The comeback of GMA

“GMA,” of course, is former President and current Pam­panga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

And, a few days ago, there were talks that GMA host­ed a pre-Christmas gathering among friends and allies, par­ticularly those who worked in her administration when she was President.

Reports indicate that the gathering was more than just celebratory. It was triumphant. It signaled the victorious comeback of a former Presi­dent who suffered nearly five long years of virtual imprison­ment in the hands of her suc­cessor.

It also signaled the consol­idation of the hold of GMA’s allies in the country’s elec­tric-power sector.

Expected to have attended that affair was current Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi Jr. who was the Manila Internation­al Airport Authority (MIAA) chief of GMA. Also expected to be present was newly ap­pointed Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) head Agnes Deva­nadera.

Devanadera served as so­licitor general during GMA’s term, a stint that earned her the distinction of being the first woman to occupy the post. She was also, for a time, acting justice secretary, also during GMA’s term.

Absent was Energy Regu­latory Commission Chairman-on-leave Jose Vicente Salazar who was named justice under­secretary by GMA and served in that post under Devanadera herself. Salazar is facing issues at the ERC in connection with allegations made by a subal­tern who committed suicide and accused him of pressure in connection with a P300,000 audio-visual project.

GMA’s comeback and her allies’ hold on the power sec­tor is significant.

Let us talk first about GMA and the power sector.

As a brilliant econo­mist-president, GMA solved one of the most pressing prob­lems faced by the power sector prior to her term. This is the humongous multi-billion dol­lar debt of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)

Napocor, then, had a vir­tual monopoly of the country’s generation and transmission assets. The problem was that it was selling power to distribu­tors at a rate much lower than the true cost of power genera­tion.

The difference was shoul­dered by taxpayers by way of a state subsidy.

It was GMA who freed the national economy from the burden of that debt and sub­sidy. Her energy czar, Vincent “Vince” Perez, was tasked to transition the sector, sell off NPC assets to the private sec­tor, and to let power-gener­ation charges reflect the true cost of creating electricity.

That was a decision that required much economic sav­vy and even more political will. GMA and Perez pulled it off. The move ushered in the era of the entry of major invest­ments and the expansion of the participation of the private sector in the power industry.

It is significant that GMA should focus her political comeback on the power sec­tor. This is expected. After all, she was responsible for its transformation into a viable industry, with plenty of pros­pects for further growth.

Cusi, Devanadera and Salazar should be able to sustain that transformation, which may have hit a snag during the immediate past ad­ministration.

GMA’s political comeback also shows the folly of the ten­dency of the past leadership to persecute its perceived politi­cal adversaries.

Now that GMA is back in the corridors of power, the question is, what was the use of those five years of imprison­ment at the Veterans Hospital? None of the charges against the former President had prospered. So, what was she jailed for? Was that five-year incarceration simply meant to satisfy the whims of the past national leadership that saw in her the personification of everything the past leadership did not like?

The same questions are being asked in connection with the sad fate of the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Corona was humiliated, unseated and charged by the former national leadership. None of the charges were proven. But the national lead­ership enjoyed unqualified success in the bid to get rid of Corona and to bring his career and life to a tragic end.

So, what was persecution for? Just to satisfy the emo­tional whims of a national leadership whose anger was incurred by the High Court? Was that ire due to the series of embarrassing losses suffered by the past national leadership in the hands of the Supreme Court over which Corona pre­sided?

We don’t know. And, we hope our guesses are wrong.

Meanwhile, we will con­tinue to watch the amazing political comeback of GMA.

There had been rumors that she is set to replace Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, her former transportation secre­tary, as leader of the House of Representatives. This is based on speculation that Alvarez is eyeing a return to the Depart­ment of Transportation.

We do not know if these reports have factual bases.

However, true or not, these speculations show that GMA has regained her recog­nition as a powerful force in the country’s political scene.

The same cannot be said about the past national leader­ship.