Ledesma

I have seen a letter from that office which states that it refused to accept requests for land conversions because the President had set a timetable of 15 days for them to act. Good that he replaced Sec. Rafael Mariano who cannot macro-manage the department and then promoted Karlo Bello as Under Secretary, things are revving up.

The President too is perceived to have his own cordon sanitaire. In the case of the search for the 3rd telco which he wanted to be achieved expeditiously, the President was made to believe by regulators that a case seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) was filed in the Supreme Court thus the delay. Whoever made this allegation mustered a lot of courage to make a fool out of the President knowing he is too averse against TRO as it delays projects. The fact is there was none.

Then there is that brazen move to “cure” the inadequacies of the telco which the regulators selected to be the new major player in the telecom industry. They appealed to Congress to cure the defects, a matter which is a subject of prequalification but casually ignored.

For how many million reasons why this has to be done, I can neither comprehend nor speculate. They cured it anyway despite the Palace knowledge that there were serious defects in the franchise of the winner. The regulators lawyering for a preferred bidder is out of place in this government but it is happening and covered in living colors via the intimate medium— television.

For the regulators to accept a very lame and funny fairy tale that a national franchise cannot operate within a strictly prescribed period because of untenable peace and order condition in one remote barangay in an equally remote province is plainly ridiculous if not decadent.