CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/28-12/4/2011
Over the past decades, our merriment for Christmas has been fading like yuletide balls tarnished by years of reuse as the family budget has grown too thin for newer, more polished celebratory trinkets.
Proof of this is a recent think tank study stating that things have gotten significantly worse in the years after EDSA Dos, which was supposed to have ushered in better times, as “civil society” and Makati Business Club stalwarts hailed the ascent of the “economist” Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The report, entitled, “Study traces poverty incidence to vested interests,” by the think tank named Stratbase cited World Bank data showing the increase in the number of poverty-stricken Filipinos by 3.4 million between 2008 and 2009.
Worse, in its comparison of growth rates in Asia, it found that “East Asian economies posted average annual GDP growth rates (of) 3.6 to 6.0 percent between 1960 and 2008, (whereas) the Philippines only managed an annual average increase of 1.4 percent during the same period.”
Africanization of PH
The report even cited this shocking Asian Development Bank finding “that for every one percent growth in gross domestic product, poverty incidence has gone down by an average of 1.5 percent across the world and two percent within Asia… (while) poverty incidence in the Philippines had actually risen since 2003, a time when the economy (was) thought to have grown very well.”
So, even with the modicum of growth the Philippines has supposedly been gaining, not only is its poverty incidence not been reduced (as compared to the rest of the world and Asia) but it is even growing.
And since the report shows us in such a bad light, it can only indicate that the Philippines is even doing worse than Africa.
I have always said that the Philippines is in the course toward “Africanization,” i.e. becoming as poor as the poorest in Africa.
But, it seems, we are overtaking that grim forecast even faster.
Money Powers
The “vested interests” Stratbase refers to it also calls “rent seekers” or those who “attempt to derive ‘economic rent’ by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by adding value.”
Chief among them are the oligarchs who use their money powers to obtain concessions from government and/or take over state contracts and assets.
Also included are the politicians who use their positions to enrich themselves (such as through their pork barrel)--and, I would add, media prostitutes churning out information and opinion for a fee, lawyers to the highest bidder, ad nausea.
Only a handful of noteworthy exceptions can be seen.
A fine example of a sterling professional who isn’t part of this rent seeking class is lawyer and constitutionalist, Atty. Alan Paguia, who declined the offer to join the legal team of Gloria Arroyo despite the fact that he was among the first to criticize the Department of Justice’s hold departure order -- leaving the other lawyers to stumble all over each other in hopping on Gloria’s defense bandwagon.
Intellectual Hires
Still, there is a very deep irony in the Stratbase report.
While it indicts the “vested interests” or “rent seekers” (a.k.a. oligarchs), its officers and academic resources themselves trace their roots from the oligarchs or their intellectual hires.
Its chairman Jose C. Ibazeta, for example, was Anscor president, as well as a Razon-owned ICTSI director and treasurer, and chairman of PSALM, which privatizes our country’s power assets to the oligarchs.
Meanwhile, Antonio “Tony Boy” Cojuangco is a member of the board, along with Amboy Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.
Among its academic advisers are Calixto Chikiamco of the pro-privatization Foundation for Economic Freedom (or FiEFdom, I say), Ayala adviser Randy David, and pro-USAid RH bill Atty. Raul Pangalangan.
Lobbying Or Rent Seeking?
In its prospectus, Stratbase says, “Our knowledge of the government and the ability to establish strategic communications network with policy and decision makers ensures that our client’s voices are heard.”
Now, isn’t that lobbying or rent seeking, too?
The oligarchs and their minions running the shows all over the place in our political-economic and cultural establishment can be likened to the “Grinch,” Dr. Seuss’ bitter, cave dwelling character who resents the merriment of the warmhearted “Whos” (similar to our Juan de la Cruzes).
As they steal the people’s Christmas, they ensure that every year is a poorer one for all Filipinos, except the few super-rich and their coterie of gofers, who are getting richer every year by increasing their monopolization and maximization of the fruits of the nation’s economy, and by exploiting the costs of power, water, infrastructure (such as toll ways), telecoms, port services, taxes, and debt.
Hard at Work
All our columns for the past year, numbering over 60, at least, have hammered on these economic evils that we consumers, citizens, taxpayers, and heads of families are suffering in the hands of those who control our country through their various methods of hoodwinking, swindling, and plundering.
