Being clear on going nuclear

I would not worry too much about reported plans by the energy department, with the imprimatur of the president, to 'study the possibility' of harnessing nuclear power in the country. There is no lack of things to worry about in this world, and there is no dearth of interesting subjects to study either. For all I care, Secretary Reyes can study nuclear physics and rocket science, but on unofficial time. I will start worrying when he gets distracted from the more important tasks of introducing real competition and lowering rates in the power sector and achieving the goals of the rural electrification program.
While I keep an open mind on nuclear power, especially as a potential solution to the risks of global warming, this is a non-starter for the Philippines, where the justifiable knee-jerk rejection of nuclear power is informed by the intertwined issues of corruption and safety.
It came to pass without much ado that the foreign debt of more than $ 2 billion incurred under clearly fraudulent conditions for the Bataan nuclear plant was finally fully paid in April this year. While many in legal circles felt we had a strong case against the Marcos henchman Disini and the supplier, Westinghouse, the Aquino administration had opted to settle out of court with the latter for a meager $25 million worth of old turbines. I don't know what happened to Disini. The Aquino administration also opted to honor the obligation but transferred it from the books of the National Power Corporation to the national account. (Just think how much higher NPC rates would have been if the white elephant had been part of utility's rate base. To its credit, NPC has at least managed to generate some income from the Morong complex by operating a hotel and cabanas---respectable houses meant for the power plant staff--- open to the public for conferences and private breaks. I've tried fishing by the wharf there and snagged some poisonous fish--- no not from any nuclear contamination because no fuel rods were ever stored there. There is also a good firing range for target shooting). Aquino officials shuddered at the thought of triggering cross-default provisions, used to shield banks from the consequences of their bad decisions---sound familiar?---- and lengthy litigation, had they chosen a more militant stance.
That same fear also probably was behind the attitude of the committee tasked to review the contracts with the independent power producers. From the very beginning, it chose a non-confrontational stance. But I've digressed enough.
Perhaps, Secretary Angelo Reyes was misquoted in this reportage on his view that nuclear power would help decrease power rates. A recent Economist article argues this hope rests on shaky ground. I'm all for nuclear power, but for Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. Let them, as long as that decision has popular consent. On safety and sustainability, he can be guided by this real expert. Also, what to do with spent fuel and the risks of nuclear proliferation remain unresolved.
Notwithstanding Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the fears evoked by current difficulties in that Japan nuclear plant undergoing repair after an earthquake, many risk assessment experts would probably tell you that Filipinos living around a nuclear plant would have a greater chance of dying from a motor accident (getting hit by a tricycle?), a fall resulting from a carelessly thrown banana peel, or from the bullets of political hitmen than from a nuclear plant failure. But subjective risk perceptions are always part of objective reality and that is where the main problem is. Moreover, it will probably take us at least fifty years to resolve the issue of safety in this country, where many controversies one hopes could be resolved by hard science never seem to be. (For lack of resources and intellectual boldness, neither the department of energy nor of science and technology could even come to a simple judgment on some alleged fuel-saving automotive gadgets that a former environment secretary had installed in his department's vehicles).
But what is there to study anyway? The energy secretary must of course appreciate that we are not at the forefront of nuclear research and would thus have to depend on technological advances from abroad. He wants a technical pool? For what and at whose expense? Most of the people sent by NPC to train for nuclear plant operations opted to remain in the United States, and my acquaintances who came back formed part of NPC's brain trust, mainly in desk jobs in planning and in environmental work, and are now in the private sector after the utility's downsizing.
As far as I know there is no legal prohibition against putting up a nuclear plant in the country, but the proponent would have to pass the difficult environmental and social hurdles. Identifying potential sites? Okay. We can always let local governments with suitable sites volunteer and take care of the problem of social consent. Cebu? Just kidding. Unless of course one option under study is for government to get back into the business of generation, which some would consider foolish.
Finally, on climate change, we should not worry about that too much either, not in the sense of spending our meager resources. Our climate change policy should be anchored on the fact that historically and currently, we are a very minor source of so-called greenhouse gases. To the extent that we are almost certain to suffer from hotter average temperatures, our national policy should be one of seeking justice and compensation from the culprits, the developed countries responsible for the accumulation of these gases. We should adopt policies encouraging less GHG emissions, sure, but not at the expense of the poor and more important priorities. For one, we can tax, to the extent possible, the energy consumption of the rich.
Okay, let's be open, and just leave it at that.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer's recycling advocacy is probably garbage

“Every issue of the Inquirer is already made from 100% recycled paper. But if every reader recycled their (sic) newspapers for one year, we would all save an additional 3.4 million trees, 840 million kilowatthours of energy, and 78
million gallons of oil. Support the PDI NewPaper Drive and help save the environment ...”

The recycling advocacy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer is admirable, but the claim above is mind-boggling and incredible. In what follows I’ll just leave the claim about trees saved to stand.
I did some back-of-the envelop calculations and came out with an estimate of a combined national hardcopy daily newspaper circulation of 6.6 million, assuming the Inquirer assumed its drive would include the recovery of old editions of its rivals. Otherwise, the circulation estimate would be bloated by a factor equal to the reciprocal of its market share. I also estimated that each copy of PDI weighed 200 grams, but even if we grant that that weight is a kilogram, that would still imply a daily circulation of 1.32 million.
(Reliable newspaper circulation numbers are hard to come by because ironically, the principles of transparency and the public’s right to know are not shared by the business and advertising departments of newspapers. The Philippines is one of a few Southeast Asian countries for which newspaper circulation data are missing by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization).
The electricity savings is already about two percent of generation in the whole of Luzon, and at spot prices prevailing in the WESM, would be worth about P4 billion. So, at this point, I will not even question the claim of the volume of oil saved except to say that at prevailing world prices, that would add another P6 billion in putative savings.
The proper way to estimate energy savings from recycling is to subtract energy consumption with recycling from a base case (meaning transporting old newspapers to a landfill and production of newsprint from trees. For the curious and/or technically inclined, try following this reference.
Aggravating the exaggeration of the claims of the Inquirer, and more unforgivably at that, is the assumption that no old newspapers are being recycled. (If it did, the circulation figures above would again be bloated by another factor). In the United States, the rate of newspaper recycling is around 82% and I dare say that in a poorer country such as ours, the rate would be higher. If you don’t know the schedules of your friendly neighborhood ambulant BDP’s (Bote, Diario, Papel) entrepreneurs, you must be living in Forbes or Dasma. My best guess is that the savings from any newspaper recycling drive such as the Inquirer’s would be much less than 10% of the figures cited above. In my case, all newsprint is sold to vendors by the neighborhood diner (the owners of the diner are friends of the Inquirer’s readers’ advocate) I donate newspapers to after breakfast coffee, except for the crumpled ones I use to wipe grease off dishes and kitchen implements, as absorbent for the occasional water intrusions on my bedroom floor after storms, and to clean glass. I can also safely assume that newsprint not ending up recycled would be re-used as wrappers of choice for bulad and tapa in your friendly neighborhood talipapa. In the latter, the Bulletin trumps the Inquirer hands down. I don’t know why. A secret ingredient from the ink supplier?

But 10% of a billion pesos is still a lot, right? But to whom will these savings accrue? Is the waste collection system competitive? Three years ago I worked for a project with a paper manufacturing facility in Luzon and observed so many layers of middle men enroute to supplying the plant with scrap paper, and that’s one of the reasons I’m able to come up with the estimates above. The spouse of my masseuse was in the garbage business in Antipolo and he had to give it up because of the competitiveness of supply going against the monopsony of the buyers.
It may be that the Inquirer drive will benefit impoverished folk targetted as beneficiaries. But it can actually do better. It can radically change its business model and encourage more readership by scrapping its archaic and unenforceable links policy, and thereby reduce the use of newsprint at source. This commentator, for instance, explains resistance to the net forcefully.

And, if you happen to be like me, sentimentally retarded and insisting on reading the news while sipping coffee, find a cost-effective way to access news in cyberspace.
(I’m still trying to muster the heart to tell the old man who has delivered the Inquirer to my doorstep the past 15 years that I have finally discarded old habits).
A final note: Worthy advocacies often lose credibility by the exaggeration of the advocates. This is obviously one of those. To recycle an old economics argument, allow me to say that if it pays for them to do something, reasonable people generally do it. Except if they read Bulletin Today.

P.S. To those interested in my calculations, the spreadsheet file will be mailed on request.

Mikey Arroyo's thin line on energy

I have no idea where he came from, but he has a lucky mother. But when I saw him on ANC last night saying there was a thin line between the independence of the Energy Regulatory Commission and the wishes (populist and manipulative) of the executive, I was alarmed. Rep. Mikey Arroyo, chair and lone member of the House energy committee, at first seemed cautious, until the interviewers got the better of him. And that was when he not only betrayed his ignorance (forgivable) and then his political tendencies (unforgivable).
Most every observer of the Philippine energy sector would agree that one of the main problems of sector regulation is the lack of transparency aggravated by the discretionary powers of the regulator, complexed with the political influence of whoever wields executive power. Sometimes, this weakness is utilized by all sorts of contending political factions (including, unfortunately, those from the Left and who should know better).
The independence of the regulatory bodies in the sector has seen some ups and downs in the close to three decades I've been in it, as an active participant and observer. I must say we might be hitting anothe new low.
Less power to you, Mikey Arroyo.

p.s. My favorite senator and neighbor, who went epileptic with the appointment of Angelo Reyes as energy secretary, must be baying at the moon.

