“Why the sudden interest on Camp John Hay? You’ve been writing about it almost as passionately as you did about BENECO the past several days…” is the most common question I’ve been asked several times lately.
“By the way, what happened to BENECO??” comes in a close second.
I already told you: I don’t know.
First of all, I did write “passionately” about BENECO all through last year only because there was a NEED.
NEA was threatening to take over BENECO by hook or by crook. First it tried to do it by ‘military’ force and official coercion. When its effort to invade South Drive by the barrel of the gun failed, it laid siege to it for a whole year by propping up a shadow regime that mimicked the real BENECO operations from a bootleg ‘headquarters’ in the outskirts of town.
That ALMOST worked because it confused—or intimidated—local banks enough to play dumb and pretend to be “neutral” by freezing BENECO’s moneys.
That forced BENECO to run like an engine with a battery that has been disconnected from the alternator.
So long as the engine is still sputtering with life, it can go on. But it cannot dare to stop or slow down because it cannot count on its battery having enough juice left to crank up the engine again—it was not being charged by the alternator anymore.
So BENECO lived a hand-to-mouth existence for over a year, eking out a valiant survival from billing collections alone, having no access to its bank accounts. This, however, allowed its own bills from its power suppliers to soar to dangerous levels—right according to NEA’s constriction strategy.
NEA understood that consumers will have BENECO’s back covered—until their lights start flickering out, or their monthly bills start climbing (which is happening now). And that will happen if Team Energy cuts off BENECO’s supply, or BENECO acquiesces to a rate increase that it will have no choice but to pass on to consumers they did not consult.
So the longer NEA could keep BENECO’s “batteries” uncharging—that is, its bank accounts unusable and unreplenished—the weaker its pushback against NEA will get. The only thing propping up BENECO was its strong public opinion support (maybe I did have something to do with that, too, just don’t expect that to come from the mouth of some fake ‘MCO leaders’).
So my intention last year was to let the public in on the backstory of the whole unfolding crisis. To show the cynical side of the story, as it were, by exposing the agenda of NEA—and ramming Marie Rafael down BENECO’s throat was just part of it. Which is why removing Rafael from the equation obviously solved nothing. Except, of course, for some overhustling backchannel fixers, Rafael was the best thing that ever happened to them.
In fact, all this time, what NEA really wanted was not control of the GM—it was the elimination of an INDEPENDENT board of directors that would not GIVE them that control.
And they succeeded when, with the help of those backchanneling hustlers (who became what I call CCC’s, or corporate chameleon collaborators) they not only stripped the forgotten “Magnificent Seven” of tenure but totally eliminated them from the horizon as well.
They had to permanently disqualify them from coming back by banning them from participating in any future board elections FOR LIFE.
And yet, they’re not 100% sure the plan worked—they remained uncertain that second, third or fourth lines of maverick successors wouldn’t take their place. That is why NEA couldn’t even RISK calling for any elections anytime soon. They hold the interim board by their balls today, why give up that total control and domination? Why risk a return of the Magnificent Seven?
So then why don’t I continue to write about THAT?
The answer is I’m tired.
I’m tired of witnessing treachery, betrayal, and opportunism finding ways to latch on to NEA’s sinister agenda for its own advancement. Most of all, I’m tired of the naiveté of people, who OUGHT to know better, BUYING the snake oil that getting on the good side of NEA is “the strategic long term solution” just waiting for the right timing to gestate into a miracle.
That kind of “strategic cooperation” smacks too much of the Marxian “critical alliancing” I’ve encountered all through my college days in UP. I believe then and now it doesn’t work. You don’t compromise your principles, period. (I could almost hear somebody shrieking “he’s redtagging us!”)
So, for a while, I did try to hold on. But the CCC’s went to town bashing the bejesus out of me on social media—afraid to lose their lucrative newfound corporate perks.
Acting like THEY “solved” the problem, they got rid of Rafael, they singlehandedly “saved” BENECO with their militancy and woke activism—they said in no uncertain terms, “bug out, old man, nobody needs you anymore, not that anybody ever did.”
So I’ve adopted the attitude of a lot of disillusioned observers—hey, you make your bed, you lie in it. Just count me out of your hallelujah choir.
But why shift my writing focus on John Hay nostalgia?
Well, because in many ways Camp John Hay’s tragic story of decline is a Freudian projection of BENECO and the city as a whole. You think modern aggressive “game plans” are the wave of the future. You don’t realize it’s impossible to come up with a better design for the wheel.
Sometimes, self-anointed “problem solvers” can get so full of themselves, inflated with their own virtue, to realize they don’t really know what they are doing.
But they are deathly afraid to acknowledge that THE PEOPLE know what to do—and are only awaiting the occasion to do it.
You can’t argue with pretty pastel visions of the future. But no one can deny the daily visible evidence of the failure of arrogance of the past.
By writing about the OLD Camp John Hay, I am accessing a shared community memory bank of historical truths no one can deny.
If you grew up like I did seeing the beauty and efficiency of the old Camp John Hay when it was under American management, no one can pull the wool over your eyes to claim they’re doing better today.
“Colonial mentality,” my foot. We just can’t admit we screwed up pretty bad, and dropped the ball on our “crown jewel.” We allowed Camp John Hay to decay so much into a problem that cannot be fixed by pouring more cement.
Alright you hustling smartasses, show us you can do better with your modern sophisticated “game plans” and make us NOT regret losing the Camp John Hay—or the BENECO—we used to have.*
About the Author
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”