Let me cite some developments showing that, indeed, the “Grinches” are hard at work to spoil our Christmas even more: “’Marinated meat and fish products no longer VAT-exempt’… (This is despite) Section 4.109-1(B)(1)(a) of Revenue Regulations No. (RR) 16-2005 (stating) that meats, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural and marine products shall be considered in their original state even if they have undergone the simple processes of preparation or preservation for the market such as freezing, drying, salting, broiling, roasting, smoking, or stripping, including those using advanced technological means of packaging, such as shrink wrapping in plastics, vacuum packing, tetra-pack, and other similar methods.”
Another, “’Poverty numbers worsen’… A third-quarter survey found 52% of the respondents--equivalent to an estimated 10.4 million households--considering themselves ‘mahirap’ or poor, up from 49% (9.8 million) in June. On the issue of being poor in terms of food, 41% (8.2 million families) claimed to be so, up from 36% (7.2 million) three months earlier…”
Hoping to Win
For next year, the aggravation will accelerate.
The MWSS has announced higher water rates come the New Year while the Department of Agriculture has admitted it will import over 1.6 million tons (after it had boasted that the era of rice imports is over).
Meanwhile, a report from PhilExport announced “84 days of power interruptions expected by 2014” (according to a UP study), and this is all because the Grinches have privatized almost all cheap power generation assets of state-owned Napocor while never adding any new plants.
For sure, they will use this as a reason for higher power rates when new ones are set up.
Despite all these, we shall still have a Merry Christmas season because we are fighting – not only because we have hope but also since we know that we will win against these Grinches in the end.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Aquinorroyo Conspiracy beneath the Drama
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/28-12/4/2011
OpinYon Regular
In March 2000, I was invited by Bert Pedrosa to join the Silent Protest Movement. I had met Bert and his wife, Chit (the author of the Unauthorized Biography of First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos), at a Fourteenth Anniversary Commemoration of the February 22 – 25, 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution at the basement of the Club Filipino.
The SPM, later better known as the “Exclamation Point Movement!” was protesting against the alleged massive corruption of the Estrada Administration.
Actually, Erap had been falling in the popularity and/or satisfaction ratings in the Pulse Asia and SWS surveys for the third and fourth quarters of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
Our SPM/EPM! used to meet every Saturday morning in a restaurant on Jupiter Street, Bel Air, Makati.
We averaged about a dozen in number. We were composed of veterans like Linda “Inday” Olaguer Montayre and former FVR DBM Secretary Salvador “Badong” or “Jun” Enriquez, the Pedrosas and even 1950’s Cold Warrior Ramon Binamira, as well as new faces.
‘Sticker’ Success
Our pioneer project was the square, black and white sticker with a slanted (to the right) Exclamation Point.
It was an instant success from its soft launch a forum of Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma and Sister Christine Tan at the Manila Polo Club on the last Monday night of March, 2000.
However, before the end of April, we had an internal falling out with Bert and Mon over the timing and the decision of calling for a Noise Barrage.
We parted ways and the Movement stalled just as Erap declared his “All-Out War” against the MILF.
Meanwhile, Jun and Inday organized and invited me to join the People’s Consultative Assembly (PCA).
The PCA, although overshadowed and overtaken by KOMPIL II and COPA, planned, initiated and executed the Ouster of Erap from October 2000 to January 20, 2001.
Let us move fast forward to the post May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections.
On Thursday, June 3, 2010, the Solidarity 4 Sovereignty surfaced at a People’s Assembly or Congress at the Kalayaan Hall of the Club Filipino.
Since then, I have been invited to two other activities including the People’s SONA in June or July this year where two Philippine Marine Officers (one active and one retired) spoke and rattled the Aquino Administration.
‘Zarzuela’ Statement
Following is the latest statement from the S4S covering the whole “HULLABALLOO” from the May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections until the present contest between the Executive and the Judiciary, P-Noy and the Supreme Court, Aquino and Arroyo:
SOLIDARITY 4 SOVEREIGNTY STATEMENT
ON THE TRO – HOLD ORDER “ZARZUELA” AND THE REAL ISSUES
(Topic breaks supplied. – Editor)
“We want Gloria Arroyo charged, indicted and punished for her many crimes against the Filipino people when she was president.
“But why has it taken the Noynoy Administration a year and a half for her to be formally charged with electoral fraud?
“Why have the DOJ and Ombudsman sat on the many cases of plunder, cheating and human rights violations against Gloria Arroyo?
“Why was the Executive Order on the Truth Commission so flawed it was easy for the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional?
“Why was it even headed by a chairman who was clearly beholden to Gloria?
Electoral Fraud Raps
“Many Filipinos are elated by the charge of electoral fraud against Gloria Arroyo for which a departure hold order by a court has been officially issued against her.
