According to congressman Javier Bedoya (Partido Popular Cristiano), the government party, the APRA, wants to make president Alan García look like the great mediator who corrects Congress` mistakes. As Mr. Bedoya points, the aim is obviously to improve Mr. García` s image in front of the public opinion. If Mr. Bedoya is right, it is, without doubt, an evil plan, because it is against Congress` interests, where the main formal opposition to the government is located. Also this week, government and Telefónica sat down to negotiate a reduction of tariffs. Negotiations are expected to culminate in December.

According to Bedoya, the ill-intentioned APRA-plot consists in Parliament approving bad bills so that the government immediately observes them. Mr. García is put in a position where he can correct the Legislative, which is somehow curious if one considers that the opposite happened during Mr. García` s first tenure in government (that was the case, for example, in the attempt to nationalize banks).

Nevertheless, sharp readers should notice that Mr. Bedoya` s complaint is, actually, a sad admission of the legislative opposition` s inability, or lack of interest, of correcting the bills that are not well sustained. In order for APRA to carry out its plan of enhancing the president` s image, it needs the support of the opposition. And the opposition has done just that, so that Mr. Bedoya and his colleagues are actually accessories to the conspiracy they report.

Mr. Bedoya points out that APRA has been encouraging the exoneration of a second ballot for some important bills. According to the legislator, the Bureau and the Board of Spokesmen are responsible for this situation. Apparently, he forgets that all the parliamentary groups are represented in the Board of Spokesmen. For the exoneration to proceed, a minimum of 70 votes are required, and the APRA parliamentary group has only 36 members. Moreover, in some cases, like in the bill that eliminates the renta básica for fixed-line network, the main promoter has been Yhony Lescano, a congressman from the opposition party Acción Popular.

To sum up, if Mr. Bedoya` s complaint has some credibility, then it is the opposition MPs who should be mostly criticized. Actually, the problem does not seem to be some sort of APRA conspiracy against the opposition. Moreover, it looks like, once again, MPs do not really reflect on the decisions they take. In order to avoid observing all the bills, Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo has demanded Congress more reflection before approving them. What will Mr. Bedoya, for whom there are no coincidences in politics, have to say about this?

No to the renta básica?

Coincidentally, the day Bedoya made his accusations against APRA, the government announced that the bill eliminating the renta básica was going to be observed. Ironic, isn`t it? According to del Castillo, the bill is unconstitutional and is not applicable to a contract such as the one the Peruvian State signed with Telefónica 12 years ago. That same day, Telefónica agreed to sit down with the government in order to reach a new understanding

Both parts have agreed on a common agenda. The question of what to do with renta básica is included in the agenda. No one knows what the result of the negotiations will be. Nevertheless, the government has made known to the public opinion that after a new agreement is reached, consumers should be able to save between 120 and 150 soles a year.

It looks like the government is no longer interested in eliminating the renta básica at any cost. It would be impossible to eliminate it because it is clearly a part of the contract. “When we observed the bill sent by Congress, we asked OSIPTEL to determine how much it would cost to proceed in that way. They informed us that the price of a minute of a phone call would end up being five times higher if the renta básica cost three soles. That is not reasonable”, said Communications Minister Verónica Zavala. The new goal set up by the government is now to reduce tariffs and expand the coverage of fixed-line network in all the country.

Nevertheless, according to Luis Bonifaz, an expert in telecommunications, it is clear that the negotiations are more political than technical:

“It is not possible to expand the coverage without including cellular phones. The fixed-line network covers only 8% of the country, while the mobile communication covers 25%. At this point, expanding the infrastructure of the fixed-line network goes against the tendencies in the rest of the world”

Ignazio De Ferrari