Bull, Ron Nathan, Run?

The stock market analyst of the Inquirer claims he made the right call for his clients and Inquirer readers a few weeks back. Maybe, but who is to say, especially if he doesn't publish the wrong calls he made for his clients, who've been paying a fixed fee for his advice?
Let me be kind. Can Mr. Nathan honestly tell us he has made money for his clients in the last two months,on average, and how much. He may have articulated some warnings but also still managed to hype some stocks (especially mining)? It probably is not his fault, but that of a system where so-called investment advisors don't really face the same risks and rewards as their clients do. Thus their risk-aversion is not properly reflected in their advice to clients.
So, Mr. Nathan,can you at least be honest and narrate some of the stories of your disgruntled clients?
One consolation of the market downturn is that Ron Nathan is more somber now and has refrained from making his wife a punching bag for his nasty jokes. Perhaps, he can get out of this with suggestions on how his fate can be more closely followed by his clients. How about that, Ron?

President Mar Roxas? It may not matter...

With still over two years before the next presidential elections, Philippine pundits are already obsessing about the potential candidates, although some commentators argue that the landscape will have changed radically by then, either with a dictatorship or a parliamentary system dominated by the same elite.
Last night I had a chance to view an interview with one of the most articulate and ‘wonkish’ of the 2010 contenders, by one of the (if not the) sharpest talk show hosts on Philippine tv.
Because there are no ideologically defined political parties in the Philippines, voters usually look for personalities that have the most of their desiderata in a leader. Let me qualify this a bit. The Left is usually assumed by the so-called intellectual elite to offer a distinct alternative, but the Philippine Left, almost two decades after the end of the Cold War, is still finding its bearings. Its political participation is limited and its parties and their programs suffer from the same superstition centering on the battle between Good and Evil as their bourgeois counterparts are.
Ricky Carandang and his colleague Manolo Quezon have of late rightly brought the issues of poverty and inequality into focus in their work and it was to be expected that Carandang would confront Roxas on these issues. Roxas would be categorized as a compassionate conservative in the US and a left-winger here. But because I am far to the left of the Democrats, I would still consider him just as an over-cautious liberal. Roxas’s program on equality is to allocate (actually reallocate) funds to education and health. He will not impose new taxes. I would, especially more punitive ‘sin’ taxes on cigarets and alcohol ( I am a former heavy smoker and still a tippler) and impose efficiency-enhancing environmental taxes ( fuel prices in the Philippines are too low, especially from the standpoint of environmentalists) and lessen income taxes on the middle class.
But it is possible that Roxas will be the best in the field in 2010. And that is only because the Left, advocating a shorter path to poverty eradication and greater equality, doesn’t really have a significant constituency. Why not? I don’t really know but I will attempt to answer this later.
How much of a difference can Mar Roxas make? Not much, as the evidence marshalled by Steven Levitt shows. But it can, if you read it, especially the links in the comments, more carefully.

Chances are GMA is fantasizing

What is the price elasticity of demand for fantasy? I don't know, and neither does GMA. But I suspect it would depend on the kind of fantasy one is buying. But the president fears that raising the prices of lotto tickets might drive people to switch to illegal numbers games, which, I think, shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

Lotteries are technically mostly losing propositions for players, not because of the low probabilities of winning fantastic wealth, but because of the administrative costs and profit margins of the operators and the government take. Otherwise, the game would be fair, meaning the ticket price would be equal to the probability of winning multiplied by the pot. In the case of 6/42, where the chance of hitting the jackpot is one in 5,245,786 and not a million and one as reported here, the jackpot should be 52,457,860 if the choices are uniformly distributed and all the numbers are taken, for the expected value to equal P10. (Here I assume away the consolation prices as insignificant). But the PCSO guarantees only P3 million for this variant, which implies that at a minimum, the PCSO assumes that there are at least 545,454 fantasizers at the start of each 'game').

I have observed that the queues do get longer as the pot increases, but at a declining rate, which means that eventually the lottery becomes fair and perhaps, even a winning proposition. So people are not that dumb after all, as mainstream economics suggests, starting with the letdown that lotteries are a regressive tax on the innumerate.

Many years ago, I welcomed the articles of one Dean Jorge Bocobo in the pages of the Inquirer because he 'sounded' numerate and scientific, as opposed to many opinion writers whose only claim was the strength of their convictions and prejudices, until one day he wrote a feature on the lottery, betraying his lack of understanding of probability theory and statistics. Unfortunately, when I see him on TV these days, I get the impression he has retrogressed even further to the level of the pundits he used to criticize.

If the president were sincere in her concern for impoverished players of lotto, she would be more productive if she reduces admin and operating costs of the lottery and revisiting the contract with the private operator. But more importantly, she can also reform the funds allocation system of the PCSO. This is a difficult task, I imagine because these funds are under presidential discretion. But she can convince me if she relinquishes control and makes PCSO earnings part of general funds under congressional control.
(Disclosure: in 2005 I helped an acquaintance settle hospital bills through political connections, by accessing PCSO funds. His wife underwent expensive brain surgery. Though I would not classify him as poor, there was just no way he could foot the bill. But how many people are able to access such funds, especially if they don't have political connections?)
(Aside: It's funny that one Cris Remonde from Argao, Cebu was one of those protesting the PCSO move. He might be related to Cerge Remonde of the presidential management staff, tasked by Arroyo to discuss the matter with the PCSO.
So what are the benefits and costs of fantasizing? While economics can help, perhaps psychology can do better.
If President Arroyo fantasizes about leaving a legacy for the Philippines, the chance of that might be one in a billion, and she also might need professional help. Wanna bet?

Come to your census

Actually, the enumerators will come to you. In the fifteen years or more I've lived in Teachers Village West, I've never met any of the census enumerators. This is a very important matter for both the public and private sectors.

In the two times I could have been included in the censuses, the interviewers just left forms in the hole in the wall. Next time I meet them, I will even ask them to come inside the apartment because I myself have a number of questions to ask them as part of my own private surveys.

For example, the last time I looked at the NSCB figures, there were at most 5000 single male-headed households in Quezon City. Am I an outlier? Or within the norm of households headed by single males.

The enumerators in the latest survey can count on me to serve them coffee, at the very least. At most I will engage them in discussions on statistics and econometrics. At worse, I will serve them breakfast.

More than twenty years ago, my sister's shirt, suggesting population stats would be broken down by age and sex sounded funny. Because I'm already sixty seven, the slogan is no longer amusing.

Masinloc and Philippine power rates (1)

Except for the self-congratulatory releases from the energy bureaucracy, the response to the successful bidding of the 600-MW coal-powered Masinloc plant has been muted. At $ 930 million, the bid of Singapore-based and AES-led consortium was 50% more than the winning bid of YNN Pacific, which forfeited its rights after failing to pay the required downpayment last year. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) has divulged neither the bids of the five other bidders nor its reservation price. But its announcement did say that all the bids surpassed the latter. Some reporters revealed all the bids, but the figures have neither been confirmed nor denied. This is PSALM's release.
In the first round, all the competing bids were revealed to members of Congress whose various committees launched investigations in aid of one thing or another. But let’s get back to this later.

So, what would the sale, if concluded successfully, mean for the Philippine electricity consumer? The short and long answers are, it depends on how competitive the electricity markets in the country will really be in in both the medium and long term.

To understand the consequences for the consumer, we need first to understand how the privatization of NPC assets affects NPC rates in the short run. In the short short run, it won’t. This is because of the so-called regulatory lag, which delays warranted upward or downward adjustments in rates due to changed circumstances. But in the medium and longer term, my bet is the high valuation by the winning bidder presages higher rates, and not just higher rates, but higher rates based on higher profit margins for the new owner of the generation asset. (In nominal terms, there is no way but up for rates because of higher fuel prices based ultimately on world demand).

If the sale is concluded, then, before the end of the year, the new owners will be a new participant in the wholesale market. Most of its net revenues will depend on the market-clearing price and its operating costs----mainly variable or fuel costs. Let’s grant that the latter does play a role in the equation, because the new managers, with greater accountability to the new owners, have greater and more palpable incentives to reduce costs. But I find it difficult to imagine that the differences in the bids can be attributed to this factor. In my experience, the owners and managers of newly privatized power assets usually retain the technical personnel, whose bright ideas were just suppressed and ignored by a system lacking in incentives and accountability. The new owners don’t have an Einstein up their sleeve and even if they did, the other bidders would have had access to him or her, at the right price.

My guess is that the new owners can justify their high valuation or recoup their investmentsonly by exercising market power in the wholesale market. In the long run, this is not necessarily bad for the consumer. But in the the short and immediate periods, expect higher rates, but don’t blame me.

update on the travails of Philippine UNDP staff

Here's an update on the 'inaction' of the UNDP on complaints lodged against UNDP country director Noble. It seems all the New York office could do is acknowledge the problem. In the meantime, the Philippine staff are in limbo.

Help! Our prayers have been answered....

Last week, a top official of the Department of Science and Technology was on TV saying that if cloud-seeding efforts did not succeed in inducing rain to help fill our dams and inducing cooler weather, we could do nothing more but pray... A science official's resort to prayer doesn't really inspire faith.