“But renowned constitutionalists/legal experts have stated that electoral fraud is a new offense after the Omnibus Election Code because of which the law has still many loopholes with the mechanics of the said law not still in place making her exoneration or dismissal of her case almost inevitable.
“Are we being taken for a ride by this administration and its “student council subalterns”?
“Is the “zarzuela” or mass deception underway to make it appear Gloria Arroyo is being prosecuted for her crimes just to pacify the Filipino people and to drum up popularity for Noynoy Aquino?
“Or is this part of the deal that Noynoy and Gloria entered into before the May 1O elections?
Conspiracy Evident
“The “Aquinorroyo Conspiracy” is becoming quite evident.
“At this stage Mike Arroyo and Mikey have escaped judgment for their many crimes against the Filipinos and no one in the Noynoy camp is complaining.
“The Filipino people will be left with an empty bag, thanks to Noynoy.
“Gloria Arroyo cheated FPJ in 2004 to continue her Presidency. She cheated again in 2007 to ensure that the check and balance of the Legislative will be bent in her favor as Executive. She had to cheat in 2010 through a Comelec that unconstitutionally turned over the elections to Smartmatic.
“Besides, the big eco-political elite did not want their interests threatened by a failure or postponement of elections thus they paved the way for Gloria to deal with her successor.
“Huge money changed hands for which we have been informed the late Gov. Nantes paid with his life and for which we have been calling for an investigation.
More Frightening, Sinister
“Who benefited from the cheating of Gloria Arroyo in 2010 through PCOS machines that read unauthenticated Xeroxed copies and not actual votes? Not the 2010 presidentiables who lost!
“Gloria had to cheat in 2010 to guarantee her protection as she ended her term as president, from prosecution and punishment and save her/her family’s life, but most important of all, to keep intact the trillions of people’s money she had stolen with her husband and sons.
“And the end game is even more frightening and sinister – a constituent assembly that will usher a parliamentary form of government and erase all the crimes of Gloria Arroyo and family in the old system of government.
“At the same time it will legitimize the unconstitutionality of the last elections from the presidency to the last mayor.
A Clever Cover-Up
“We see that this issue between the Supreme Court and the DOJ erupted when the results of a survey showed that more than half of our population or more than 1OM Filipino families said they were hungry.
“This seeming conflict of supposed Constitutional crisis proportions is a clever cover-up for the worsening poverty and hunger of our people which Noynoy Aquino has not cared to or has failed to address for the past 17 months.
“Noynoy has not even been able to control the runaway prices of food, fuel, other basic commodities, electricity and transportation, even toll fees, etc.
“Is there any economic relief under his watch especially with forecasts of further global economic collapse?
What should we do?
For Other Plunderers, too
“Threats of a global war confront us increasingly.
“Developed nations want to depopulate poor nations like ours so that they can use our mineral resources for themselves.
“Thus, we are ready to unite with groups based on principled goals to save ourselves and our nation.
“As we question Noynoy’s legitimacy, we can tolerate him if he will appropriately respond ASAP to the present hunger of the Filipino people by reducing prices of goods/commodities affordable to our poor.
“If he is unable to deliver, we shall seek other leaders/allies who will repudiate/suspend our national debt servicing 70% of our national budget, use the funds for education, health, housing and other social services and generate employment by empowering our manufacturing sector through the establishment of cheap electricity.
“We will consider as partners those who will genuinely charge, indict and punish Gloria Arroyo and family and make them return the colossal funds they plundered from our people.
“This should be done for other plunderers.
Keeping Sovereignty Intact
“We also call on our people to shelve with finality the foreign sponsored RH Bill with its clear mandate for abortion and population control.
“We ask our Muslim brothers and sisters to join us resolve the conflict in Mindanao with our sovereignty intact.
“And if we are to truly build our nation and make it strong, we must ensure that our military will no longer be just the glorified bodyguards of our politicians or wealthy elite but that they shall be trained and treated as the protector of our people and our State.
“Finally, we invite all Filipino patriots of all ideologies or political parties, of all sectors and regions, especially our youth, to build with us a nation that honors and protects our inalienable and sovereign rights.
“God Bless Us All! Mabuhay ang Bansang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Pilipino!!!”
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/28-12/4/2011
OpinYon Regular
In March 2000, I was invited by Bert Pedrosa to join the Silent Protest Movement. I had met Bert and his wife, Chit (the author of the Unauthorized Biography of First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos), at a Fourteenth Anniversary Commemoration of the February 22 – 25, 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution at the basement of the Club Filipino.
