Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero has repeatedly said in media interviews that his plans for the 2010 elections would be disclosed in October when he turns 40.  “Wala pang official decision, unofficial pa lang,” he told Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.

Escudero, however, is far from playing it by ear--he is keenly watching the political battle. 

Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak recently had an interview with the senator, one of the youngest presidential aspirants in next year's elections. Here are excerpts from the interview:

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Newsbreak: You recently came from Cebu where you laid out a five-point priority plan for a progressive Philippines.

Escudero: Actually the Makati Business Club and the Cebu Business Club came up with a forum and invited all presidentiables. Only two showed up: [Mar] Roxas and myself. 

They gave us 10 minutes to speak about five priority areas the next president should concentrate on in order to achieve a progressive Philippines. In that forum, I discussed, given the topic, one, lower the costs of doing business in the country by focusing on transportation, energy costs, red tape, corruption related with doing business.

Two, focus on education in order to provide a productive workforce, and to develop a citizenry that has a potential of owning businesses and not simply being employees.

Three, focus on tourism as a potential that the country has using God’s gift to the Filipino people.

Four is infrastructure. We’re talking of farm-to-market roads to ports to airports. We should not stop with farm-to-market.

And fifth, good governance, without which all the previous four would be meaningless.  Good governance, meaning transparency and accountability in government, minimizing discretion, which, in my book, equals corruption. And, recognizing that corruption is one of the major issues that should be confronted by the government so that any official would consider it shameful to live lavishly in times of acute public economy.

Newsbreak: What’s your strategy to lowering energy costs?

Escudero: Fully implement EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act), which includes privatization of all NAPOCOR-generating plants. Two, apply the true costs of energy, time of use. And three, lower taxes and provide incentives for indigenous sources of energy, which, among others, include natural gas. That’s in the bill of [Sen. Juan Ponce] Enrile actually.

I’ll give you an example. The royalty, which is same as the tax for natural gas, is P1.46 per kilowatt hour, rounded off P1.47. The tax for coal is only 17 centavos. And yet we import coal. Yung natural gas, galing sa ‘tin. And we’re the only country perhaps in the region which has natural gas.

Newsbreak: Would this five-point priority plan form the crux of your platform?

Escudero: If at all, the kind of platform that I want to come up with is in the form of a GAA (general appropriations act).  If you’re not putting any money into it, don’t tell me you have a program for it. 

How can you claim you can fund something if you don’t know what and where to get the money for it? Give us a six-year budget. How do you intend to spend our money and how would it improve our lives. The GAA would include all those assumptions.

When I say lower the costs of doing business, the theory behind that is, the only way in which you can create jobs is if businesses flourish. Government is not an employment agency. We want to create jobs via the private sector by making it affordable and profitable for them to create the jobs that are needed. Hindi ‘yung mag-ha-hire si Gloria ng mga magwawalis ng kalye. Long-term jobs based on skill, if at all, and whatever it is that they are trained for.

Newsbreak: What industries should we engage in order to generate long-term employment?

Escudero: You should look at the market e. I’ll give you an example. BPO (business process outsourcing). Hindi porque uso BPO, lahat na lang BPO. 

Newsbreak: Aside from BPO.

Escudero: We should have a comparative-advantage office, for lack of a better name, that should be looking at different areas that we should engage in, given our geography, given our talent, given our workforce, given our climate, given everything that we have. E hindi ginagawa e. That should be the job of NEDA [National Economic Development Authority]. But NEDA is not doing its job.

They should be guiding policy by telling us, ito magandang pasukan ito. Whatever that is should be the product of sufficient research and studies, and not the whim of the official, or kung ano lang ang uso.

Newsbreak: Governments around the world have come up with respective stimulus plans to cushion the impact of the economic meltdown on the public. The Arroyo administration also has its own economic stimulus fund (ESF). If you would have your own ESF, what would be its components?

Escudero: Arroyo’s ESF is short-term. Subsidy and increased taxes, both of which are wrong. Subsidies are short-term. If at all, you should follow a formula, anywhere between 70-80 percent for medium- to long-term solutions, 20-30 percent for short-term solutions such as subsidies.

Newsbreak: If ever you win the presidency in 2010, the recession would still drag on and remain a major concern.

Escudero: Let’s rephrase. Whoever wins in 2010.

Newsbreak: Whoever wins in 2010, how should it be approached?

