Moral support

“You need a strong family because at the end, they will love you and support you unconditionally. Luckily, I have my dad, mom and sister.”
-- Esha Gupta

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The state should be at war only against external forces that threaten to undermine or subvert its sovereignty and hurt the political and economic well-being of its people.
Democracy is pro-God, pro-people, pro-freedom, pro-unity and progress.
The purpose of government is to serve, preserve, and protect the people and their primordial interests, not to trample on their basic rights, freedom and dignity.
The purpose of the armed forces and police is to ensure peace and order, safety and protection of the citizens regardless of geographical locations, civic, political and spiritual affiliations.
If government resources, authority and power are marshaled to suppress and silence individuals with dissenting and radical opinions, it’s not a government of the people; it’s not a government for the people.
That “government” is the enemy of the people.

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Now that there is an imminent threat against the interest of thousands of power consumers in Iloilo City in the Philippines in the ongoing power play between the Panay Electric Company (PECO) and the MORE Power and Electric Company, the government should prepare the precautionary measures to ensure that the consumers will not be in the losing end.
PECO has threatened to halt operations starting January 19, 2019, according to reports, apparently in “protest” of the “hasty” imprimatur by the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe allowing More Power and Electric Company to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City even if PECO’s application for renewal of its franchise is still pending in the Lower House.

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When PECO “snubbed” the meeting of a technical working group (TWG) that will handle the transition works between PECO and MORE Power on November 8, 2018, it should be treated as a portent of things to come.
And now that PECO lawyer Inocencio Ferrer has let the cat out of the bag by saying in media interviews that the local power company will stop its operations on the day its franchise will expire (January 19, 2019), the Department of Energy (DoE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should now be ahead of time and are expected to be on top of the situation.
The bottom line here is, the power consumers shouldn’t be caught flat-footed; they should be spared from the corporate wars and must not be involved whether there is a “blackmail” or an ultimatum whatsoever.

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The decision of the Garin family to allow former Health Secretary Janette-Loreto Garin to “substitute” for her husband, Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin, Jr. in the next congressional term in Iloilo’s first district (granting that their rival, Gerardo Flores, will lose anew), is understandable.
Among the Garin clan members, it’s Dr. Loreto-Garin who is a facing a thunderstorm in public life.
If the Dengvaxia cases filed against her will prosper in court and she is back in Congress, she will have at least something to lean on as a matter of “defense and survival” when the war of attrition versus the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and other anti-Garin forces lingers.
It’s been tested and proven that in the Philippines, a public office could be an ideal “asylum” for those who are in dire straits legally; not to wiggle out from the trouble permanently, but, at least, for a temporary relief.
In crisis and in happiness, the Garins don't abandon each other; they cling to each other for moral support and otherwise.
Everything will change, of course, if Flores, who has never won an electoral battle versus the Garins, will pull an upset in the May 2019 elections.