Inner motives

The wonder of it all is why President Arroyo is moving only now. The other wonder is how the management of Meralco got to believe that it can get away with murder forever. They have not learned any lesson from the confiscation of Meralco by Ferdinand Marcos. Maybe because President Aquino returned the company to them while the rest of the firms suspected to be connected with Marcos were all sequestered.

Then suddenly, the government lowered the boom. Meralco or the people running it are threatened with huge losses of money they never really earned.

The motive of government in forcing Meralco to cut its rate is unquestionable as far as the public is concerned. But powerful people connected, if not related to President Arroyo have their own evil motives. The President allows herself to be used by them.

The saber-rattling and breast-beating now wringing Meralco is all for show. I would not believe that the President can succeed in forcing Meralco to reduce its rates. To begin with, that is not her job. The matter of reducing or raising the rates is an exclusive function of the Energy Regulatory Commission which is supposed to be a quasi-judicial body but may very well be under the spell of the Chief Executive. If she can get what she wants from the Supreme Court, the ERC may be expected to hand her the favor on a silver platter.

Which means that the ERC can rule in favor of a reduced rate. I do not think that can happen, although I believe that the excesses of Meralco should be curtailed.

Likely than not, as mentioned here before, a compromise settlement will be reached. Meralco's rates may be nominally reduced as a gesture of the sincerity and powers of the President.

But since Meralco would do everything to keep the perks management has been enjoying from the time the company was taken over from the Americans, it may simply be willing to part with a good portion of the money management makes through the backdoor.

After all whatever sums - they could very well be in the hundreds of millions of pesos - are lost can be recovered after the President steps down in 2010.

The fact that the Lopez group has not gone out of its way to cater to the whims and caprices of the President may have forced the present course of action to effectively put the company in line for a price.

In this connection, I must personally congratulate Manolo Lopez. His son Beaver is married to Jackie Ejercito, daughter of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

If I know Manolo, in fact the rest of the Lopezes, they do not kow-tow to power. On the contrary it is the politicians who kow-tow to them. Except Ferdinand Marcos who forced the family of the late patriarch Don Eugenio Lopez into exile.

The lack of willingness or refusal to kow-tow to the President of a democratic country where free enterprise is the norm of business, could very well be the undoing of Meralco and the management charting its direction.

Another way of saying it is the Lopezes opened themselves to blackmail, if the present war between them and Malacanang, as I keep saying, is all for show.

The inner motives of powerful people will surface after this month's annual stockholders meeting.

The government's unexpected move against Meralco came as a surprise, not because it is not entitled to what it is demanding. It may be recalled that the state had intended to sell its 30 percent stake in Meralco in a public bidding.

Meralco had intended to furiously compete.

But then some smart aleck came up with a better idea. Let the state hold on to the Meralco shares and use them as a clout to threaten, blackmail or force the Lopezes to come to Malacañang on their knees with offers of handsome gifts.

If the gifts are accepted Meralco goes back to its old ways with very minor changes.

In the end, powerful people will benefit while the consumers President Arroyo is supposedly fighting for get the crumbs. The President is supporting the powerful group.