Of course not everyone agrees on the power of prayer, as a US governor found out.

Now the rains have come. Although it is too early to say whether these will continue and alleviate the water and hydropower shortages, it is clear enough that heavy rains always come with the perennial consequences: flooding, traffic jams, lost school-days...

One of these days, our top officials, failing to sell the idea of emergency powers for the executive, might consult with a Norwegian princess on talking to angels. It is unfortunate that this member of the royalty proves that royalty can be such royal... By the way, Norway has a very sensible policy in managing it's oil resources, treating these as an endowment for all it's citizens instead of squandering these in the short term.

Greed's not always good

The raw assumption that economic agents are primarily motivated by selfishness has been refined in recent decades. Here is a recent study which illuminates motivations in human market interations. Scientific American Mind: Is Greed Good?
Economists are finding that social concerns often trump selfishness in financial decision making,a view that helps to explain why tens of millions of people send money to strangers they find on the Internet...

Clouds, now, from both sides

I’ve looked at clouds and the climate for over two decades and I must say the claims of our weather, energy, and science officials are a bit befuddling.

In the early 1990’s I was investigating the remote and immediate causes of the crippling power shortages, and observed that unseasonably bad weather inflicted a double whammy on power consumers in the Philippines. The less rain there was, the less hydroelectric power availability and thus the higher were electricity production costs. At the same time, less rain entailed higher ambient temperatures and thus greater demand for airconditioning. This is true for the whole country, and to all countries similarly situated. It is a double whammy indeed, for both supply and demand factors result in lower satisfaction at a much higher price.

From Nick Nichols I learned that Cyril del Callar of NPC had been quoted as saying that the current cloud-seeding operations were meant more to lower ambient temperatures, and thus lower airconditioning demand, rather than to increase the water levels in the dams of the hydropower facilities. Yet, the pronouncements of spokespeople of the departments of agriculture and of science of technology belie this. And so does the an article in the weekly newsletter of NPC, which clearly associates the cloud-seeding with attempts to elevate dam water levels.

I had a brief exchange with Cyril first to ask him whether there was any ‘optimal’ cloud-seeding effort level. Perhaps he did not appreciate the import of my question and said no. He said that in terms of NPC cash operations, the expenses were justified.

Now, if you follow me, why don’t we spend billions instead of a few million to induce rain? I am an advocate of science and economics and would thus suggest that government spend on cloud-seeding as much as and until the incremental costs exceed the marginal benefits. And, to my knowledge, we are far from there, although I need to study both the science and economics more thoroughly.

Incidentally, government spokesmen recently admitted that cloud-seeding operations could be concentrated on specific areas when clouds were favorable. That might buttress suspicions that government can exercise weather control to lessen attendance in poitical opposition rallies. Triple whammy!

Pacific GOODBYE

In the next few days, I expect Pacific Internet to give me an award for being such a dumb and lazy customer. And that would really be embarassing, as I take a personal and professional interest in competition policy. I confess: I stayed Pacific for five years even after knowing that in the last three, there were many better quality options and at much lower prices.

In economics, one explanation as to why prices do not really adjust as fast as costs (you will probably contest this) is what is called the ‘suki’ effect---prices are rigid upwards because merchants want to keep existing customers. But what I’ve found and illustrated is a perverse ‘suki’ effect. Customers take dung from their merchants and service providers until they become almost homicidal.

If you have the patience, read the following exchange between me and my ISP provider, and weep.

Dear Ms. Aimee Colangoy,

I am not sure if you responded at all to my note below because when I opened my pacific mailbox in the morning of August 1, your system no longer accepted my username and I could thus no longer log in to it. A check with the mail2web site confirmed that you had in fact deleted my pacific mailbox. Finally, I checked with your tech support and was told that my account had been 'terminated.'

I let some time pass before writing you because my initial reaction to the facts stated above was really anger and annoyance. A careful reading of my note below would suggest that I was still expecting a reaction or confirmation from you in regard to my wishes. Your own website says that "all requests for termination are subject for (sic) confirmation."

It is possible that you took my wish as imperative because perhaps you know from experience that many people just walk away from their 'terminal' bills after or just before signing on to an alternative service. In my case, I have an auto-debit arrangement with you and had no intention of simply walking away. Imagine my surprise therefore at your action. I had not even informed friends and associates about any change of e-mail address (although I do have another POP address, this is known only to a select few). This is not really an unremediable problem, though it is still annoying. What is really probably irremediable is that some people may have sent me mail on July 31 and their mail was accepted by my mailbox (and they thus did not receive any returned mail notifications) and I have lost access to such mail. Can this be remedied at your end? Of course I can always write to all my contacts and ask them to resend whatever they sent on July 31. But that is still annoying, isn't it? And what if there were e-mails which needed urgent responses?

So what do I do now? I asked one of your tech support 'engineers' to ask you to call me and explain what really happened. I now understand that your billings for excess usage are delayed two months. So what you might do is send me my final bill with the excess usage for June and July minus the disputed usage period, not as a matter of 'goodwill' as you mentioned in your earlier letter, but as a matter of fairness. You might also do the noble thing of just forgetting about those charges to compensate me for all the aggravation I have had to experience with your service. That would fit my definition of goodwill.

From my end , I have asked my credit provider to reject any billings from you. So, if you insist on collecting, I will just pay some other way after we can agree on a just and fair amount.

To be fair, your company is one of a few in the Philippines that are respectful enough to have customer service people who respond in writing to customer complaints. I do appreciate that, and hope that your management will invest in training letter writers to use better English. (For example, it should be : Thank you for your continued patronage of (not to) Pacific Internet).

Finally, let me assure you that I write not to insult or denigrate your efforts. I know you are trying your best to attend to the needs of customers. My beef is more with your management and perhaps the owners (if they really know what's going on) who insist on duping customers with an overpriced service and who do not seem to care if they continue to lose customers to competition which provides much higher quality at much lower prices. They seem to think Filipinos are dumb. I must admit I have been dumb and lazy for waiting this long to say goodbye.

I wish you luck and hope your managers really wake up.

viking logarta
----- Original Message -----
From: "viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>
To: <csg@pacific.net.ph>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: request for correction

> your letter is quite difficult to understand. Never mind. What I really also> want to do is to give up my account as soon as possible.> viking logarta> ----- Original Message -----> From: <csg@pacific.net.ph>> To: "viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:58 AM> Subject: Re: request for correction> > > > Dear Mr. Logarta,> >> > Good Day!> >> > This refers to your 31 July 2007 e-mail message regarding your> subscription> > for Pacific Internet account number 1000083476-5.> >> > Please be advised that we cannot pro-rate your August 2007 monthly> > subscription fee and adjust the May 2007 excess usage that was billed to> > your July 01, 2007 statement.> >> > For clients that experiencing problem in our connection or cannot log-on> we> > can only give bonus hours on top of the monthly plan, but if your records> > show that you have zero usage for that month that is the time that we can> > give reversal on the monthly subscription fee. For excess usage, we can> > reverse or adjust the excess usage if the account was hacked.> >> > The additional 5hours bonus will add on your Speed@ccess 10 hours Plan> > effective August 2007.> >> > We hope we have helped you with this information.> >> > Should you have further inquiries, please email us at <csg@pacific.net.ph>> > or call our Customer Care Center at 918-5100.> >Thank you for your continued patronage to Pacific Internet!Yours truly,Aimee Colangoy/Customer Service AssociatePacific Internet Philippines> >> > From:"viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>> > Sent:Jul 31, 2007 06:08 AM> > To:<csg@pacific.net.ph>> > cc:> > Subject:Re: request for correction> > I would really appreciate it more if you simply deducted the 5 hours from> > my> > August statement.> > viking logarta> >> >> > > Dear Mr. Logarta,> > >> > > A pleasant day to you!> > >> > > This refers to your 30 July 2007 e-mail message regarding your> > subscription> > > for Pacific Internet account number 1000083476-5.> > >> > > We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced lately> > > with our services especially with the internet connection and our> current> > > rates. We greatly appreciate your feedback as we constantly look for> new> > > ways to serve you better. Please be advised that your concerns and> > > suggestion were duly noted for proper handling. Rest assured that we> > will> > > look into this matter to ensure the high level of service you deserve> > from> > > Pacific Internet.> > >> > > Please be advised that your e-mail message has been re-evaluated and> > > approval has been granted as goodwill. We shall credit five (5) hours> to> > > your account for August 2007, which means you have total of 15 hours> > access> > > time for next month.> > >> > > We hope we have helped you with this information.> > >> > > Should you have further questions, please feel free to call our Customer> > > Care Center at 918-5100 (9AM-6PM, Monday to Friday) or email us at> > > csg@pacific.net.ph and we will be glad to assist you.> > >> > > Thank you for your continued patronage to Pacific Internet!> > >> > > Yours truly,> > >> > > Aimee Colangoy/Customer Service Associate> > > Pacific Internet Philippines> > >Dear madam/sir:> > >Thank you for alerting me about my excess usage, because it motivated meto access the record of my usage from your website. This is something Ihardly ever did because historically, I seldom ever exceeded the allotment under myplan.I write to inform you that starting on July 20, your services had been severely impaired because I could not access any websites and the only use I had for the connection was to access my pacific mail. I could not even access my other POP3 mail. I had to keep refreshing and logging out and in to see whether normal service had resumed. You can readily ascertain my claim from examining my usage log because I would dial up so many times in a day, something which is contrary to my usual behavior. Also, I simplyrefrained from logging in for a number of days out of sheer frustration (July 21-22).
I called up your technical support service early in the morning of July24 and was informed that your system had indeed been experiencing problemspartly as a result of heavy traffic because of your 'unlimited use'packages and partly because of connectivity problems with Bayantel. You can alsoascertain my claim because I had to dial up your Cebu access numberseveral times when I became desperate and lo and behold I could get normalaccess using that line, and incurring losng-distance charges! The problem persistedeven after I executed the suggestions of your 'engineer', which was tomanually enter the IP addresses. I could no longer reach your techsupport an hour later because your phone computer would say that your customerservice was closed on account of a 'holiday'. I was able to reach yourtech support again only on July 25 or 26 and after executing another set ofinstructions from another 'engineer', my access to websites had onlymarginally improved. To cut the long story short, it was only in themorning of July 28 that normal access to websites was restored.You would agree with me that is highly unfair and irregular for you tocharge regular rates for the usage when your system was not functioningup to par, and also considering that your rates are hardly competitive. Idon't even like the idea of having to write this request because I feel it isincumbent upon you to automatically adjust the billings in cases such asthis. Thus, I would appreciate it very much if you act on my request andreflect some adjustments in my August bill rather than have to wait fora reversal of charges after the fact. My total usage from July 20 to July27 sums up to 12.2 hours and it is up to you how to adjust this consideringthe problems I have mentioned.I await your prompt response.Sincerely yours,viking logarta> > >> > > p.s.> > >> > > Your letter informs me that excess usage is billed to the nearest> > 15-minute> > > block. When I examined my July bill however, I learned that you were> > > charging me the integer value of usage period in hours: INT(10.9)=10.> > Thus,> > > your claim as to your billing procedure is incorrect.>

