SPEAKER Manuel Villar claims in his propaganda to be the champion of mass housing in this country. The way his line is cast, one would think that Villar built endless rows of cheap houses and gave them practically at cost to homeless Filipinos.

Now it turns out in congressional hearings that these houses are far from cheap, that Villar’s companies have been raking in megamillions — but that government institutions that had lent out the money for those houses are not being paid.

The unvarnished truth is that Villar’s foray into land development and housing was nothing but a well-conceived business plan, a lucrative business that once landed him among the world’s billionaires.

If the Speaker is to be credited at all for anything, it should not be for providing cheap houses to ordinary Filipinos. The buyers paid for Villar’s houses, and paid very dearly for dwellings that often turn out to be overpriced yet substandard.

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IF the Estrada administration has any moral mooring at all, the debate over the use by Cabinet officials of privately-owned luxury vehicles impounded by Customs would not drag this long.

If they had any delicadeza, they would have returned those vehicles on the same day their true ownership was brought to light. Estrada officials did not own those vehicles, so why are they using them? It’s as simple as that.

If President Estrada was right when he gifted his boys with the vehicles, why don’t Cabinet officials also take over private houses and buildings whose owners have failed to pay the proper taxes?

The stench emanating from Malacañang is nauseating. Mahiya-hiya naman kayo!

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EVEN if by some legal acrobatics, a judge rules that the appropriation of private vehicles for the personal use of leeches in government is legal, how can they defend its morality?

As they defend the indefensible, officials scream that others before them had done the same thing.

So what if this is not the first time? It only goes to show that theirs is not even an original sin. It was wrong then, and it’s still wrong now.

If they still have just a bit of conscience left, these officials should lose no time in returning the vehicles. They don’t own those luxury vans, and neither does the government own them. Why are they clinging to them?

President Estrada has offered an explanation for this behavior of his Cabinet. He said his boys need the luxury to lend them an air of dignity. Snatch that lollipop from them and you strip them of their dignity!

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A PRESS release says that the government will check buildings to see if they can withstand big earthquakes, referring to tremors of the same intensity of the Sept. 20 tremor that collapsed buildings and killed thousands in Taiwan.

The move is as laudable as covering the manhole after it has swallowed a child playing near it. They should have scrutinized the engineering details when the plans were still pending before the city or local engineer’s office for approval. –not now when people are already using them.

But don’t imagine that a group of technicians will now check buildings, condemn structures found deficient, and require owners to upgrade them. That will never happen in this country.

So why did they announce the alleged inspection? Simple – to lull the people into thinking that the government is doing something.

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RELATED to the concern that some public structures, such as school buildings, might collapse when jolted by a really big quake, there is an uncanny observation that many of the schools severely damaged by past quakes were the so-called Marcos-type schools.

Technicians are rechecking the data, and asking why these school buildings collapsed. Are they of poor design and construction, or are they simply malas? What lessons can we draw from it?

How do we protect innocent school children who use these Marcos-type schools in the provinces?

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WE should not check only the buildings. A structure could be technically unassailable, but if the ground where it stands is not stable, it poses a danger to the occupants and the public.

Reminds us of the report of Director Raymundo Punongbayan of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology that the active Marikina Valley fault line runs through the heart of Fort Bonifacio where an ambitious futuristic city is supposed to rise.

The branches of the fault that’s threatening Fort Bonifacio have not been fully traced, raising fears that there may be areas in the Fort where the fault runs without the occupants being aware of it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, buyers may find it prudent to ask for an iron-clad assurance from the sellers that the area being bought does not lie on a branch of the Marikina Fault that stretches from Novaliches to Taal lake.

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WHICH reminds us also to ask: Has money changed hands in the reported intention of Malacañang to forego collecting P8-plus billion, representing the last installment of the payment of the Metro Pacific-led group that bought Fort Bonifacio?

Metro Pacific has a good reason for not paying this last installment. The government has failed to relocate the occupants of that last corner of the Fort and, therefore, has not been able to deliver it to Metro Pacific.

A Palace source told us that President Estrada has agreed not to collect the P8+ billion since it is supposedly difficult removing the squatters and other occupants of the last sector marked for delivery to Metro Pacific.

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VERY intriguing. Why will Mr. Estrada not collect P8+ billion? How many billion reasons are behind this strange behavior of one obviously in need of money?

If we stand to collect P8 billion-plus for a piece of land with squatters, we would be willing to spend even P500 million to buy out the squatters and take full possession of the area and deliver it clean to the buyer.

Why is President Estrada not taking this route, or something like it? We thought the government needs money. Suddenly he doesn’t need P8 billion?

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INVESTIGATORS of the National Telecommunications Commission are poised to pore over the traffic data of globe Telecom to check the company’s charge that its network congestion is due to the inability of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. to provide adequate lines.

The investigators are also expected to check reports that Globe Telecom has not been using all its lines to service subscribers, that some of the lines may have been used for other purposes.

These conflicts are normal in a deregulated market. The active presence of many telecommunications companies offering a myriad of services has broken the PLDT monopoly, preventing it from manipulating pricing the way the oil cartel has been sucking the blood of captive users of oil products.

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WE’VE been swamped with inquiries about Filipino inventor Daniel D. Dingel, a former NASA engineer who has several fantastic money-saving inventions to his name, including a gadget that makes a motor car run on water.

Many readers who sent questions and comments wanted to know more about Dingel and his invention. A few asked where they could buy the mini-reactor that extracts hydrogen from plain water to run a motor vehicle.

A small minority scoffed at Dingel, saying in so many words that he and his hydrocar are a hoax.

Our Postscript on him has been reprinted abroad.

We cannot answer all the queries, especially because we cannot lead everybody to the doorstep of the inventor. We’re not sure how he would feel about a crowd gathering around him.

What we will do is forward all the mail to him so he can decide for himself how to respond to each letter or query.

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MY own attitude of Dingel’s invention is one of encouragement. His idea is not original, many others have fabricated machines running on the same principle, the device he attached to his red Toyota Corolla is far from perfect… but he deserves assistance and encouragement.

He has learned his bitter lessons about moving in good faith to patent his earlier inventions, so now is more wary in choosing whom he would allow to help him earn worldwide patent for his invention.

He has had brushes with energy officials who appeared more interested in discrediting his invention and degrading him than in drawing out the genius of this man who has come up with various gadgets that are useful in many ways.

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WE challenge both Dingel and the Estrada administration to talk to each other and find out how they could help each other.

Dingel has told us that the fortune he might earn from his invention would be used for paying the country’s foreign debt so the Filipino would be liberated from this degrading vestige of colonialism.

There is not much risk on the part of the government. If the Dingel device proves to be impractical, the government can say so and dismiss the man. But it should give him, and the Filipino people, a chance to liberate themselves from the oil cartel and the world’s money-lenders.

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ONE of the many inventions of Dingel is an electromagnetic fluid using organic components. It looks like an oil additive for motor vehicles, but is more than that.

We’re usually wary of unusual products and gadgets, but we had allowed him to demonstrate this fluid in my car.

The effects on the engine’s performance are instant and remarkable: Enhanced speed, fuel economy and powerful acceleration. We might elaborate on this in future issues.

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