Business Circuit

“I believe in provocative disruption.”- Charlotte Beers, US advertising exec, Fortune, August 1996

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In the beginning Palawan Governor Joel Reyes made himself appear as a man concerned with the welfare of his constituents.

To prove it, he gave nine small mining permits covering an area of less than 20 hectares each.

Suddenly he changed his mind. On Feb. 13, he organized a protest rally in Palawan.

The rally is dubiously called "Interfaith Prayer Rally to Save Palawan from Mining."

How does Governor Reyes justify this as a prayer rally? It is bare-faced harassment.

If he wanted to save Palawan from mining, why did he give 12 permits, only to contradict himself later? He must have a reason only he knows of.

Whatever it is, the rally was pure harassment of people he said he wanted to help. It is very much like a father wanting a child from his wife, but abandons the child at birth.

This harassment was reason enough for DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno to suspend the Palawan governor. I am told that his constituents wave at him, but not in glee. Otherwise, they would give the finger.

But Reyes takes it all in stride and insists on getting the small mining people he authorized to mine nickel to get out of his way.

Puno should ask Reyes to explain or be suspended. I cannot see any acceptable explanation for the harassment.

Governor Reyes looks at the mining industry two different ways. That earned him a suit from the Ombudsman filed with the Sandiganbayan.

According to the allegations, he violated a law that says that holders of small mining permits can produce not more than 50,000 metric tons a year.

Reyes issued transport permits to Platinum Group Metals Corp. for 282,729 metric tons of ore.

He issued a small mining permit to the company. Therefore, its shipment should not be more than 50,000 metric tons a month.

The shipment he allowed Platinum Group is good for almost six months. That means that Reyes willfully violated the law on small mining.

On the other hand, he launched a campaign, in fact a protest rally against mining. There is in his province an anti-mining group. How "anti" could he get? He gave a small mining permit and granted more tonnage shipment than the law allows.

These are allegations made before the Ombudsman. Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro found probable cause. He filed the information against Reyes with the Sandigan.

Reyes is on his last term. He cannot run for governor in 2010 because he has served three consecutive terms.

But as they say, if there is a will there is a way. Definitely, Reyes has the will. He will find the way.

And how will he find the way? Simple. A bill will be filed in Congress splitting Palawan into two or three provinces.

That should facilitate the extension of Reyes term as first-time governor in one of the new provinces.

I have heard of gerrymandering. This one takes the cake. Palawan has only about 300,000 voters. That is slightly more than the voters of my city of Lipa.

The province of Cavite had more than one million voters as of the last elections. But there is only one Cavite up to now.

I have been told by somebody from Palawan that Reyes is an inveterate gambler. Is there a relationship between his gambling and violating the law by giving a permit to Platinum Group a permit to ship more ore than the law allows? I cannot answer the question.

Maybe Governor Reyes has an explanation. What I know is he has an anti-mining group but has shown partiality to owners of small permits in violation of the law.

DILG Secretary Puno might also ask Reyes where he gets all that gambling money. Definitely his salary cannot support the habit. Maybe his wife is rich.

Governor Reyes is hoodwinking Malacañang to give Palawan a share from the income of the gas find in Malampaya, off the coast of Palawan.

That should be good for the people of Palawan if Malacañang agrees and sends the money straight to the provincial treasurer.

But Reyes has remarkable and maybe novel ideas on how to spend the money of the people of Palawan.

If he gets the money, he wants it distributed as pork barrel of Congress. He will allocate sums to himself, to the two congressmen and to Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn who hardly needs it.

All that is in the works. The problem is there are legal questions about his desire to share in the tax from natural gas.

If there were none, Palawan would have been given its share a long time ago. How come nothing has been remitted?

And Reyes should not be allowed to spend the money the way he plans to spend it. If he does, he should be sued. He is beginning to act like a congressman trying very hard to appear pro-poor by mounting his anti-mining campaign.

Reyes’ connections

It is wrong for Malacañang, for the President for that matter, to think that Palawan Governor Joel Reyes has political clout in his territory. He has none. We have the evidence to prove it.

In 2004, he swore to Gloria Arroyo that she would win in Palawan. She was clobbered by Fernando Poe Jr. Maybe Reyes does not even know how to cheat.

In the local elections, he again swore to President Arroyo that her Team Unity ticket would sweep Palawan.

The opposite happened. The Opposition took Palawan. Candidates of Team Unity were trounced.

Joel Reyes failed to deliver the votes to the candidates of the Arroyo regime.

Now he seeks a reward in the form of a share from the royalties from Malampaya gas.

What Joel Reyes claims as influence is far from influence. It is gall, defined, colloquially in Webster New World Dictionary as "rude boldness."

Puno allows him to have his way. I don’t know why. But he is harsh on Binay and Trinidad who are better administrators than Joel Reyes.

But such is life in Philippine politics. To the victor (or cheat) belongs the spoils.