Escudero: Definitely by not increasing taxes, because businesses have a certain elasticity that can only accommodate a certain level of tax as well. Kahit hatakin mo pa ang buwis, magbabayad na lang ‘yan sa BIR official. You would still not get the revenues dahil hindi kaya e. Panahon ng recession, hindi panahon ‘yan para taasan ang buwis. Excuse me. Any economist could tell you that.

What should government do then? Try to cut down costs. ‘Yung biyahe ni GMA kailangan ba talaga ‘yun, to cite an example of a cost a. Magbibiyahe na lang siya kailangan ba disisyeteng congressman ang kasama? Baka puwedeng dalawa o tatlo lang.

Cut down costs, collect efficiently existing taxes, curb smuggling. Because in taxes alone, we’re losing by around P150 billon a year, VAT [value-added tax] is only P87 billion, the added VAT. So just collect it properly and P150 billion, you’re losing approximately a hundred billion on smuggling.

So lower costs, collect taxes efficiently, curb smuggling, and try to allocate scarce government resources better. In 2008, the government had savings of P114 billion. That’s nearly 10 percent of the national budget. Hindi pala kailangan ‘yun e, bakit pa nilagay sa budget? So nagkaroon pa ng deficit rin, ang sama pa tignan.

So what for? So it means government can easily cut 10 percent from the national budget, off-the-cuff. Magkano projected deficit natin? P200 billion by the end of 2009? So technically, if they can replicate that, they can immediately cut the deficit by half. Just by simply cutting costs and allocating funds prudently.

Newsbreak: The International Labor Organization recently said that the Asia-Pacific region has one of the lowest budget allocations for social protection. How do you intend to strengthen  social protection in the Philippines. 

Escudero: Philhealth has P26 billion approximately in reserves. If they’re not using it, I don’t know why. So there is money for health services.

Education. PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) is earning approximately P20 billion a year. Imbes na napupunta kung sinu-sino lang, we need P15-P20 billion to catch-up with the classroom backlog. 

In one year, i-allocate mo lang ang kita ng PAGCOR for education, just the classroom, can you imagine in one year nahabol natin ang classroom backlog? Can you imagine the economic activity that we will generate in every part of the country because we will be constructing school buildings?  Can you imagine how different of an orientation a kid will have if he or she is studying kung hindi kalahati ang classroom na papel lang ang pagitan na nagkakarinigan sila? 

Hopefully we could improve the quality of education we’re giving our kids. But there is money for it. You cannot tell me that there is no money for it because there is.

VAT was an additional P87 billion. Kung sinabi lang nila, let’s construct a tertiary level 3 hospital in every region, that would cost about P1-2 billion. P16 billion lang ‘yun or P32 billion. Two years, may sukli ka pa sa budget ng PAGCOR, ubusin mo first year para sa education, second year para sa hospitals. Governance is simply defined as allocation of scarce resources. That’s what government should be doing.

Newsbreak: The Arroyo administration promotes conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) in battling poverty. Should CCTs be continued?

Escudero: Again, for as long as a bigger chunk of the budget is spent on medium- and long-term solutions. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program, oo, pero ibig sabihin ng term na ‘yun mismo is it’s temporary. It cannot be sustained e. It’s a common cliché, give them fish but also teach them how to fish. Ito bigay lang e.

Newsbreak: What is your battle plan for the ASEAN region in defeating terrorist forces?

Escudero: Increase coordination in so far as immigration and border security is concerned amongst the members of ASEAN, one. Two, more open sharing of information and intelligence with other members. Three, by providing a sufficient security net within each member country. If one is careless, palaging damay ang iba.

Newsbreak: Will you push for the resumption of the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and maybe even with the Abu Sayyaf Group?

Escudero: Again, whoever becomes the next president should pursue it. Why? Most of the groups associated with the Left are participating already in the electoral process. Kaya nga against ako dun sa ginagawa nila [Gen. Jovito] Palparan at GMA e na gusto nilang i-revive ang Anti-Subversion Act. 

Instead of pushing them away, you should pull them toward these processes. Now you hear Bayan Muna saying they intend to field a candidate for the Senate. It’s a good and positive development for me, kasi kung tingin nila may laban sila dito, dito na lang, ‘wag na sa bundok, sa baril.

