sector" including the privatization of the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR). COURAGE said in a press release, that they are very frustrated by the similar act of the Senate to that of the Lower House that is rushing the sale of NAPOCOR. The Senate approved the Omnibus Power Bill yesterday and held a Bicameral Conference in the evening, day before the Philippine Congress recess today. They are probably avoiding the long recess in session, since both Houses are expected to resume on the 3rd Monday of July also in time for the 2nd State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Estrada. "We were hoping that the Senate will act differently as the alleged "payola scam" in the approval of HB 8457 met wide public anger. After all, we were wrong in thinking that more Senators are independent of the desire of Malacaņang and imposition of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB). Pare-pareho lang pala silang tuta," Ferdinand Gaite said. News reports said that the Senate was pressured by the IMF-WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to approve Senate Bill 2000 yesterday or these banks threatened to withold all pending foreign loans to the Philippine government. The NAPOCOR privatization is expecting about US$600 millions financing from these international financial agencies. HB 8457 was allegedly passed immediately after a strong worded letter on the immediate privatization of NAPOCOR from the IMF-WB was sent to the Philippine government. The Lower House went into a marathon session of 20 hours on Apruil 13, 2000 to approve the Bill. Immediately after, members of the House exposed a "pay-off". "This time, we know the Senators better. We assure them though, thatt he fight against the sale of NAPOCOR is not yet over. This time, we will return to the concerned legislators the result of their anti-people and anti-worker vote for the sale of NAPOCOR. We have information that many of them have vested interests in privatization and are probably already eyeing for these contracts to support their bid for re-election next year." They also scored the passage of the Road User's Tax, which isa another burden, as on the same day the oil price was hiked by 40 centavos. "The Estrada administration is indeed taking advantage of the crisis in Mindanao to hopefully pass more burdening measures to the people unnoticed. It is certain that the additional foreign loan of government in exchange for the sale of NAPOCOR is required to fill-in the PhP1.4 billion more military budget to support the military offensive in Mindanao. "Talagang ginigisa ang Pilipino sa sarili niyang mantika." The government is surely acting like the butchers of the people." The Estrada government recently approved the addition PhP1.4 billion military budget to continue its over PhP50 million daily war expense in Mindanao. This will cause an overshooting of the budget deficit and thus, foreign loan is much being sought by the Estrada administration. # |
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