I wouldn’t worry about the communists too much. But I think we better look out for the capitalists—the rent-seeking kind, in particular.
In the past two days, the Phisix, the “basket” of publicly traded stocks in the Philippine Stock Exchange used as an indicator of overall market activity and direction, moved up marginally, by 0.17 percent on May 17 and 0.12 percent on May 18. But one stock, Vista Land, shot up a whopping 5.18 percent and 3.79 percent on the same two days.
I got a hot tip on the amazing performance of Vista Land stock on May 17, when it was logging an amazing seven percent increase by midday in a generally flat market. And if you don’t know, Vista Land is the listed company controlled by high-flying real estate developer Manuel Villar and his family.
Did Vista make a big announcement about potentially profitable new developments, declare huge dividends or do anything else that would fundamentally cause its stock to rise in a generally quiet market? Nope.
The news that caused Vista stock to move up was the appointment of Mark Villar, son of Manny and Senator Cynthia and the just-elected congressman of Las Piñas City, as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways by President-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte. The market just put two and two together and came up with the result that Vista’s properties would dramatically increase in value as a result of Mark’s appointment to a department that could do just that.
Now, I know that Duterte should be given a free hand to choose the people that he wants. But putting the son of one of the country’s biggest real estate developers in charge of a department that could directly act to improve the value of the family business—by approving and implementing self-serving road projects and even by just being privy to all sorts of government infrastructure plans—is just going too far.
I don’t know what contribution the Villars made to Duterte’s campaign or even if, as some have proposed, Mark’s appointment has something to do with protecting the new president from an impeachment attempt in the Senate. But I really wonder what motivation the young Villar would have to renounce a third three-year House term even before he could start it, in favor of a Cabinet post with no security of tenure.
My only hope, as far as Villar and people like him are concerned, is that Duterte makes good on his promise to sign an order implementing a version of the Freedom of Information for officials in the executive department. Then we will have some protection from predatory government executives who may attempt to use their position for good old rent-seeking.
But to answer the question: Is change coming? The stock market seems convinced of it —and is now voting with investors’ Louis Vuitton wallets that Villar will do the job expected of him.
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Which leads me to my earlier pick to be the most controversial appointee of Digong Duterte, the abrasive lawyer who is already being described as “Edwin Lacierda on steroids,” Salvador Panelo. Between Villar and Panelo, Duterte is in grave danger of squandering a lot of the goodwill that his election created—and the goodwill created by announcement of the other, infinitely more deserving people that Duterte has nominated to high office.
When Duterte talked to US President Barack Obama over the phone Tuesday night, the issue of human rights just had to come up. The US State Department reiterated Obama’s specific concern in a statement released soon after the presidential call to Davao City.
Duterte will surely have to repeatedly address allegations that he violated human rights as mayor of Davao in the days to come, allegations that will also hound his controversial anti-crime strategies such as bringing back the death penalty. What Duterte doesn’t need right now is someone in his official family who will also have to face similar charges, like his combative new spokesman, Panelo.
Panelo is probably most known for lawyering for the Ampatuan family of warlords in Mindanao, the same family that was supposed to have masterminded the Maguindanao Massacre of 2009. For those who may have forgotten, 32 of the 58 victims of that heinous crime were members of the media—the colleagues of the reporters and other journalists that Panelo will be dealing with on a daily basis when he assumes the post of presidential spokesman.
It’s people like Panelo who will reinforce the perception, in the eyes of Filipinos and foreigners alike, that Duterte doesn’t really respect human rights—something that the president-in-waiting has repeatedly denied. And the fact that Panelo has been so successful in delaying the prosecution of the Ampatuans (none of whom have been convicted to this day) will remind journalists that this is a lawyer who knows how use the law in order to prevent justice from being done.
