Bekarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 19/02/2014
Currently, ther Philippine government has embarked on a
privatization spree on prime services such as health services, the foremost
example is that of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC), claiming that the privatization
of the hospital promises increased
affordability and accessibility of health care.
In June 4, 2013, a lone bidder, the Megawide
Construction Corporation-World Citi Corp consortium(Partly Owned by Henry Sy),
submitted bid documents. Target construction starts by 2014, with completion by
May 2016.
The government targets
the improvement of hospital facilities by involving private investors through
PPP. PPP is a central policy and solution announced during President Benigno
Aquino III’s 1st State of the Nation Address in 2010. Other hospitals up for
PPP include the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), San Lazaro
Hospital, Dr, Jose Fabella Memorial Medical Center, and Jose R. Reyes Memorial
Medical Center.
Under PPP, the private
investor will recover its investment by running the hospital as an enterprise
for profit. Every health service will have a cost equivalent. It means that
there will be token or no free or affordable service for the poor.
This scheme
exemplifies privatization as a factor that bedevils the services that are
supposed to be accessable for the citizens for free or with a token fee, and
belies the claims of the government that liberalization will improve the
service because it will result to increased cost that will exclude the majority
of the people from the services considering the low wage of the workers and the
chronic unemployment problems of the country.
Dangerous grounds
The 1990s, especially under the Ramos administration, saw a concerted
effort at streamlining the state bureaucracy. The aim was to transform the
Philippine state from a “social” state, one that is concerned with the
provision of basic welfare to all citizens, to a “watchman” state, which is
primarily focused on securing property rights and ensuring the smooth operation
of markets.
Subsequently, state-owned enterprises were privatized, trade barriers were
dramatically reduced, and the private sector was bequeathed with the
responsibility to provide basic services such as power and water. The
government also withdrew from the oil industry, allowing putative market forces
to take over. The aim of the privatization schemes was to ensure efficiency (in
supply) and affordability (in access) of public goods.
Soon, the government
confined itself to palliative welfare schemes such as the Conditional Cash
Transfer (CCT) program.
The problem, however, is that the privatization of public services has
indubitably failed to deliver. Massive power shortages have put into question
the supposed efficiency-gains of private sector ownership. With the Philippines
having one of the most expensive electricity and oil prices in Asia,
accessibility is obviously a major issue -- especially for electoral
democracies such as ours. The CCT schemes, meanwhile, have allowed many
developing countries, including the Philippines, to justify stagnant
investments in critical sectors such as health and education, which have
historically proven to be central to poverty-alleviation and the empowerment of
the middle classes.
More for profit than
serving
In trying to counter Filipino consumers' seeping rebellion against grievously
murderousbasic services costs, as well as, the massive corruption and exploitation
of Meralco and Royal Dutch Shell, such as, in force-selling overpriced natural
gas (indexed to high-priced diesel oil) through Lopez IPPs or "Independent
Power Plants" (Sta. Rita Electric Generating Plant and San Lorenzo
Electric Generating Plant), the JFC
defended the Epira and energy privatization anew.
It warned against any review or renegotiation of
the onerous IPP contracts with their "take or pay" provisions (which
provides that consumers MUST be obliged to pay the owners of power generating
plants even if the said consumers did not use a single kilowatt of their
electricity and even if the said plants did not even produce a single kilowatt
of electricity, which is plain and simple highway robbery).
Filipinos should by now realize that the chief cause of all the economic misery of
this nation is the fact that corporations both local and of foreign powers have, time and again, made this country
their milking cow.
Only a patriotic and nationalist leadership can
change the situation--to restore the power of the public over the profiteering private
and corporate sector, re-impose the primacy of public interest over private
profit, and re-nationalize all other basic utilities.