The SPM, later better known as the “Exclamation Point Movement!” was protesting against the alleged massive corruption of the Estrada Administration.
Actually, Erap had been falling in the popularity and/or satisfaction ratings in the Pulse Asia and SWS surveys for the third and fourth quarters of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
Our SPM/EPM! used to meet every Saturday morning in a restaurant on Jupiter Street, Bel Air, Makati.
We averaged about a dozen in number. We were composed of veterans like Linda “Inday” Olaguer Montayre and former FVR DBM Secretary Salvador “Badong” or “Jun” Enriquez, the Pedrosas and even 1950’s Cold Warrior Ramon Binamira, as well as new faces.
‘Sticker’ Success
Our pioneer project was the square, black and white sticker with a slanted (to the right) Exclamation Point.
It was an instant success from its soft launch a forum of Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma and Sister Christine Tan at the Manila Polo Club on the last Monday night of March, 2000.
However, before the end of April, we had an internal falling out with Bert and Mon over the timing and the decision of calling for a Noise Barrage.
We parted ways and the Movement stalled just as Erap declared his “All-Out War” against the MILF.
Meanwhile, Jun and Inday organized and invited me to join the People’s Consultative Assembly (PCA).
The PCA, although overshadowed and overtaken by KOMPIL II and COPA, planned, initiated and executed the Ouster of Erap from October 2000 to January 20, 2001.
Let us move fast forward to the post May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections.
On Thursday, June 3, 2010, the Solidarity 4 Sovereignty surfaced at a People’s Assembly or Congress at the Kalayaan Hall of the Club Filipino.
Since then, I have been invited to two other activities including the People’s SONA in June or July this year where two Philippine Marine Officers (one active and one retired) spoke and rattled the Aquino Administration.
‘Zarzuela’ Statement
Following is the latest statement from the S4S covering the whole “HULLABALLOO” from the May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections until the present contest between the Executive and the Judiciary, P-Noy and the Supreme Court, Aquino and Arroyo:
ON THE TRO – HOLD ORDER “ZARZUELA” AND THE REAL ISSUES
(Topic breaks supplied. – Editor)
“We want Gloria Arroyo charged, indicted and punished for her many crimes against the Filipino people when she was president.
“But why has it taken the Noynoy Administration a year and a half for her to be formally charged with electoral fraud?
“Why have the DOJ and Ombudsman sat on the many cases of plunder, cheating and human rights violations against Gloria Arroyo?
“Why was the Executive Order on the Truth Commission so flawed it was easy for the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional?
“Why was it even headed by a chairman who was clearly beholden to Gloria?
Electoral Fraud Raps
“Many Filipinos are elated by the charge of electoral fraud against Gloria Arroyo for which a departure hold order by a court has been officially issued against her.
“But renowned constitutionalists/legal experts have stated that electoral fraud is a new offense after the Omnibus Election Code because of which the law has still many loopholes with the mechanics of the said law not still in place making her exoneration or dismissal of her case almost inevitable.
“Are we being taken for a ride by this administration and its “student council subalterns”?
“Is the “zarzuela” or mass deception underway to make it appear Gloria Arroyo is being prosecuted for her crimes just to pacify the Filipino people and to drum up popularity for Noynoy Aquino?
“Or is this part of the deal that Noynoy and Gloria entered into before the May 1O elections?
Conspiracy Evident
“The “Aquinorroyo Conspiracy” is becoming quite evident.
“At this stage Mike Arroyo and Mikey have escaped judgment for their many crimes against the Filipinos and no one in the Noynoy camp is complaining.
“The Filipino people will be left with an empty bag, thanks to Noynoy.
“Gloria Arroyo cheated FPJ in 2004 to continue her Presidency. She cheated again in 2007 to ensure that the check and balance of the Legislative will be bent in her favor as Executive. She had to cheat in 2010 through a Comelec that unconstitutionally turned over the elections to Smartmatic.
“Besides, the big eco-political elite did not want their interests threatened by a failure or postponement of elections thus they paved the way for Gloria to deal with her successor.
“Huge money changed hands for which we have been informed the late Gov. Nantes paid with his life and for which we have been calling for an investigation.
More Frightening, Sinister
“Who benefited from the cheating of Gloria Arroyo in 2010 through PCOS machines that read unauthenticated Xeroxed copies and not actual votes? Not the 2010 presidentiables who lost!
“Gloria had to cheat in 2010 to guarantee her protection as she ended her term as president, from prosecution and punishment and save her/her family’s life, but most important of all, to keep intact the trillions of people’s money she had stolen with her husband and sons.
