COUP needs funds to file and pursue the Class Suit through our Courts. It can only turn to the abused consumers for assistance since this fight concerns their rights as citizens of the Philippines entitled to the State's protection as mandated by the Constitution. NTC, an agency that is part of the Executive Branch has failed in its mandate to protect the interests of the consumer. Where they were supposed to be a neutral third party trying to balance the interest of the public and the service providers, it has not been strong enough to withstand the onslaught of what former Secretary Neri calls "booty capitalism".
Mr. Neri has defined "booty capitalism" as:
"The vicious cycle of booty capitalism starts when vested interests including powerful business groups, finance their own candidates during elections. When their candidates win, the vested interest groups are able to add political power to their already vast economic power. This oligarchic elite is able to influence policies to the point of distorting them. And their very ability to distort policies allows them to capture economic rent, economic rent being extraordinary profits which make them extraordinarily rich. This gives them greater economic power which in turn allows them to finance our election."
As an academician that has studied, analyzed and written a book on the matter, Mr. Neri would be a very appropriate expert witness in the Class Suit. And since the President will not be involved in this case, perhaps Mr. Neri would no longer invoke "Presidential Priviledge" to muzzle himself and not tell the public what he has known about the regulatory capture of the NTC.
Getting Mr. Neri as a witness could entail expense; more so if he would not be a hostile witness. Protecting him like Jun Lozada would have some logistical costs. COUP has no recourse but to turn to the cellphone owners for assistance. Experience has shown that amounts as small as PhP 2.50 could raise money to pay for multi-million prizes and huge earnings for people that have utilized the 4-digit numbers. COUP wanted to use the same facility to raise funds for the Class Suit. It is a good thing that the telcos refused to grant COUP the priviledge of using a 4-digit number. We found out that the amount that could be raised would be much much more than what would be needed. Imagine if half of the cellphone owners would just use the 4-digit number to register with COUP? Sharing just PhP1.00 from the PhP2.50 charge per SMS message, COUP would be earning PhP30,000,000 already. If all registrants would just send one SMS to define their complaint, that would be another PhP30,000,000. The amounts thus raised could provide COUP with all the funding to run expensive ads and promotions to pursue the Class Suit.
But COUP will not resort to using any 4-digit number. If it has to receive communications through cellphones from the subscribers, it will be as a simple and ordinary text message costing only PhP1.00. Any donation to COUP for the filing of a Class Suit will have to be on a voluntary basis. Special bank accounts will be opened with the major banks with online services where donations could be deposited. For those that can afford only to donate PhP1.00 which is the cost of only one text message, we would like to suggest that this be coursed through the Barangay officials.
We will be appealing to all Barangay officials to provide for a box where cellphone owners can drop their PhP1.00 donation after which they will write down on a piece of paper provided for the purpose their SIM or cellphone number and a personal USERname. They may also use their real names and indicate the amount of their donation. We expect the list of donors to be scanned or faxed together with the deposit slip of the collections after they are deposited with a designated bank nearest the Barangay.
Continue watching this space for more details on how you can send in your donations to the Class Suit that will be filed by COUP.
Ideas to raise funds for COUP:
Print and sell t-shirts to COUP supporters. Here
is an example of a COUP t-shirt.
Download the COUP
logo here.
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