Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Government selling assets like selling turon

Malacanang, says Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., is selling its assets. Dubbed "midnight sale", Pimentel accused the palace of compromising state security and patrimony by trying to sell "national treasures" such as the Fujimi property in Japan and "military camps and reservations" regardless of its strategic value. He adds, and I quote him from an Inquirer report, that government all kinds of assets to "offset its deficiency in tax collections without due regard to the strategic importance of maintaining a stake in these enterprises."

There are talks that the 250 billion pesos to be generated from these sale are election-related. Pimentel says
these are part of the administration's campaign kitty. The palace quickly defended the sale, saying that all these are part of the 2001 commitment of Mrs. Arroyo to privatized non-performing assets. I agree with the palace spokesperson yet it is quite amusing why government chose the Fujimi property for sale when it is a protected national treasure.

True to form, government just converted its SMC stake to preferred, sold its Petron and Meralco stocks and is trying to negotiate a sale of the sprawling National Food Terminal property. There are insinuations that government is also trying to sell the National Mental Hospital and the Home for the Aged. Last year, government sold its assets for 80 billion. Now, it wants to triple its gains by selling even military camps and reservations.

With all these frantic sale, we might just end up being governed by private entreprise. Good. At least we get rid of government.

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