Let us not fall into the trap

Early yesterday, a Central Negros Electric Cooperative consumer friend called me up and said, he was happy Congressman Jose Carlos “Kako” Lacson of the third district is pushing through the probe into the Ceneco-Kepco power sales contract.

Why, I asked, who told you it would not be pushed through? He said, he heard talks that some people might talk to Congressman Lacson. I said, my friend Kako is an old hand in politics and he will not say one thing and do another.

That has been the secret of his staying long in leadership. He is consistent, honest, and sincere. I am talking of my own personal dealings with Kako. He is very reliable as a friend.

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Ceneco consumers should know that if the Ceneco-Kepco deal goes through we will fall into a trap. Just on two points, Kepco is still to build a plant. Geothermal is already there. Ms. Romana de los Reyes pointed this out.

Why go for something being planned? For all we know that coal-fired plant in Naga, Cebu might not go through. PNOC is already here giving geothermal power.

And Kepco power rate is P4.30 per kilowatt hour and the Geothermal plant in Murcia is P4.50. But, as pointed out by Congressman Lacson, while PNOC-EDC has a zero value in VAT as the energy is renewable, coal being a non-renewable energy source is subject to 12 percent VAT or an actual price of P4.816 per kilowatt hour.

That alone is already something, he said.

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I said, coal is exhaustible while geothermal is not. There will come a time there will be no more coal all over the world. And very important, the price of coal is shooting up. And environmentalists are not in favor of coal-fired power plants.

I understand last April coal was said to cost 20 U.S. dollars a metric ton. Today it is going at more than 50 U.S. dollars.

Then consider Australia is the biggest source of coal. Its new Prime Minister Kevin Dudd was reported to have announced, he would check on the coal mining. This will make the price of coal shoot up still higher.

Kepco will not absorb the losses. It will pass it on to the consumers. What happens if we already have a contract? We cannot get out.

With the increase cost of power here, many of those businesses which came because of our lower power prices will leave en masse.

But, of course, we will wait for the Congressional inquiry what will they find out. And this time we will listen to Kepco for its side.

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Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has created an image of a revolutionary. But, it's regrettable, in the caper he made last week, it showed Trillanes has a feet of clay. That is not what revolutionaries are made of.

With all the noise he made during the election last May and after he won the Senatorial slate with 11 million votes, I thought Trillanes would not be afraid to, even offer his life for the cause he was fighting for.

But when a war tank came crashing into the Peninsula Hotel with a battalion of soldiers, Trillanes in the second floor of the hotel surrendered meekly. And allowed himself to be handcuffed. He even asked media people to join him, afraid, the soldiers would really shoot him which, I believed they would have done, if only to finish it off, once and for all.

Then when he surrendered, front page photos showed General Geary Barias pulling him up by his belt, an undignified thing for a supposed hero.

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Sorry! You may call me a war freak. But I am thinking of real heroes.

Had Trillanes stood up and dared the police to shoot him and refused the handcuff because in his mind, he is a free man, Trillanes could have been a bigger hero. Police would not shoot him. He could have remembered Ninoy Aquino who dared Marcos to shoot him. And the greatest fault of Marcos was having Ninoy killed.

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Would the police shoot Trillanes? There was that show of force, an over-kill, they said. But, I am afraid, the President would have not allowed it. The death of Trillanes would have triggered a bigger trouble like what the death of Ninoy did.

And there could have been no stop. The President's position would be precarious.

Thanks it didn't happen because Trillanes developed cold feet.

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Judging by the different opinions written about the incident, Trillanes is losing the halo around his head as a revolutionary. I read only Speaker Jose de Venecia seems to agree with him in his calling for his “Moral Revolution.”

With GMA seeing Trillanes has some weakness and cannot stand up to the end, she will go for the jugular. GMA is more perceptive, discerning, wily and ruthless. Trillanes can expect conviction at least.

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CBCP President Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro was right in defending Bishop Julio Labayen, Bishop Emeritus of Infanta, Quezon. Yes, give it to Bishop Labayen. That is his advocacy. Bishop Labayen is from Bacolod . The Labayens' ancestral home is there near Ceneco office.

The other Bishops who disagreed with him, also have their advocacy. Let every one stand on his advocacy. If he gets jailed that is his price. But, he stands.

I don't know who said that it is better to die standing on one's feet than living on one's bended knees.*

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