STILL AROUND: Mr. President, Sir, wang-wang zealots are still around. At 3:10 p.m. the other day, a sedan sporting a special plate bullied our taxi out of the lane with its wang-wang (siren) blaring near City Hall in Manila.

In case the President is still serious about his campaign against wang-wangs, the car was a model 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer, Corsica yellow in color, with plate No. JXC-777.

Since it is a private vehicle, maybe its wang-wang should be removed when it is presented for registration this month. So its driver is not tempted to use it.

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FIESTY MAYOR: Count me on the wrong side, but I sympathize with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte who drew mostly legalistic criticisms for punching last Friday a court sheriff who denied her request to delay for just two hours the demolition of squatter dwellings in barangay Soliman.

I know she is an official sworn to uphold the law, that the sheriff is a person in authority carrying out a court order, that physical assault is wrong, et cetera — but if I were the mayor caught in that precise situation, I could have done the same thing.

Of course I was not there when it happened and my knowledge of the incident was based solely on the TV footage and the news reports. That may disqualify me as an objective judge.

Admitting I’m not objective, I sympathize with the mayor and I fully understand why she flew into a rage. Maybe after she apologizes, goes on leave, and is reprimanded by superior authority, any case against her arising from the incident can be dropped.

I can discuss this more lengthily to justify or explain my position, but not now.

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FOREIGN EQUITY RULE: The Supreme Court ruling on how to determine the extent of foreign ownership of shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is yet another case of changing the rules in the middle of the game.

Under the Constitution, non-Filipinos cannot legally own more than 40 percent of total capital. Before the High Court stepped in, everybody followed the formula set many years ago by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the long-held SEC definition, “capital” included both common and preferred shares. By that rule, PLDT is reportedly something like 13 percent foreign and 87 percent Filipino.

But now, the Supreme Court says only common shares count. By this new rule, foreign ownership in PLDT may go beyond the 40-percent limit, according to PLDT Chairman Manny Pangilinan.

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BIGGEST LOSER: The PLDT boss is understandably dismayed by this turn of events.

The old rule that counted both commons and preferreds had been around for many years. Over the years, foreign investors – including Pangilinan’s First Pacific Company Ltd – had invested large sums in companies like PLDT presumably in good faith, banking on a rule laid down by the proper regulatory body.

The PLDT suffered a direct hit by the High Court’s order. If accepted, the new ruling presumably will apply to similarly situated public utility firms, spreading the scare.

But in the larger picture, the country is the biggest loser here.

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UNCERTAINTY: If there is anything that upsets investors more, it is uncertainty. They can deal with bad news. However, the problem of not knowing what is going on, or what might happen next, is most vexing.

With rules constantly changing, who is the foreign investor who would plunk in big money here? We have grown notorious for junking contracts. Even signed, perfected contracts are subject to last-minute revisions. Our courts have flipped and flopped.

Large infrastructure deals have fallen victim to our habit of changing the rules in midstream. An example is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 which was built through a torturous process under contracts repeatedly revised. Many years after it was finished, Naia-3 is still not fully utilized.

The High Court ruling threatens to throw a monkey wrench into the Public-Private Partnership Program of President Aquino.

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ARMM POLLS: The expected filing of petitions with the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the new law (RA 10153) postponing the election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has begun.

Among the first filers yesterday were former Sen. Nene Pimentel and election lawyer Romy Macalintal, who asked that RA 10153 be declared “inoperative, invalid and/or unconstitutional.”

The law suspends the election set Aug. 8 to synchronize it with the 2013 midterm polls. To fill the posts left vacant from August to 2013, the law authorizes President Aquino to appoint officers-in-charge to run the ARMM.

Macalintal said this “makes the ARMM an extension of the Office of the President and defeats its autonomous character since the OICs are not truly the representatives of the electorate but the direct representatives of the President.”

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COMELEC JOB: Joined by lawyer Edgardo Carlo Vistan II, Macalintal also asked the SC to direct the Commission on Elections to continue preparing and hold the ARMM elections on a date “reasonably close” to Aug. 8 as allowed under the Omnibus Election Code.”

Macalintal said the law postponing the elections and allowing the appointment of OICs amends the ARMM Organic Act, so it must first be approved by a majority of the ARMM electorate in a plebiscite as held by the SC in similar cases.

He also pointed out that RA 10153 was not approved by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Senateand the House of Representatives voting separately as provided under the ARMM Organic Act.