Reyes: Energy is a political commodity

It is one thing to say that it requires great political skill to manage energy policy correctly and quite another to say that energy is a special political commodity, just because price movements can bring political unrest.

Since the deregulation of the downstream oil industry in the second half of the 1990’s (after a supreme court hurdle and a decision I found ignorant), petroleum products pricing has in the main been left to market forces. This is not to say that there is no market power being exercised by the major players. There clearly is, but I do not miss the days of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) and the associated subsidies, when prices were regulated and such regulations were hostage to political acceptability (including by coup plotters).

Just imagine if refined productc prices were still regulated now, with the P/$ exchange rate and the world price as these are now. I’m glad consumers---most of them anyway---are adjusting without taking to the streets. I dare say that even now, petroleum prices are lower than they would be if we considered the full impact of their use on the environment. If prices were still regulated today, the government would be heavily subsidizing oil prices and it would not be beyond the current administration to subsidize prices just to remain in power. This would have been disastrous as oil price subsidies generally benefit the richer sections of the population---regardless of the protestations of the misinformed sections of the Left.

Comes now the newly designated energy secretary, who candidly admits his only qualification to the post is that he is ‘full of energy.’ It is also likely that he is full of something else. It might also be true that he is indeed a fast learner and that thus far, he has not disappointed the appointing power. But if he indeed has the management experience and the IQ to manage difficult government departments, Reyes should have been appointed chief of PIGSA (Philippine Inter-Galactic Space Agency) which needs his skills.

The truth is that Malacanang has just been using him as a convenient football and kicking him to energy conveniently leaves the DENR post vacant for the former mayor of Manila, he I cannot name because I puke because of all his sanctimoniuous and false religiosity---although I might still puke even if the religiosity were sincere. The former mayor would have been more obviously incompetent in the energy post. This does not mean he would be good as environment secretary, or that Reyes would do so badly at the energy post, though this is laden with many challenges that even Lotilla was just beginning to appreciate. But we cannot fault Popo for leaving now. Popo deserves a rest, although the timing is not good, especially with the problems of power sector reforms not really close to resolution. (Manila Standard Today yesterday said Lotilla was fired. False).

Former energy secretary Geronimo Z. Velasco passed away a few days ago and his passing was publicly announced by an acquaintance at the PNOC. It might be that the man did the nation a great service. But comparisons are difficult because he managed the energy sector under radically different circumstances. And he had economic and political resources unimaginable at this time. Our sympathies to his family and friends.

New Inquirer columnists

I’m really glad the Inquirer continually upgrades its slate of columnists. Readers, at least those whom I interact with, had and have been complaining about the dominance of legal ‘experts’ and know it alls, including former justices of the high court with their sanctimonious and annoying catholic religiosity (I dare say that the Philippines cannot modernize without a fully secular Supreme Court).

The recent additions (never mind those whose space allocations have been diminished) are Mahar Mangahas of the Social Weather Stations and the Inquirer blogger John Nery. Both can attract more readers because they have more intelligent commentary and don’t insult readers with their laziness and outright dumbness.

Unfortunately, Mangahas could have been more circumspect and ethical instead of featuring what could easily be misinterpreted as a self-serving column in his inaugural column. (Disclosure: SWS is just a few hundred steps from my place and I have used its services in the past). Still, a more grounded analysis of social opinion is needed and Mangahas’s column will hopefully provide that. Also, his outfit can also probably provide more insights on how social opinions are shaped...

As for John Nery, all I can say is that he is diligent and provides a much-needed short-term institutional memory, sorely lacking in the country’s political scene.

I hope the Inquirer succeeds in stopping the decline of newspaper readership bedeviling all newspapers worldwide.

Also, I hope the producers of Manolo Quezon’s ANC program do something to spruce up the format of his ‘Explainer.’ It is easy to see the effort put into it but they should get more feedback and adjust. Otherwise, all the effort will be wasted. Last night’s on scams was useful but could have been designed much better.

Human Rights? Really?

I earlier misattributed this to my friend Robert Francis Garcia, who says the article is by Susan 'Toots' Ople

Our Times
How to pick up a pen from the floor

HOW does one pick up a pen that he or she accidentally drops to the floor? If it’s a woman, more often the man nearest to the pen picks it up and hands it over to its owner with a smile. If it’s a man, he just bends a bit or stoops (depending on his height) to pick it up. No big deal, right?
Apparently, not in the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office, if letters and complaints from aggrieved staff are to be believed. It seems the head of this office, a woman named Nileema Noble dropped her pen. A male staff who happened to be in the room when this happened was about to pick the pen from the floor. The lady boss motioned him to stop and proceeded to call out her secretary’s name. The secretary, who was seated in her desk outside the boss’ office, went in. She meekly picked up the pen from the floor and handed it to her boss. And this, my friends, is one particular example of how a UN official based in the Philippines prefers to pick up her pen.

I write this piece with malice towards none, but with a firm belief that all people – regardless of nationality – must treat people with respect. This is the foundation of decent work. Aware that the official being complained about has her rights, too, I promise her an equal right to rebut the information volunteered by her staff, through this column.

But first, here are the points raised by a group of Filipino staff members who recently sought the help of the Blas Ople Policy Center so that they could ventilate their grievances:

1. The head of the UNRC, without minimum courtesies as expected in any other organization, unceremoniously terminated two UN Staff, one, an assistant resident representative for operations, and the other, a UN coordination specialist. They were given only a few hours to leave the UN premises after they were sacked. Adding insult to injury, they were told that if they keep silent and don’t contest her decision to pre-terminate their contracts, they can have other opportunities to work within the UN system. However, if they talk, she will make sure they never get to work for the UN again.

2. The unpopularity of the UNRC head is reflected in the UNDP’s Global Staff Survey where she came out last among the UNDP resident representatives in terms of approval rating. She scored 43%, a much lower score than the global average of 60%. Majority of UN resident representatives in Manila received 90%+ in approval ratings.

3. UNRC personnel continue to be traumatized in her presence. For example, she would throw documents on the floor when she was angry and then order her secretary to pick them up for her. She would also go into a flying rage whenever someone argues or tries to correct her. On another occasion, she literally shook another staff that dared proffer an explanation during one of Mrs. Noble’s foul moods.

4. This dynamic has spilled over to implementation of various government-UN projects with the disbandment of project management staff offices to help bridge these projects. Several government implementing agencies were surprised to learn about the UNRC’s unilateral decision to change implementing partners without due process, disband project management offices even at the risk of affecting results and imposing new program realities despite earlier agreements reached with stakeholders.
These are just some of the complaints raised by a group of staffmembers who came to see me a few days before my column deadline. One of them, former coordination specialist, Robert Francis Garcia, said he has written the Department of Foreign Affairs, the UN Ombudsman and the rest of the UN Country Team members and the UNDP Headquarters in New York. He also gave me a copy of his letter.

In it, he wrote: "The Coordination Specialist position was designed to assist the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRC or simply RC, officially the highest-ranking UN position in a country) in harmonizing work among various UN agencies. The post as vacated successively by two other people (the first one, temporarily). I won’t hazard a reason for their premature departure, though it is particularly telling that people under Nileema’s watch are leaving in droves. More than 20 people have left the UNDP since she came, and counting. I also cannot speak in their behalf, but I can speak from my own experience."
"Tolerance and understanding are basic human values. They are essential for international civil servants, who must respect all persons equally, without any distinction whatsoever. This respect fosters a climate and a working environment sensitive to the needs of all. To achieve this in a multicultural setting calls for a positive affirmation going well beyond passive acceptance." [Article 6 of the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service, The United Nations Ombudsman’s Office.]"

