PRESIDENT DUTERTE has given Pampanga a big gift in a small wrap: it’s better known as GMA.
Duterte’s surprise — maybe not really — gift came after he named the former Philippine president his presidential adviser on Clark projects.
That should squelch any notion, founded and not, that the former Malacanang principal tenant, is casting a moist eye on the post of Gov. Delta Pineda.
That’s too way out of her league, even if her heart beats for her kabalen. Better a small fish in a big pond than a big fish in a small pond. There’s no punning there.
She may be a micro physically but a macro intellectually. So her acceptance of this new shingle is borne not out of provincial parochialism but national patriotism. The late Art Sampang used to write about her in those terms.
That said, she may have set a new standard in politics.
Her late father, the poor boy from Lubao, had clearly said that he would bequeath his legacy to GMA as the principal heir, obviously because she is a good economist. Maybe Apung Dadung’s choice was partly influenced by his own patriotic sense being a former president of the country.
And the old man was fully vindicated. GMA turned out to be the best macroeconomist this country has ever produced,logically better than her former student who lost part of his lock in her class. Her tax reforms with the expanded VAT as the main feature probably saved this country tons of financial troubles, not to mention the megatons of unexpected economic windfalls.
I’ll leave the detailed analysis of her administration’s contributions to the country’s economy to present and future economists and pundits. Suffice to say that it is true that big gifts sometimes come in small packages.
The last time I heard, GMA has a doctorate degree in economics–academic, not honorary. In other words, she’s a model for Stephen Covey’s idea of sweating out the small stuff. Many politicians would rather have it the easy way. So you can pardon the familiar smirk because the lady is into dismal science. Economics, that is. Job hazard.
It’s possible also that GMA has accepted the new assignment to make up for the second serving that her late father promised to his kabalen but was frustrated but a future dictator who came initially in sheep’s raiment. The eventual wolf scared the wit out of GMA’s dad that he reportedly sought asylum at the United States embassy by the dolomite beach.
In fairness, GMA might have more than fulfilled his father’s promise during her term. Only, this was obscured by local politicians who took the credit for the projects they brought home to their constituents, whether it be health card or farm-to-market road or bridge. I know some but I will not disclose their names for reason of national security.
And I don’t think the dilawan old bachelor at Times St. had something to do with it either. I swear.
On her first day at the office, she gave a professional lecture on how to optimize on the Clark international airport assets, tangible and intangible but more of the latter. Basically, she told everybody that modernization-wise, the airport executives were doing the right thing. But not in terms of globalization or as the economist Thomas Friedman described as the market.
In other words, GMA wants Gen. Aaron Aquino and company to look at the big picture rather than on the vast real estate they manage. Think out the box, she implied, of doing big in terms of logistics and service. Going back to Friedman, he has sliced globalization to being more competitive in the market based on the fact that the whole world is connected, or wired technologically. Everybody from La Vista to Timbuktu can be a potential customer.
When Rufo Colayco,a Harvard-trained egghead, was at the helm of both the Clark Development Corp. and Clark International Airport Corp. , he summed up Clark in three words: cheap, real estate.
He was being factual than prescient.
At the time, part of the airport real estate was occupied by squatters and some monosyllabic agri-business entrepreneurs who planted the rich land left by the Americans with watermelon– from China. or Taiwan. He had his hands full fending off local politicians some of whom he described as wanting more than they deserve. He stopped short of saying greed. Like GMA, Rufo is from Arrnew.
With an authentic doctor at his side, compared to professional quacks that he had to deal with when he was at the anti-illegal drugs agency, Aaron can look at a bigger horizon farther than Mt. Arayat where on its peak you can see Clark forever on bright day.
