01720: As They Say, Power Corrupts

BOW TO YOUR OVERLORDS! (Photo ganked from the Inquirer)

I know that I did a bit of a news round-up post just the other day, but the stupidity just keeps going on.

The big news of the day is the report that 3 village security guards were arrested on orders from Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay for pretty much just doing their jobs. His 4-vehicle convoy had not been allowed to exit from a particular gate due to prevailing regulations. Naturally the politician pulled rank, did the usual "Don't you know me?" routine and went as far as calling the police to get the guards arrested. They were supposedly brought in to verify whether or not their firearm permits were up-to-date. Let's ignore the fact that this also resulted in letting Binay pass through the gate that he wanted to use as opposed to the one that was still open less than 150 meters away. The guards were eventually released but the village homeowner's association has ordered the guards to apologize to the mayor. Seriously. And look - there's video.

We all know that the Philippines has some of the highest power rates in Asia, but the recent price hike right in the middle of the Christmas season certainly has people grumbling An investigation has been launched by the Senate to look into the rate hike and they're magically finding possible evidence of collusion among power providers. Wait, so no one ever thought that it would be possible power companies who can supply power both directly at a cheaper rate or at a higher rate through the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) might not try to game things in their favor? Come on, does anyone have even a shred of common sense here?

And on a side note it has been reported that Speaker of the House Feliciano Belmonte hopes to revive effots to start charter change in order to increase foreign ownership rights. I'm not entirely against this, actually, but I know even a whiff of charter change for any reason will degenerate back down to the level of people accusing politicians of wanting to change the Constitution in order to increase their hold on power. I can't blame people either - we simply do not trust our government. But quite frankly, nothing is going to change in the foreseeable future in terms of how our government runs. They don't need constitutional change to get more power - they have everything firmly locked down just as they are right now.

Whether it's those in government or those who run big business, there's no question who are really calling the shots in this country. All we can do is hang on for dear life and hope to make it to the other side while these creeps run this country into the ground.