EGO TRIP?: Instead of jetting all the way to Peru to read speeches and chat with officials of other countries, President Gloria Arroyo may want to stay home with her people, step up measures to improve their lot, and consolidate domestic gains.

Exchanging notes with important people on the world stage can have feel-good effects. Maybe her ego needs that boost, but the masses eking out a bare existence back home need more than a leader’s fattened self-esteem.

Never mind global and esoteric issues muna. The earth will continue to spin on its axis and the rest of the world will stay in their own comfort zones without bothering with ours.

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MAKAKAIN BA YAN?: To Juan Pasang Krus, there is nothing in Lima that has DIRECT and IMMEDIATE salutary effects on the quality of his life.

Yes, global talks can have positive long-term implications. But here and now, we look for “direct and immediate” benefits, because Ms Arroyo has only 18 months left in her total of eight years as president and chief economist. 

By this time, President Arroyo should be wrapping up and consolidating. And staying home longer.

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B Reports were rife yesterday that the Government Service Insurance System was filing another bunch of libel charges against journalists who refuse to be bullied into silence by GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia.

The widespread impression is that Garcia, whose well-funded public relations network is unable to stem the tide of criticism aired in the media by GSIS members and pensioners, appears to be running amuck.

If the idea behind the barrage of libel suits is to scare journalists, it is apparently not achieving the desired effects.

At the National Press Club, the umbrella organization of the working press, many members are talking of marching to the GSIS main office on Roxas Blvd. to express indignation over the harassment.

NPC President Benny Antiporda said he would lead a mammoth rally if Garcia continued bullying the watchful press.

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MERALCO SHARES: The initial burst of libel suits centered around reports and media commentaries on the recent sale by the GSIS of its 300,963,189 shares in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to San Miguel Corp. at P90 each, payable in three years.

Sources said the block, representing some 27 percent of outstanding Meralco shares, was already committed to another serious buyer but was hurriedly sold instead to San Miguel reportedly on instructions of somebody in Malacañang.

Market analysts said a transaction that big — estimates of its value run from P27 billion to P30 billion — would mean a windfall commission to whoever handled or facilitated it.

Who got the fat commission? Instead of getting an answer, some newsmen who dared to ask were slapped with libel suits.

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FIGHT FOR CONTROL: The sources refused to give significance to reports that a San Miguel jet flew doctors to Osaka and fetched First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo after his emergency treatment there for stomach pain that had forced him to drop out of the presidential entourage to Lima.

The Lopez clan managing Meralco is busy fending off a campaign to wrest management control from it. The GSIS tried to gain majority of Meralco board seats in the last stockholders meeting, but failed.

With the 27-percent equity it has bought being insufficient to give it control, San Miguel is expected to shop around for more shares. It can draw from its cash assets, which as of June amounted to P105 billion.

Meantime, San Miguel may have to explain why it agreed to pay a premium for the shares representing only 27 percent of equity. It paid P90 per share when the market price at the time was only P44.50 each.

Its report on the transaction, including the full disclosure of its purchase contract with GSIS, is being awaited.

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NANI OFF THE HOOK: At the Sandiganbayan, the court has thrown out robbery charges filed against former justice secretary Hernando Perez and three others.

The anti-graft court noted that it took the Office of the Ombudsman six years to file the case against Perez, his wife Rosario, and associates Ernest Escaler and brother-in-law Ramon Antonio Arceo Jr.

The Sandiganbayan clerk of court said the long delay violated the constitutional rights of the accused.

That was a neat way of evading conviction without going into the merits — with the kind assistance of a slowpoke Ombudsman or state prosecutors.

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DEFECTIVE RAPS: The Sandiganbayan also granted the motion for reconsideration filed by Perez and the other accused to quash the graft case against them.

The court said the charge was defective because the recitation of facts in the information did not indicate any monetary or material consideration.

That seems to be another clever way of helping an accused get off the hook: File a defective charge.

We non-lawyers are curious if there is any way the Ombudsman or state prosecutor can be made to pay for his/her incompetence, if indeed it was incompetence.

A parallel suggestion I heard way back was that when an inmate or a prisoner escapes, the guard should be locked up in his place.

The Sandiganbayan case arose from a complaint of former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez that Perez threatened him and his family unless he executed damaging affidavits against President Joseph Estrada and his cronies.