Sword of oligarchs

By: Artchil B. Fernandez

“ANTI-OLIGARCHS, the scourge of the oligarchs,” is one of the images of Du30 peddled by his paid trolls and fanatics. This image is among the packaged persona of Du30 during the election and at least 16 million voters bought it. Du30 is now more than three years in power and its time to ask, “Is this image a myth or real?

Oligarchy is the rule of the few. In Philippine context, these few refer to a handful of families who control the major industries and big businesses in the country. The vast wealth of the nation is concentrated in the hands of these oligarchs.

This week, to the delight of his fanatics, Du30 once again attacked and threatened the oligarchs. He slammed them for “screwing” the Filipino people. In a speech during the oath taking of the executive committee of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines in Malacañang, the oligarchs got a tongue-lashing from Du30. The Lopez and the Ayala families and businessman Manny Pangilinan are the specific targets of Du30’s tirade.

Du30 is sore at the giant television network ABS-CBN owned by the Lopez family, accusing it of being biased and unfair to him. The network, Du30 alleged did not air his advertisements during the campaign. “There were several of us candidates from whom you took money but never aired our propaganda,” he chastised the network. “Your franchise will end next year. If you are expecting that it will be renewed, I’m sorry. You’re out. I will see to it that you’re out,” Du30 vowed. The 25-year franchise of ABS-CBN will expire on March 30, 2020.

Turning to the Ayalas and Manny Pangilinan who own water utilities Manila Water and Maynilad respectively, Du30 accused them of “screwing us. And they are screwing us all the way.” Du30 is mad that the government lost to these water utilities in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore on the damages the firms filed against the government. The Philippine government was ordered by the court to pay the water concessionaires US$144 million (Php 7.39 billion) on the losses they incurred from June 2015 to November 2019 due to the refusal of the government to grant their request for price increase.

Calling the contract between the government and the water concessionaires, signed in 1997 as onerous, Du30 lamented the handing of water distribution to them. “There is a lot of water. The problem is we gave it to awkward people who are not Filipinos, or if they are Filipinos they have no souls— Manila Water and Maynilad. To Pangilinan and Ayala,” Du30 bewailed.

Oligarchy is bad and it is a major factor why the gap between the very few rich and vast poor majority is so wide. With power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families, oligarchy explains why the super-rich becomes richer and poor poorer.

Du30’s attack on the oligarchs would have been laudable except for a treacherous caveat. He is not doing it on behalf of the vast majority of Filipinos who are poor but as support to his own favored oligarchs. This is clear in the same speech of Du30.

While thrashing the Ayalas and Pangilinan, Du30 was singing praises to the Villars in the same speech. “We start from the beginning. Nandiyan naman si Villar, nandiyan naman si — karaming mayayaman ninyo na… go and start to develop businesses,” Duterte exclaimed. “Kayong nasa negosyo, okay man lang. Villar, Pimentel… Okay sa akin ‘yan. Pinaghirapan ninyo. Pero itong tubig na ito, sila ang mag-distribute. Pinipigilan pa nga (ang pagrelease ng tubig),” he continued.

But it is the phenomenal rise of Dennis Uy, a businessman from Davao City who is a close friend of Du30 that exposed his anti-oligarch stance as a blatant lie and monstrous hypocrisy. From anonymity, Uy is a rising business star in the country not because of his business acumen but due to his closeness to Du30.

Since Du30 became president this obscure businessman from Davao City is on a buying spree, acquiring companies left and right – convenience stores, a digital startup, a bakery chain, a Ferrari dealership, water utilities and a casino franchise. Before 2016, Uy was on the directorate of only three companies but in a span of three years he now sits on the board of 27 companies. This year, Uy for the first time joined the Forbes’ list of richest Filipinos at number 22. His capital is saliva and $ 2 billion in debt. (Forbes Asia).

Uy’s Mislatel – a telecommunications company based in Mindanao won the bidding for the third telco license that will compete with Smart and Globe despite no experience in telecommunications. Mislatel entered into a joint venture with China Telecom, which is backed by the Chinese government to bolster its non-existing credential. This granting by the government of license to a company with no know-how in the industry is blatant favoritism and Uy would not have gotten the approval if he is not Du30’s close friend. This whole episode reeks with rent-seeking capitalism and cronyism at its worst form.

It is very apparent Du30 is not anti-oligarch but is only against a section or group of oligarchs. He attacks a group of oligarchs to promote and advance his own oligarchs and cronies. Du30 is nothing but a sword of a section of the oligarchy to demolish their rivals. In this intra-oligarch intramurals, Du30 is just the henchman or hatchet man.

Perhaps the clearest evidence that Du30 is pro-oligarch is his veto of the bill that would have ended endo or end-of-contract practices of big businesses owned by oligarchs. Terminating endo is one of Du30’s campaign promises and he won votes because of this. When Congress finally passed a bill that would fulfill his campaign promise, Du30 rejected it. Big business has long opposed the anti-endo bill.

Du30 is not and is never against the oligarchy. He opposes the non-Du30 oligarchs so his own oligarchs and cronies – Villar, Uy, etc., could expand their business empire and increase their wealth. Du30 is a mere muchacho of a section of oligarchy, their sword, their tool to entrenched themselves in an unjust social structure.