Insofar as Mindanao is concerned, if at all, we’ve been doing it by group. Let’s try to do it by clan or tribe. Moro National Liberation Front is principally Maguindanaoans, MILF is principally Maranao. Ganun din naman ang nangyayari e, so let’s do it by tribe and by clan, while you’re answering the underlying cause behind the problem in Mindanao which is neglect.

The GDP [gross domestic product] contribution of Mindanao is 17.7 percent, the government is only giving it 9-11 percent. To say the least, ibigay mo naman ang galing sa kanila. That was done only in the time of Erap ha, for a year or two.

So while you’re engaging them in peace talks, do two things: spend, allocate money on Mindanao, and concentrate and focus on education so that you can show them that they have a fighting chance in the real world without necessarily bearing arms.

Newsbreak: How do you localize solutions to a global problem such as climate change?

Escudero: We’re seeing the effects of that already, but we should not also be solely, at the risk of affecting how people live, constricting in effect what we could have otherwise given to our people. 

The carbon dioxide (C02) emission of the United States is 28 percent of total emission. China has 23 percent. You know the C02 emission contribution of the Philippines? 0.29 percent. Even if we cut it by half, it’s not going to create a dent. But of course, each one has to do their share. But you know the 0.29 percent contribution of the Philippines, more than 50 percent comes from motor vehicles, not coal plants.

There has been a strong resistance in Iloilo for the establishment of a coal plant. Nag-ba-brownout na dun. But bawal ang coal plant, but there’s such a thing as clean coal anyway. So let’s do clean coal.

Yes, we should be concerned about it, yes we should prepare for it, yes, we should do studies in order to adapt to it, but we should always bear in mind the basic services that the people need. We should weigh e.

We should also identify all danger areas in the country, susceptible to a landslide. Insofar as mobile vehicles are concerned, on that, let’s cut down on that by improving our roads and reducing traffic, encourage rail as the cheapest form of transportation rather than by car.

Newsbreak: You reportedly enjoy massive support from the youth. What was the most important thing you have done for them as a legislator?

Escudero: As a senator, and as a person as well, ako isa lang. More of the fact that our generation of congressmen in 1998 started the trend of young Filipinos actually entering politics. After 1998, dahil sa mga anak na pumalit sa mga tatay nila, nabuksan ‘yung pinto e for new blood to come in. Many things have been said e, dynasty...

Newsbreak: You inhibited from voting on the anti-dynasty bill authored by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Escudero: But also for the first time, I reported it out. I inhibited but for the first time nadala na sa plenary. But in fairness, most of the children of former congressmen were given a good education by our parents. So most, if not all, have post-graduate degrees abroad. So education, training-wise, hindi naman lugi ang Pilipinas e sa mga batang pumasok.

To cut a long story short, I would take pride in the fact that I am one of those who pioneered the entry of young politicians in government. And hopefully, I will continue to serve as an inspiration and example that age is a not a hindrance, a handicap insofar as serving in the government in any capacity is concerned.

Newsbreak: If ever you decide to run for the presidency in 2010, campaigning would be very costly. Where will you get the funds?

Escudero: Field of dreams. If you build it, they will come.

I’ll give you an example, sabi nila lagi, wala daw akong pera ‘di tulad ni [Manuel] Villar at Mar [Roxas]. Kaya mababaon ako sa utang na loob sa mga magbibigay sa akin ng tulong.

Question: you think Villar and Mar aren’t asking money from businessmen? You think that they would actually spend their own money alone? Assuming that they do, ano ‘yung may mas malaking propensity na bawiin, pera mo o pera ng iba? Galing sa bulsa mo ‘yun e. So it’s as bad as what they are saying, ako may utang na loob sa iba, sila may utang na loob rin sa sarili nila, hindi ba nila babawiin ‘yun?

It’s a test of character of the person already.

Newsbreak: Another possible presidential contender is Sen. Loren Legarda, also a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). She’s very much vocal that....

Escudero: She wants to be the captain of the ship.

Newsbreak What will happen then? Who do you think would the NPC field for the top post?

Escudero: The party will resolve that. I’ve been in the party for 11 years. I have no reason to doubt whatever decision they would arrive at. That is good for the party, for the country, and for its members, and that includes me.

Newsbreak: NPC chair emeritus Danding Cojuangco allegedly dressed you down when you said that you wanted to investigate the sale of GSIS shares in Meralco to San Miguel. Corp.

Escudero: Not true, because I didn’t say it.