Darkness

There was a time before the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council when Wednesday was among the awaited moments in preparation for the last three days of the Holy Week. This day was known as the tinieblas, the Spanish word for darkness.

Most offices closed after lunch of Holy Wednesday and people flocked to church for the tinieblas which usually was started at five in the afternoon. The Gospel tells of the treachery of Judas with a kiss and then the arrest of Jesus. The lights were turned off except the Vigil Lamp of the Tabernacle. The church was then enveloped in darkness – the tinieblas – to signify the darkness that fell on the world with this betrayal.

Once the lights were turned off, people made a lot of noise, some with bamboo cluck (clock in old English) to simulate an excited crowd. Others shouted and some wailed or cried against the betrayal of Judas.

The emphasis of the time, however, is the betrayal and how the world was plunged into darkness with the beginning of the passion and death of Christ.

Our own tinieblas is just beginning as the burdens of living are getting heavier with the government seemingly unable to solve the pressing problem that had become more difficult to resolve each day. The darkness that has befallen Mindanao is expected to come soon to the Visayas as the national government is more intent to solve the energy problem there than outside of Luzon.

We know that Occidental Negros has the highest cost of fuel followed by our next door neighbor – Oriental Negros that claims they have the second priciest fuel. Is there any resolution in sight?

Governor Alfredo Marañon has already warned of the darkness in the province as our demand for energy increases while supply remains stagnant. How long can we hold on?

There is a proposal to grant President Aquino emergency powers to solve the energy crisis but Malacanang appears coy about it though I think it is wishing to be pushed to it. The people around him as well as the proponent members of Congress and the business community are elated with the idea, the prospects of amassing large sums of money.

Remember the time that darkness also fell on this nation and to solve the problem then President Fidel Ramos was granted emergency powers to get investors to construct power plants under the Independent Power Producers scheme?

Power plants blossomed but the price to the nation was high. They demanded that whatever power they produced have to be paid for, whether used or not. Today, we are still carrying the cross of those power plants whose real price and pricing nobody knows because the emergency powers insured that the usual procedure about bidding were set aside. Many believe to this day that many in the Ramos government, if not Ramos himself, made fortunes.

The darkness that has befallen this country cannot be eased unless our government is sincere in solving our maladies but the popularity of noynoying speaks of the discontent.

It is true that the favorable rating of the President stood at a high level but what is not given prominence is that there is a continuing and sustained erosion of this favorable rating since he took office. From a high of 76 percent he is down to 72 percent, an average of 2 percent drop each year. This survey was taken before the rising crisis of fuel had struck this nation and the stubborn inability of the government to provide relief.

The impeachment of the Chief Justice has diverted national attention from the looming crisis. It is entertainment that once over people will refocus and find that the prices of commodities, unrelieved by higher pay, will impact of his popularity, a fragile commodity that can evaporate as fast as it can rise.

It is sad to watch people demanding for some decent wage, but while the prices of basic commodities rise without notice, the government hides beyond rules and regulations, processes and all sorts of excuses. It is true that often increasing wages can be counterproductive as businessmen tend to recoup their increased labor cost by increasing prices.

This is where government comes in, in fact, one of its reasons for being, to provide the reins to prevent the escalation of prices beyond what is reasonable and commensurate with the cost of doing business.

Spain is tightening its budget while labor is demanding for higher wages. This is a balancing act but government must curtail prices through the mechanism of tighter spending.

Not so in the Philippines. The government boasts of millions of dollars that it lent to the countries with financial difficulties like Spain but unwilling to use this money to pump-prime the economy with more spending that will create jobs and lift us out of our darkness.*

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