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President Aquino has described the $10-billion bid for the lucrative and profitable Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) as “interesting” and said that, if ever a sale would push through, the government should get the best possible price.

Ramon Ang, the San Miguel Corp. vice president who announced the bid, justified the buy-out in these terms:

The sale of Pagcor fits in well with the President’s agenda. We are not asking him for anything but be true to his campaign promise of ensuring a level playing field for all businessmen

Ang, who counts Malaysian big business as friends, also said:

Why wait for six years to have $10 billion when he can have $10 billion in just six months? His government does not have to sell anything else and he will make the country a tiger economy immediately. Isn’t this a spectacular deal?

Elsewhere, the US approved the first ever aid grant to the Aquino government to the tune of $434-million which would purportedly go to tax reform, the anti-poverty efforts of the Kalahi program first introduced by President Arroyo, and a road project in Samar.

It is easy to be happy over both developments because both more money for government and conceptually more money for things and services the nation badly need.

There is however no assurance that: 1) subsequent transactions related to them would be corruption-free; and 2) the money would go to the direly-needed social services.

Take the US aid, for instance. Of the total amount, a whooping $214-million would go to the construction and repair of roads running up to 220 kilometers and passing through 15 towns. That’s roughly $1-million/kilometer and hordes of local executives, contractors and subcontractors may now be salivating at this bonanza. Would this road project be a “daang matuwid”? We hope so.

The new US aid is only the latest in a string of foreign assistance going to the Philippines. There are also the many loans that have forever saddled the nation, no thanks to the automatic appropriations which places the single-biggest chunk of the annual budget to paying off these loans. Yes, the so-called “aid” mostly become handicaps in the long run.

Prior to this, previous governments have received millions of dollars in aid and sold many other lucrative and profitable businesses but the social services remain underfunded. Privatization has not translated to improved delivery of basic services. In most cases, only the buyers of government property, foreign creditors and their friends in government are, in the end, the only ones who are happy.