"There was never an instance when she did not raise her voice. The surreal "meeting" (when he learned he was being sacked) on May 4 was not unusual – it was a daily occurrence with Nileema."
I am convinced that the staff members who came to see me are telling the truth. I hope that the United Nations look into their complaints. The Department of Foreign Affairs could also help by calling the attention of the UNRC on how our nationals should be treated. We talk about protection for Overseas Filipino Workers. Here at home, we must be just as passionate in protecting the rights of our own workers.

Sometimes a simple gesture speaks volumes about the humanity of a person. So tell me, how do you pick up your pen from the floor?

Something fishy? Maybe not...

I don’t know if the fish vendors in Minglanilla were just pulling my hair, but when I asked them where the mall-mall in the market came from, they answered ‘just there,’ meaning just off Cebu island. For so many years, seafood in Cebu markets were claimed to have come from neighboring Bohol, where the descendants of Dagohoy thrive and are not only gentler and brighter, but are also not arrogant like Cebuanos. Maybe the vendors were telling the truth to my tortured face. Maybe some good things are being done to restore the productivity of Cebu marine life. Maybe the efforts of Tony Oposa and the deceased Mario dela Victoria are really paying off.

Actually, it is not so difficult to imagine, especially if government gets the incentives right and enforces the rules. In a recent BBC documentary, the heroic efforts of dela Victoria, Tony, and Mayor Osmena were acknowledged. I hope this is not a mirage induced by bacteria from the fish, shrimps, squid, and crabs I ate during the visit. When I was a grade schooler in the sixties, the waters off Talisay were teeming with all kinds of marine life, from jelly fish and all sorts of molusks, and shallow water fish. And then the feces and other waste from the exploding population in the city drifted to where we used to swim and cavort in the water.

By the way, when you are in Cebu, you should try out the fare at ZONE360 in Grill Avenue on Mango avenue. It is operated by friends, but my judgment is not clouded even if they served me free wine and lechon Cebu .

'extra-judicial killings'

You have to give it to the intrepid Ricky Carandang of ANC. He always manages to interview the most unlikely guests, and last night’s were truly exceptional: Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna. Listening to the justices reassured me that the judicial branch has at last and at least have been seized by the problem of extra-judicial killings, actually an inappropriate phrase since we no longer have the death penalty, and for good reason, and thus we cannot have judicial killings. The two justices were only being diplomatic in refraining from publicly castigating the two other branches---especially the executive---for their inaction and perhaps, even complicity in the murders and disappearance of political activists. Our alleged president would not have shown any concern had not human rights organizations mobilized international opinion on the spate of killings and disappearances. One can only wish that the supreme court had the power to fire justice secretaries, because the one we have does not know the meaning of shame.

Azcuna enlightened mewith a discussion of the Minnesota protocol, where, if the victims are last seen with military or state agents, it is the burden of the latter to explain and extricate themselves. After all, it is the state which is supposed to have a monopoly of the gun. This protocol becomes more relevant in the case of a government which has taken Donald Rumsfeld’s logic: the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Thus, the state can arrest you, torture you, and bomb other countries to kingdom come on mere suspicion of terrorist inclinations.

I don’t know if the justices volunteered to be interviewed, but if they did, they chose the interviewer well. Carandang is competent, prepares well in advance, and has exemplary interviewing skills. More likely it was he who approached them and the justices could not refuse. In any case, the interview was to bring attention to this Monday’s summit on extra-judicial killings and one can only hope it succeeds.

Also yesterday, Conrad de Quiros discussed his frustrated search for the movie ‘Missing’ which affected me too. It was played not too long ago in one of the cable movie channels. I think it is available from the many movie websites abroad.

And before I forget, I really appreciated The Big Picture’s interview with the officials of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and former economic planning secretary Felipe Medalla on problems with the estimates of GDP growth. Unfortunately, this was not carried intelligently by the national papers. Among the respectable columnists, only Ciel Habito mentioned the problem and the discussion but he did not have the space for a satisfying follow-up. ( I asked my niece Charo Logarta whether she found the latest estimates credible and her response was to the effect that these were not estimates but ‘actual’ figures as she understood them from a press conference. I had to remind her that figures based on a survey or sample should be treated as estimates.)

I will say my piece on these issues some other time.

where in the world is pablo john garcia

Living in a hole in the wall in Quezon City is hardly the ideal way to live but I find living in Metro Manila notches higher than in Cebu, where the parochialism and pettiness is magnified many times over. In Cebu where I’m from, the Cebu City mayor and the governor are locked in battles over so many petty issues and many important ones (garbage, transport, education, environmental issues, water). But do they know the difference? While I generally side with the governor on the issues, I still find her petty and barriotic and onion-skinned.

I used to be able to claim friendship with one of the governor’s brothers. Pablo John, bright, humble when I pretended to know him, with a way with language, and an unsurpassed sense of (self-deprecating; that is the best kind of humor) humor. I wonder where Pablo John is now and whether he is starting to take himself too seriously, which would be the end of hunor.

I would like to imagine Pablo John making fun of the way the governor and her advisers are running the province. He can and could always use his formidable IQ against his former client when drunk or sleeping or any combinaton of the two states. Were he in some other and fundamentally different set of circumstances, Pablo would poke fun in original ways and there is no lack of subjects to poke fun at. Cameras monitoring the demeanor of employes, the Fuente park, ‘outlawing’ frowns, etc. I admit not knowing the details of policies which can be the butt of jokes and insults but let’s grant the governor is right on every issue. I would still miss Pablo’s humor brought to bear on them and his relatives.

Right after I learned he won the contest in Cebu’s third district, I naughtily sent him a message: “Cebuano voters voted for you, your dad, and your sister because they found your anti-dynasty program compelling.” His response was to the effect that only people with mediocre minds and who are unelectable would harbor such a view. True, but not absolutely.

I am disgusted with Joe DV and I wish the elder Garcia can wrest control of the House. And I am being Filipino, not a Cebuano, and least of all being friendly to Pablo John. But as a Filipino, let me say I miss Pablo John’s humor and warmth. And most of all I wish he’ll do well in the House.

Cheap Phil Corporations 2: PAL

Philippine Airlines

In the nineties some friends used to joke about the pre-landing announcement of Vietnamese Airlines which went something like this: “Comrades, we are landing, immediately!” It was just the culture and there was no emergency landing by a Harrier jet, or worse, a crash.

More civil airlines usually had and still have much longer and graceful announcements advising passengers of safety regulations and other flight information. But what got my goat was the PAL pilots’ advice that ‘our flying time will take us approximately X hours and Y minutes. Having been the OC I was (and still am), I would write notes on napkins meant for the flight staff saying “either you say ‘ the flight is approximately X hours and Y minutes’ or ‘flight time is around X hours and Y minutes.’ About ten years ago I finally heard the announcement said correctly and wrote a complimentary note to the staff. Just before disembarking, I was approached by the graceful chief flight attendant who gave me a complimentary fruit basket.

But on a recent flight from Cebu to Manila, yikes, the pilot made the dreaded and jarring announcement. As I was conversing with a fellow traveler, I had no time to write but this is what I should have and would have written as a suggestion: ‘Our flight time is sufficient for you, dear passengers, to think of creative ways to torture us ala Jack Bauer, or insult us into speaking correct English.’

In the so-called age of information technology and the alleged productivity and time-saving procedures for customers, PAL gives us the option to reserve and purchase tickets electronically through the internet. But then, after paying by credit card, the airline still requires you to go to a ticket office and secure a hard copy of your electronic ticket. The whole procedure really is moronic.

I remember that in the nineties, way before internet transactions, I could make a reservation by phone, be given a booking number, and allowed to pay by ATM, and use the ATM receipt as the flight ticket at the airport counter. Ahhh, progress is so slow, and sometimes it even goes backward.

But there are some good things to be said about PAL, especially the check-in staff. I was supposed to pay some amount because my checked baggage weighed twice the ‘free’ allowance. But as I was able to espy friends who had some allowance to spare, the PAL staff arranged usage of the excess allowance without incident and efficiently. But the airport check-in computers are so slow you could have a massage while in line.

(Here’s an aside. I told one of my friends that availing of his baggage allowance would have the effect of lowering GDP figures for the year but lead to an increase in human happiness in Philippine society. Think about that and the limitations of GDP as a measure of social welfare. We can be kinder to our fellows and GDP would be lower. And I can think of so many ways GDP can be higher and people poorer. Believe me, I’m a lifelong student of economics).

Cheap multi-billion dollar Philippine Corporations:PLDT

It bothers me that one of the multibillion-dollar Philippine corporations and that is a market bellwether doen’t respect its customers enough to maintain friendly and clear websites. Worse, those who maintain the sites murder the queen’s English with instructions to the effect that they wouldn’t process your application if you don’t give them all the required ‘informations.’ But they do assure you that the ‘informations’ you provide would be treated confidentially.

