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Well, lots of folks out there on the streets around
Asia are probably wondering if things are ever going
to get better in Manila or if it's basket case/sick
man city. Who knows? Just to confuse the situation
further, here's a sampling of what folks are talking
about in coffee shops and smoke-filled rooms around
town . . . After Sunday's big prayer rally at the EDSA Shrine, attended by about 100,000 (the cops put it at 30,000 to downplay its significance, the opposition said why not 130,000, so let's settle for a nice round number), coinciding with the return of sunny weather after Typhoon Seniang, the atmosphere lightened up a bit. At least that's what foreign investors thought based on the way they sucked up every available stock at the PSE Monday (biggest one-day uptick in history); the simultaneous major strengthening of the peso (to about 48) suggests something is afoot. Most likely has to do with the various tsismis (pronounce it "cheeze-miz," which for all you falang readers means gossip, the Philippine national sport) that Erap is on his way out and that none other than Sec. Pardo of Finance is parlay vousing with Cory to negotiate a graceful way out ... Some of the President's boys have reportedly been obtaining large dollar-denominated loans and spiriting the proceeds out of the country at warp speed, while some say certain bag men have been flying PAL to LA lugging heavy carry-on bags crammed full of Ben Franklins (whisked through security at NAIA with nary a glance) . . . Bill C. is now a lame duck, and a classmate of GMA to boot, so talk is you gotta take advantage of friends in high places in terms of facilitating visas and semi-unofficial-sponsorships and such (remember it was a US military whirlybird that rescued the Marcoses at the last minute, and that their nesting place was in tropical paradise Hawaii)… We're talkin' exile on the Caribbean dictator model here. They say the going rate for a loyal Senator is P100 m. (about US $2 million last time I checked), payable in cash, although others claim only about half that. Maybe it depends on the extent of loyalty. Speaking of the Senate, did you hear the one about a certain lady Senator who used to be a rabid enemy of the action movie administration? Her criticism somehow melted away over the last couple of years. Just coincidentally, her husband suddenly became a powerful u-sec (undersecretary) of some department or another and her brother enjoyed a rather startling ascendancy to General rank in the AFP. She is now a died-in the-wool Erap loyalist and a Spanish-inquisiton style questioner of any witness who may dare to be an enemy of the people's leader. Ain't politics wonderful? Best sleazoid tsismis has to do with one of the mistresses/families, of which there are six, more or less (let's use initials, say like LE, GG, JM, and RL). Seems that RL, the PAL stewardess girlfriend, is three months pregnant and living in luxury in a high-rise development owned by a certain rich Tsinoy (that's Chinese-Filipino) tycoon, who just happened to be an old original crony (that's like O.G., original gangsta, in the rap world, means he was tight with Marcos). She has three kids from her marriage, but hubby is studiously absent, and receives a monthly cash payment for doing so. He is also exhibiting survival instincts, as he has been informed in no uncertain terms of the consequences of showing his face, which might include [aw, use your imagination]... Speculation about what will happen should Erap continue to think this thing is a movie and insist on stonewalling it is that ultimately, should the situation deteriorate further and further, the army will have to "take him out" (to quote a certain retired general). Stranger things have happened. Common sense would seem to indicate that getting out now in a negotiated deal would be a whole lot better than that outcome, given that arrest and criminal charges would almost certainly accompany a forceful ouster - it sounds a lot better to me to be lounging around a retirement villa overlooking the Pacific somewhere than to be rotting away in a jail cell... Unfortunately, common sense does not seem to be in abundance in the Executive Branch these days. Till next time... Raoul...
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© Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine 2000
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