ENERGY. At age 80-something, the energetic Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile knows what he wants and what the world needs. “Energy, my friends.”

It is the reason his TV spots are meant “to pressure the House and Malacañang” to act on and pass his bill to lower the cost of electricity by removing unreasonable layers of taxes, beginning with the ridiculous tax on natural gas that is not imported but comes straight from Malampaya. The tax on imported crude is 22 centavos, on natural gas is P1.75. Absurd? Somehow somewhere someone made it the law.

In JPE’s vision of the world, the extraction of fossil fuel from the bowels of the earth is tilting the earth on an axis that nature had not intended, and that is what is causing climate change. “Look at Manila, it’s like Davao now, rain every day.” While the experts explore options, nuclear power seems to be the most practical, most efficient alternative. “The Philippines is the only country that is afraid of nuclear power. Not that I am for nuclear power, but you have to be realistic.”

When he threatened to abolish National Telecommunications for its inability to regulate the telcos for their “vanishing” load, JPE found new energy in how every Tomas, Carding and Enrique, young and old, looked to him as their champion, though not exactly in the mold of Pacman. When he took on the pharmaceuticals for giving what he said was “tantamount to a bribe” in the form of discount cards, JPE was energized to see their response, spelled out in full-page ads. “Once upon a time they were my client,” he grinned, as if to say he can take his medicine.

The psychic energies that the nation, particularly the candidates, will be expending in fewer than 365 days matter to the Senate president. “The next President must call Congress to a Con-Con to debate certain provisions in the Constitution, such as to allow or not allow foreigners to invest in man-made lands (e.g., reclaim from the sea) as against God-made lands, to create structures and jobs.” His advice to senatorial bets: “Running a campaign is not as easy as going to the market to buy bihon.”

And the future of the economy? “Stop dreaming of industrialization, we’re past that stage. The future is in tourism.” To illustrate, the Cagayan Economic Zone is already the biggest little secret in wow! tourism, so remarkable is its success that visitors and gaming enthusiasts spend their energies there in Hong Kong currency.