I had concluded that I was getting a very bad deal from Bayantel for landline services and Pacific for the internet, especially after reading MyDSL ads of PLDT (print ads which did not give any number to call). So I visited the PLDT DSL website and behold and lo, it was such a taxing experience. For one, it was only then I found out that you would first have to have an existing PLDT landline to avail of the promo DSL rate, when the impression you get from the ads was that the rate covered both. I was referred to another site to apply for a landline. But this site also wasn’t clear about the overall package cost! And the websites don’t provide phone numbers for those who’ve lost patience after unsuccessfully navigating around them for useful ‘informations.’ PLDT prides itself as a world-class communcations company. This really makes me puke. I wonder if Mr. Pangilinan even knows the ‘informations’ I require. I feel like putting all the ‘informations’ about my ‘frustrations’ and sticking them up his ‘informations’ highway. The truth is, the whole experience just gave me ‘indigestions.’

Are Men Necessary?

ARE MEN NECESSARY?
(When Sexes Collide)
Maureen Dowd

(Berkley, 2005, 338 pp; $15)



When Maureen Dowd first ‘googled’ her name in the internet, she claims, the first return was a video of her giving Bill Clinton a job, probably because her coverage and commentary on Clinton’s impeachment and trial over the Monica Lewinsky affair were what clinched the Pulitzer for her in 1999, and she was perceived as critical of the deranged and hypocritical Ken Starr. But her ascerbic columns on the Bush dynasty and the stupid Republicans were what really caught my attention four or five years ago.

In ‘Are Men Necessary’ I am a bit disappointed but I had been forewarned. In her introduction she dowsed expectations with the usual warning that she was going to raise questions but did not necessarily have answers. To be fair, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because the questions she raises are questions I also ask, as a man with doubtful claims as a feminist.

What strikes me as most relevant at this time is her ambivalence over Hillary and Bill. Although she castigates them both for their failings, and the latter for her betrayal of feminist principles and aspirations for pragmatic and other political aims, her liberal bias still shines through, and her bias is my bias too. If I understand Dowd, she would still probably prefer Hillary winning against the Republicans in 2008, although the timeframe in the book excludes the dawn and rise of Obama.

One thing which really confuses me about the dilemma over principles vs. pragmatism is that the opposing forces never really make their priorities clear, although the clash implies that there has to be a prioritization of principles which one holds dear and that pragmatism merely means that one gives up lower principles over higher ones, at any particular time. In practice, however, one may appeal to the lowest common denominator to get the support of a plurality or a majority to implement a common agenda.

The only solution I can propound at the moment is that ‘principles’ held by individuals and groups may not really be internally consistent and it will take some time to sort them out.

Take for example, Dowd’s plaint against the aspiration of western feminists to be ‘equal’ to men only to later find out that what men wanted was not worth it (at) all. For when the doors were opened, many actually opt to stay home as their version of fulfillment.

In the political sphere, the Philippines can superficially be called more advanced than the U.S. because we have already had two women presidents while there is still a ‘macho’ bias in the U.S. Dowd covered the campaign of Geraldine Ferraro for the vice presidency and recounts the experience in the book, from which I learned a lot of the details.

Yet, the Philippines remains an obviously backward country in terms of equality between genders. Even the so-called Left political parties---especially the party-list parties---are hesitant to advocate genuine divorce laws out of fear of the backlash from the Catholic church, of which many of them still swear allegiance to., and which is why the Philippines still remains as backward as ever. Obviously, gays and lesbians, according to segments of the Philippine Left, don’t belong in hell. But women who escape from unhappy marriages and abusive husbands do. And that is pragmatism.

More Sex is Safer Sex (and also maybe better)

More Sex is Safer Sex
The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
Steven E. Landsburg

(Free Press, 2007, pp 274; PhP1170 at fully booked)


Expectedly, Landsburg got a lot of hate mail for the lead essay in this collection from readers who misinterpreted it as advocating promiscuity. It does not. What it does is use economic theory to argue that if responsible individuals shy away from the casual sex market, it leaves that market with a greater proportion of individuals with more risky behavior, and thus increase the risk for other people of contracting HIV.

Landsburg, who writes a popular column (Everyday Economics), is one of a few economists who believe that the world would be a much better place if the findings (and also the methods) of economics had a wider audience, and who act on that belief. He does a good job explaining these findings because he refrains from using economics jargon. He succeeds because he is a good writer, and he is a good writer because he is a clear thinker, though he falters in some instances. (Why he appreciates Scrooge).

The main reason I appreciate Landsburg is that he painstaking explains a key concept in economics without ever using the technical term (externality). As a perpetual student and practioner of environmental economics, I am often frustrated with people who don’t understand the idea, because I am a distance removed from the clear thinking of people like Landsburg.

But back to sex, which is probably why you are my accidental reader. To my knowledge, the AIDS scourge is already contained in the Philippines, but I could be wrong and the health authorities could be lying, or maybe the entrepreneurs of the sex industry here might really be more responsible. (Hey, I’m no expert on the sex industry and I’ve never had sex with a prostitute). But the main assertion in the essay holds, regardless. Certainly such ideas would raise the hackles of ‘respectable’ citizens in a morally challenged and hypocritical Catholic country such as ours. But wait, Landsburg refrains from discussing morality, but recognizes that moral values do matter.

In another essay, he could also be misinterpreted as supporting the Catholic church’s position on birth control in the essay “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” He argues that a larger world population would be good for all of us, but he doesn’t necessarily argue that governments (especially in the developing countries) should not spend tax money educating poor households on the merits of birth control and responsible parenthood).

Readers who enjoyed Freakonomics would probably enjoy this book. But they should know that there is a limit to how much economists would reveal the secrets of their profession, because after some limit, they would start to make themselves dispensable. And they would not generally want to cross that line.

The ‘more sex’ idea is not really his but that of Michael Kremer, a Harvard economist, who did the rigorous analysis and reported the results in “Integrating Behavioral Choice into Epidemiological Models of the AIDS Epidemic” in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.


I bought a copy as a wedding present for a very good friend. Books generally make for unimaginative and inappropriate wedding presents, but not in this case. My friend Ben Endriga not only is a good economist and pianist, he would also most likely enjoy reading the lead essay.

Glassner's Gospel of Food

The Gospel of Food
(Everything you think you know about food is wrong)
Barry Glassner

(Ecco, 2007, 285 pp; $25.95)


It is probable that Glassner must have had some heated exchanges with his editor and publisher over the book’s title, motivated, no doubt, to spark interest and sales. It is also possible he was a willing conspirator. Unfortunately, it does somewhat diminish his credibility on his avowed objective, which is to stimulate a critical attitude toward commonly held beliefs (and myths) about food. To promote one’s own gospel, therefore, contradicts that very aim.

Nevertheless, it is not a fatal flaw, especially if readers take the book seriously and enjoy it besides. One main beef of the author, who teaches sociology at the University of Southern California, is that the obsession with healthy eating has taken the fun out of it, and eating without enjoying, according to a study he cites, actually impedes the body’s intake of nutrients!

Since this is the first book of his that I’ve read, I cannot say whether he has a good grasp of statistical methods and thus, whether his informal surveys of clinical studies are accurate, though I must concede that some of his assertions seem intuitive. But that is precisely the problem; many findings of science run counter to intuition.

He asserts, for instance, that many studies in regard to the health benefits of specific diets (what is in and what is out of them) and other habits have ambiguous results, but he hastens to add that the ill effects of smoking are robust. That seems fairly safe as a tentative conclusion.

These days, when we are bombarded with information and conflicting claims---from the safeness of Metro Manila tap water to the alleged benefits of infant formula and virgin coconut oil---we sometimes feel helpless about how to evaluate information and when to say which is real knowledge ( and this is a recurring theme of my blogs). The only antidote to our insecurities is a critical and scientific outlook (which might also tend to increase our insecurities), regardless of how ‘post-modernist’ outlooks cast doubt on science. But we all act on the basis of what we hold to be true, which is why we don’t jump from cliffs while believing some god who loves us will protect us from the ill effects of gravity.

The book does have revelations which may be taken at face value. My favorite is one which defines natural flavoring ‘additives’, a contradiction in terms but one which is exploited by food manufacturers. The US Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavor and natural flavoring as meaning that:

“the essential oil oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any [product of roasting,heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit jiuce, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”


And yet, we pay so much at the supermarket when we read “natural”!

I learned about Glassner’s book from Michael Shermer’s column (The Skeptic) in Scientific American earlier this year and my brother Bobby was kind enough to buy and send me a copy.

Read, drink, and enjoy. That is one point that’s difficult to argue with, unless you are a firm believer in the gospel of abstention.

Milking the breasts

I really hate to milk the issue but the controversy over government regulatory power over commercial interests in regard to the Milk Code does trigger paranoia over which of the sides enjoyed longer breast feeding during childhood. Don’t get me wrong. I have always been a great admirer of breasts and the nutritional value these have been proven to produce, though I am open to the possible criticism, especially from the likes of Peter Wallace, that I was deprived of the nutrients at the formative stages of my life.

Raul C. Pangalangan dealt with the fundamental legal issues in his column in Friday’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (June 22). Perhaps I had enough of my mother’s milk to judge that his arguments were generally cogent. Since I am not a lawyer and since I generally hate lawyers, let me move on to the other important issues.

The infant formula companies say they are only protecting free speech rights and thus the right of citizens to information (oops, this I also parrot from Pangalangan’s version of the issue; however his is consistent with the version of Solita Monsod’s, in her column, also in the PDI, June 16.

