The tale of the hard times

The morning drizzle accompanied me to work; and after a day of talking about market structures and cartel while simultaneously incorporating the value of economics - especially in these hard and trying times - in the youthful minds of my students, my eye incidentally trodded later this day to find that the mighty mighty Ate Glue, entered yet another confidential-but-anomalous-and-indecorous contract with an american law firm to lobby for her so much anticipated proposal for charter change. Yes, Ate Glue hits the scene anew, providing another staggering blow upon the public interest and a dynamo to further selfish motives. The undersized usurper strikes again by hiring the service of US-based law firm Venable LLP to lobby and represent her (not us) on the US Congress to secure grants that will power her proposed charter change. The firm will receive an astonishing amount of S75,000 per month or S900,000 a year!!! Thats amounting to an estimate of 50.4 million pesos a year! Now I really understand why our government really pushed hard to implement EVAT. That's not all, the worst part is that because the firm will be lobbying in behalf of Arroyo in the US Congress, Americans will obviously know about the contract while our people, who's money is being squandered by the mighty mighty Ate Glue, doesn't know a thing was going on. Thanks to Malou Mangahas of PCIJ now we know. Now our Congress will try to investigate. What next? Think that can make a change? Does a single contract compare to an impeachment complaint? If Arroyo's conspirators in Congress can insolently topple the impeachment complaint against her how much more is this issue about that aberrant contract? I don't think that would make so much of a difference. Let us end the debates. Let us end the Arroyo fraudulence!