Blast from the Lopez past

EDITORIAL

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05/07/2008

No doubt about it: Gloria’s latest target are Lopezes, both the giant ABS-CBN network and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), both of which make up the political and economic clout of the Lopezes.

The irony of it all is the fact that the Lopezes used their media clout to topple the duly elected president, Joseph Estrada, while giving their all-out support for Gloria, who now is ready to strip the Lopezes of their political and economic bases — this time through the takeover of Meralco management, which may, or may not come about depending on how the Lopez family moves, for or against Gloria Arroyo.

It all depends on Gloria too, if she truly wants the Lopezes out of Meralco management or get them to bow to her will, but this will have to be done through the proxy shareholders. Whoever has the majority vote, gets the management control.

If the Lopezes retain control of Meralco, they need not toe the Malacañang line — at least in their network. If not, they either lose it and be back to the days of then President Diosdado Macapagal and then President Ferdinand Marcos.

The problem facing the Lopezes is the fact that the firm is not that popular with the consumers, and even if they do not like Gloria and her government, they are not about to fight for the Lopezes either, which means that the Lopez message is not going to connect with the people, while Gloria’s fight against the Lopezes and Meralco may not be enough to embrace her and her government because in the end, the high electricty rates won’t come about with a change of management.

Already, the Gloria allies in the Senate, as well as the House, have started to sing the Malacañang song, which is that of government taking control of Meralco, ostensibly to ensure lower electricity prices, and even pointing to the Epira law which calls for the lowering of electricity rates.

And not to forget, there was Gloria telegraphing her punches, telling a group of businessmen to get hold of the best legal luminaries to fight this issue out at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), over which she certainly exercises a lot of clout and even control.

She and her aides may continue to deny it, but the records show that the Department of Trade filed a petition earlier before the ERC, and this was thrown out. But shortly after Gloria made her spiel, the petition was suddenly revived by the ERC.

Her position is of course to play up to the gallery, as she faces insurmountable problems of rising prices in virtually everything, and as is her wont, she lays the blame on others, in this case, she lays the blame on Meralco for the skyrocketing cost of electricity. Yet she also refuses to do away with the eVAT that could bring down the prices — even of oil products.

But the developments are indeed ironic.

It is no secret that in 2000, even before the impeachment trial, the network worked to sway public opinion against Estrada. Even the impeachment trial coverage was so biased against Estrada, and demonizing him at every turn.

Even when Estrada was arrested, it was the Lopez’s TV network that went all the way to show Estrada’s mug shots, as well as his cramped tiny cell. The network certainly gloried in it. And even as the Edsa III revolt was ongoing, the cable network, along with the anti-Estrada media, was certainly downplaying the five-day revolt, not even bothering to cover it as fair reporting calls for. And when they did, media certainly didn’t present the true picture, bringing down purposely the numbers massed at Edsa and making it appear that it was nothing about which to get alarmed.

Then they suddenly moved to cover it fully after some 50,000 demonstrators laid siege to Malacañang. But even then, the coverage was still very pro-Arroyo.

It took a long time for the masses to even allow the TV networks to cover any of their rallies and the disconnect was established.

Despite this, however, in 2004, the Lopezes were still all out for Gloria and again presented a biased coverage of the campaign and the polls, with the TV networks also demonizing then opposition standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr., awakening to the political reality only after FPJ’s death and wake.

But there is one thing that may be going for Meralco, if the government takeover of management succeeds, which is that this move may again cast yet another negative impact on big business, in that under the Gloria regime, government moves against business and gobbles up big business.

Still, whatever the outcome, it is hoped that the Lopezes have finally learned their lesson in playing high stakes politics.

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