First of all, let me say that the advertising that is sought to be banned or regulated benefits not only the cause of the advertisers but also the media of advertising. Which is why I do appreciate the efforts of the local media ( the PDI and ANC) to present a balanced picture.

As an example, yesterday I chanced upon the episode of Korina____(I don’t really know how the program is called; all I remember is that it goes by some title and teasers like ‘flavors of the month’ which makes you wonder if the program producers were breast-fed themselves; but I digress).

The first part of the program featured the side of government and non-government organizations promoting infant and mother health. The second part guested Wallace and the lawyer for the infant formula companies. The conlcuding portion presented a lawyer for the UNICEF. Fairly balanced except that there were questions of fact the producers could have resolved by themselves. Well, we can always blame that on lack of time of resources. But that is exactly the point. How do most of us get information? And how do we know which if the so-called claims are right? And we feel we get ‘information’ overloead, are we really equipped to evaluate conflicting claims?

Citizens elect governments partly to help them evaluate all sorts of claims they themselves have no time to validate because validating information, while useful, has benefits less than the cost of doing so. Which is why communities need to cooperate in regard to common problems.

Having worked on issues on energy and the environment for almost three decades, the issue at hand has consequences way beyond the issue of milk, which I milk for other ends.

I will write about these at a later date, but let me give you a preview. How do we address climate change? Is it a problem at all? Should we believe all that the ‘scientists’ and lawyers say? Now in another age of other stupendous claims on additives and biofuels, I believe the problem of information vetting persists. Doesn’t every claim somehow mask a ‘vested’ interest?

Way back during the time of martial law, one of the first edicts of the dictatorship was to ban claims about fuel additives, later to be proven to be mostly unfounded. The overthrow of the dictator brought us to another end of the extreme. Where are we now?

Problem Solved!

Missing Maguindanao certificates of canvass found
By JAMES MANANGHAYA
The Philippine Star


Who will give Mr. James Mananghaya a reward and what does he intend to do with these documents?

energy self-reliance(2)

After that brief critique of Dr. Viray’s review of Geronimo Velasco’s book, I’ve decided to write more on energy self-reliance. This time it’s coal.

Back in 1993 when I attended some discussions on the further lifting of quantitative restrictions and the lowering of tariffs for coal, the spokesmen for the local coal industry, as expected, presented the local industry as a champion of its workers. In diplomatic language, I would point out that local coal workers actually were not only underpaid but also faced very hazardous working conditions. Suffice it to say that coal mine explosions were not rare, especially in Cebu mines controlled by a northern warlord. How diplomatic could one be in saying such arguments were shameless.

The other argument was energy security. In a paper I wrote for an NGO (Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao) also in 1993, on the Apo geothermal development where I looked at the comparative air pollution impacts of the power options for Mindanao and the country, I argued that we could always close local coal mines but make provisions for reopening them when the need arose. That was because, at the time, the tariff protection for the industry was so high and was more than sufficient to make local coal workers rich and also to substantially lower costs for the coal plants at the time. The paper’s assertions were supported with calculations using data from the NPC itself.

Perhaps nowadays, local coal may have improved its position vis-avis imported coal because of some simple technological developments and the rising price of crude oil, but I think the arguments I made are still relevant.

When will Jon Stewart quit?

Watching Jon Stewart sometimes is one of the high points of my day, partly because he refuses to move on and persists in exposing the international scandal that is Iraq, and also because his irreverence is almost limitless--- though I must admit I cannot possibly be sure of that.

One other reason is that he features many thought-provoking authors (especially agnostics, skeptics, and atheists). The most recent was Allan Brandt (The Cigarette Century) who was especially relevant for me because I’m trying to stop for the nth time. I had not known that the number of smokers continues to grow even with the declining numbers in the United States and Europe. And that is because there is still a mine to be gold-mined, the developing world, especially China and India. (Shame on the members of the Philippine House of Representatives who watered down the law meant to increase cigaret taxes three years ago.)

I had almost succeeded in quitting and had been off for more than two months in 1997 if not for a phone conversation I had with the chair of the Energy Regulatory Board at the time over the phaseout of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund as part of the Oil Deregulation law. He was so exasperating I lit one cigaret and a pack three hours after we hung up. As I had been on nicotine gum, my heart started to palpitate and my neighbor volunteered to bring me to a hospital. Luckily my blood pressure stabilized but I continued to be an addict.

The other episode I saw recently was the one where Stewart criticized the media for its mindless coverage of Paris Hilton, when CNN ‘felt’ it had to cut away from a press conference with US defense secretary Gates and joint chiefs chair Pace just to cover Paris’s trip back to prison. Stewart characterized the frenzy as similar to the Black Nazarene procession in Quiapo, Manila. Paris was the Nazarene, he said.

Energy Self Reliance: Viray vs. Velasco

It was with keen interest that I read Dr. Francisco Viray’s review/critique of Mr. Geronimo Velasco’s most recent book on the quest for ‘energy self-reliance’. I must confess I haven’t yet read this book; but I’ve read a much earlier tome by the same author and on the same theme published in the late 70’s.

Viray’s critique---for that is how it should be called---highlights the recurring theme of the proper role of the state in the energy sector, and for that matter, in ‘leading’ sectors of the economy. The quotation marks are motivated by an appreciation of the fact that people tend to think that their sector is always major or leading.

Let me say now that I think that there are major points that Viray really misses. Unfortunately. But let me say too that Velasco’s so-called insights are drivel.

(Allow me this long parenthetical note. Just recently, an analytical report emanating from the Department of Budget and Management urged an urgent review of the Department of Agriculture’s food security objective, saying it was too costly and more to the point, misdirected. It is a point I agree with generally for I have yet to see any evidence that the subsidies really benefit rice farmers and that the tariff protection did not serve only to benefit favored rice importers.

Insofaras the energy sector is concerned, I was really surprised that during a lecture I was privileged to attend, the prominent American energy economist William Hogan made the case that energy should, in the main, be treated as just another commodity for which all social costs should be reflected. He was lamenting the fact that the United States government (or more precisely all American taxpayers) was paying for a very expensive political and defense policy, especially in the Middle East, for which the cost was distributed in a way which did not actually reflect consumption. Think about the war in Iraq! In effect, a private good was being treated as a public good. If the objective were only to address temporary shocks or supply disruptions, one could rely on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and charge inventory costs to taxpayers, said.

In his critique, Viray expresses agreement with the objective of ‘self-reliance’ but protests ‘political intervention’ in the affairs of government corporations in the energy sector. Is he saying that the state should give the corporations and the managers the resources and then leave them to their own devices? I think not, for Viray is too intelligent not to know about general political direction and accountability. Mysteriously, Viray speaks of a political context or environment and seems to say that experts (so-called) are always constrained by democratic principles. (I protest dictatorship only if I am not the dictator).

But let us first tackle ‘self-reliance,’ an objective with which he is in agreement with Velasco. Former experts at the corporate planning department of the National Power Corporation and other Philippine energy researchers will surely tell us that this objective is not without costs. Hydro, geothermal, local coal, natural gas etc. are not really the cheapest sources of electric power in any line-up of options. In other words, the objective has imposed and still imposes a cost in addition to lower cost options. I would have no problem with that for as long as these additional costs are properly explained and decided on in the political arena.

Of course, there is a sense in which I am totally in agreement with Dr. Viray. And that is if ‘political’ exclusively meant intervention in the day-to-day management of government corporations in the energy sector and in total disregard of performance and professional management principles. Even Velasco cannot disagree with that but...

Viray quotes Velasco on the fact he (Velasco) was forced to diminish protection for the local coal industry because of the structural adjustment program impositions, mainly of the World Bank and the IMF. As a persistent socialist and qualified nationalist, I would be among the first to protest multilateral impositions; but not when these are essentially correct. I can protest the fact of the imposition but defend its essence. It is a matter of integrity. I can say the ‘enemy’ is absolutely correct in some regard.

Who am I to write all of the above? (Read on).

A year after graduating from the University of San Carlos with a degree in chemical engineering, I joined the National Power Corporation as a chemical analyst for one of the first two power (diesel) barges in the Philippines, anchored in Cebu, in 1991. At the time Secretary Velasco was considered as a god of sorts. We had had training for almost a month when his chopper landed on the premises in Naga just as a super-barge unloaded the power barge straight from Japan.

In the same year I was hailed to the Visayas regional security office of NPC for having spoken at a rally against the notorious Amendment 6, which eventually allowed the dictator to rule by decree even after he had allowed the election of a national assembly in 1978. My interrogator was menacing and a real menace.

In my very short period with the NPC, where I was also assigned to the fuels laboratory serving the first NPC coal power plants (from Romania) I was exposed to all the corruption in procurement. I and another engineer were asked to sign an acceptance report for a hypochlorination plant for the cooling water requirements of the coal plant. We both refused.

Which brings me to this point. How can we assess people like Velasco, who continue to assert virtue?


Later, I joined the Ministry of Energy with the encouragement of someone who had been with the old communist party (but who had been expelled) as still a lowly bureaucrat with the Bureau of Energy Utilization in the Visayas.

In the same year, I was invited by the National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) for a ‘meeting’ which was actually an interrogation. The agents showed me pictures of protest demonstrations and asked me to explain. At the same time, in the same compound, my girlfriend who happened to work in the same office was also being interrogated in the same compound. Her interrogator was opposite her on a swing, ‘persuaiding’ her to inform on me.

I am sure many Filipinos have similar stories. What should make them special is the willingness and capacity to tell us these now so we will not Velasco and others who came after him escape an accounting.

What follows is Viray's review of Velasco's new book.


It is a dilemma to critique a book authored by someone I worked for and admire as a person but with whom I disagreed with in major policy decisions during my term as Secretary of Energy under the Ramos administration. I can either end up defending myself—which will be construed as a biased critique—or avoid a debate on policy decisions by simply citing the differences in governance during his time and my time. However, such simplistic review would ignore the significance of the management approach and policies that helped the accomplishments cited in the book, which I completely agree with. Not because I worked for the author for some time, but because I was very much involved in the energy industry during my academic career at the University of the Philippines during the Marcos administration.

The book is a good treatise on how to manage government corporations, most especially in the energy industry, which is critical to the life of a country’s economy and the well being of its citizens. The story on Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), Petron, and National Power Corporation (Napocor) showed that the state has to insulate from political intervention the energy industry’s government corporations if it wants them to accomplish their mission in the interest of national security and price affordability, and if it wants corporations to act as catalyst to support policies on energy development and management. The admission of the author that he would not have done the things he had done without Martial Law attests to this statement (48, 78). He can even get away with so-called anomalous Memorandum of Agreements (141) at the time. Moreover, the success of Petron from which the author inherited personnel with a private culture of efficiency and merit-based recognition compared to the lesser success of Napocor, which was a government corporation from the start, is another testament (140-41).

While I agree that the best way to influence the behavior of players in the market is for government to play a significant role through a full ownership of Petron and Napocor, such role can only be played if it is allowed to be run professionally and freed from political intervention and removed from the rules and regulations of government hiring, salary structures, procurement procedures, and the like (17-19, 205). Note: A lot of good people at Napocor left when it was placed under the Salary Standardization Law of the government.
The mere fact that when the Department of Energy was reinstituted in 1992, Congress inserted a provision whereby the budget of PNOC and Napocor had to be approved by Congress proves that insulating energy corporations from political intervention is easier said than done. Imagine Petron’s budget passing through Congress, its crude oil procurement done through government bidding procedures (19), or Petron being asked by government to subsidize oil prices during periods of crude oil increase just like what was mandated for Napocor. Under our version of a democracy and its resultant political environment, Petron will be bankrupt by now and will thus fail in its obligation that the author stated: “It [Petron] was the most profitable government corporation and thus a valuable source of revenues for government. More important, Petron performed a unique role in stabilizing local oil prices” (177). The author recognized that he could not have insulated Petron from political intervention and government rules and regulations if it were not for Martial Law (29).

I submit that the privatization of Petron and the oil deregulation law are the right policies under the current political environment, but I agree with the author that the government must strengthen its regulatory powers and exercise it to the fullest. Deregulation does not mean no regulation but re-regulation. For starters, one advantage of deregulation would be that all service stations, not only of Petron, would have clean toilets (168).

Congress needs to pass an anti-trust law so that it can strengthen its regulatory mandate in liberalized and deregulated markets. Even if the government has only a 40 percent share in Petron, this can still be used as a policy instrument and exert influence in pricing. However, government would need political savvy in addition to management acumen.

The author admits that during his term, everybody followed Petron when it set the price (194). The same happens in a deregulated environment: Everybody follows the lowest price setter, hence the “same price” situation still prevails, but that same price is the lowest price set by the most efficient. While one is always free to accuse the foreign companies of collusion, I do not think that Petron is a party even with Saudi Aramco as a foreign partner. Otherwise, government itself, which has equal vote in the board, will be a party to a cartel, which it wants to prevent—an irony in its highest degree. The privatization model of Petron achieves the twin objectives of insulating it from political intervention and performing its role as “a potent policy instrument” vis-à-vis major oil industry players.

To be able to perform its role well, Petron had to be financially stable, efficient, and able to compete; but this is possible only if it is insulated from political intervention. Given the current political climate, its privatization, with government retaining 40 percent and the public 20 percent, is the best decision that was made by the Ramos administration.

Likewise, the Philippine Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), for all its shortcomings, is a step in the right direction. The government has no money to put into the required expansion program of the power sector, and with political intervention Napocor cannot generate its cash counterpart requirements for the projects (136). Lower interest loans are offset by inefficiency and political interference. EPIRA is a developmental process and the issue of cross-ownership prohibition must come at the right time. For this, government must be constantly at attention to monitor developments on monopolistic behavior. National Transmission Corporation, for instance, must be privatized like the Petron model. It must not be entrusted completely in the hands of the private sector, even in a concessionaire model of privatization.

The author failed to mention that our independent power producer contracts are, in reality, not IPP contracts in the strictest sense, but are Build-Operate-Transfer contracts (a policy embodied in Republic Act [RA] 6957 and RA 7718) wherein the assets will be transferred to the Napocor after the cooperation period. As such, the payments made due to the “take-or-pay” contract, whether used or not, are payments for the capital assets and not for unused fuel or coal because Napocor supplies the fuel. Note that the author’s word is “whether or not the organization needed” (155) instead of used, to which I disagree with because at the time the take-or-pay volume were contracted out, they were based on forecast and therefore were “needed” in the future as forecasted at that time. Unlike a straightforward IPP, the facilities are not transferred to the buying party. So in the BOT projects, payments made if the plants are not used is not wasted because the assets will eventually be owned by Napocor.

Lastly, to say that the post-Marcos administration did not have a comprehensive energy development plan is a sweeping statement. I would like to take exception for the Ramos administration for which I was the Secretary of Energy from September 1994. In fact, the plans and programs of the Ramos administration were built on the achievements mentioned in the book; and the policies, objectives, and basic thrusts were basically maintained (208). Policies on the development of indigenous energy resources and renewable energy and energy conservation were continued. We pursued the implementation of the Malampaya natural gas project, which has enhanced our energy security and independence. We left behind an ocean, solar, and wind pole-vaulting program, which is geared toward developing renewable energy. We had the very successful Power Patrol Project, which involved the participation of the private sector to support the energy conservation policy.

The policy on deregulation and liberalization of the oil and power industry are policies called for in this current form of political governance. Liberalization is not an invention of post-Marcos administrations because as the author wrote, “In 1984, as the country implemented the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment program, we [the Marcos administration] had to allow market forces to operate in the coal industry” (65-66). Moreover, the Ramos administration left behind a thirty-five-year Energy Development Plan (1998-2035), which takes off from the accomplishments cited in the book and those done during the Ramos administration.

The Filipino people are now enjoying the fruits of the labor of the author in our quest for energy self-reliance, most especially the geothermal and hydropower development. But while he does not agree with the privatization of Petron, we must realize that Petron’s privatization was successful because it was nurtured and managed well to become a very profitable company during the Marcos administration. While we have yet to see the benefits of the EPIRA, it is too early to pass judgment on policy decisions of post-Marcos administrations on the power sector. Suffice it to say that I agree with the author that the success of deregulating a very critical industry, like oil and power, is a strengthened, responsive, and well-administered regulatory environment. The challenge that lies ahead of us is to be able to duplicate the achievements told in the book in our own version of democracy in which political intervention, not only by the politicians but also by those with self-interests from the private sector and nongovernment organizations, is a commonplace.—Francisco L. Viray, President, Trans-Asia Power Generation Corporation

Lomborg and Climate Change

I’ve found the arguments of Bjorn Lomborg on climate change appealing for sometime but was somehow still uncomfortable with them. For one thing, I agree that the money that could be spent to address the climate problem could be better spent on some other world problems if the first criterion was saving lives wherever in the world. That seems obvious to me.

However, he might miss the point that the primary objective of environmental policy---at least for economists--- is to make polluters pay for the consequences of their actions.

In this regard, I have yet to see any proof or articulation of a tentative proof from B. Lomborg that there will be any correspondence between the responsibiity for GHG emissions and responsibiity for the other priorities. In other words, he seems to think that the funds to address the climate change problem can be raised in the same way that these can be raised in addressing perhaps more important problems.

For me, these are really different but interrelated issues.

It also seems to me that the Lomborg position is based on aid from the developed countries to the other countries, which should not be the case. This should not be a matter of generosity but fairness, especially since the developed countries are responsible for most of the current stock of greenhouse gases.

Borbon, Cebu

Borbon, Cebu

I found your feature on Borbon, Cebu intriguing mainly because of what the author left out. For instance, is it a good place for the kind of solace when one is contemplating divorce, or worse, marriage, or just to write? The author didn’t mention what she was writing about. Imagine a feature on a coastal town without mentioning what the fishermen still manage to catch or the quality of the water and the beach.

On the other hand, Ms. Yabes’s style still managed to captivate the imagination. (How does an okra sandwich taste?) That aside, why does one crave for solace and internet access at the same time? Aha, maybe I have the answer to that after all. And what is ‘a wall of ficus?’

Ms. Yabes’s account reminds me of a trip to Bantayan island not so long ago. When my companion returned after a dip, she couldn’t understand my uncontrollable laughter. There was this sign on a coconut tree which was legible only once you were directly under it. It read: ‘Watch out for falling coconuts!’ Tough luck, Or be careful what you wish for. When you get it, it might be a bit late.