“And the end game is even more frightening and sinister – a constituent assembly that will usher a parliamentary form of government and erase all the crimes of Gloria Arroyo and family in the old system of government.
“At the same time it will legitimize the unconstitutionality of the last elections from the presidency to the last mayor.
A Clever Cover-Up
“We see that this issue between the Supreme Court and the DOJ erupted when the results of a survey showed that more than half of our population or more than 1OM Filipino families said they were hungry.
“This seeming conflict of supposed Constitutional crisis proportions is a clever cover-up for the worsening poverty and hunger of our people which Noynoy Aquino has not cared to or has failed to address for the past 17 months.
“Noynoy has not even been able to control the runaway prices of food, fuel, other basic commodities, electricity and transportation, even toll fees, etc.
“Is there any economic relief under his watch especially with forecasts of further global economic collapse?
What should we do?
For Other Plunderers, too
“Threats of a global war confront us increasingly.
“Developed nations want to depopulate poor nations like ours so that they can use our mineral resources for themselves.
“Thus, we are ready to unite with groups based on principled goals to save ourselves and our nation.
“As we question Noynoy’s legitimacy, we can tolerate him if he will appropriately respond ASAP to the present hunger of the Filipino people by reducing prices of goods/commodities affordable to our poor.
“If he is unable to deliver, we shall seek other leaders/allies who will repudiate/suspend our national debt servicing 70% of our national budget, use the funds for education, health, housing and other social services and generate employment by empowering our manufacturing sector through the establishment of cheap electricity.
“We will consider as partners those who will genuinely charge, indict and punish Gloria Arroyo and family and make them return the colossal funds they plundered from our people.
“This should be done for other plunderers.
Keeping Sovereignty Intact
“We also call on our people to shelve with finality the foreign sponsored RH Bill with its clear mandate for abortion and population control.
“We ask our Muslim brothers and sisters to join us resolve the conflict in Mindanao with our sovereignty intact.
“And if we are to truly build our nation and make it strong, we must ensure that our military will no longer be just the glorified bodyguards of our politicians or wealthy elite but that they shall be trained and treated as the protector of our people and our State.
“Finally, we invite all Filipino patriots of all ideologies or political parties, of all sectors and regions, especially our youth, to build with us a nation that honors and protects our inalienable and sovereign rights.
“God Bless Us All! Mabuhay ang Bansang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Pilipino!!!”
Monday, November 28, 2011
Things just get worse
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/28/2011
While mainstream media, politicians, lawyers, text addicts, and the man-on-the-street get sucked into a Gloria Arroyo-carping mindset, the situation on the ground just keeps getting worse. A new think tank that’s making its presence felt recently released some startling findings about the Philippines.
A report by Stratbase entitled, “Study traces poverty incidence to vested interests,” cited World Bank data showing the increase in the number of poverty-stricken Filipinos by 3.4 million between the years 2008 and 2009. Even worse, its comparison of growth rates in Asia showed how much of a basket case we are. It said that “while East Asian economies posted average annual GDP growth rates from 3.6 to 6.0 percent between 1960 and 2008, the Philippines only managed an annual average increase of 1.4 percent during the same period.”
But there’s more: While the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was said to have found “that for every one percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP), poverty incidence has gone down by an average of 1.5 percent across the world and two percent within Asia… poverty incidence in the Philippines had actually risen since 2003, a time when the economy (was) thought to have grown very well.”
Even with the modicum of growth the Philippines has supposedly gained, not only is its poverty incidence not been reduced — it is, in fact, growing. What this means is that we are doing even worse than Africa.
As I have always said, the Philippines is on course toward “Africanization,” i.e. becoming as poor as the poorest in Africa. But, it seems, we are now getting there even faster.
So who exactly are these “vested interests?” They are the “rent seekers” whom Stratbase says “attempt to derive ‘economic rent’ by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by adding value.” Even though it failed to provide specifics, it’s quite easy to glean that these rent seekers comprise the oligarchs who use their money powers to obtain concessions from government and/or take over state contracts and assets; politicians who use their positions to enrich themselves; media prostitutes who peddle information and opinion for a fee; as well as lawyers who answer to the highest bidder; and so on.
Notably, only a few choose not to be part of this rent seeking class. A fine example is eminent lawyer and constitutionalist Alan Paguia, who, despite being among the first to criticize the Department of Justice’s hold departure order, declined the offer to join the legal team of Gloria Arroyo, leaving his other compañeros to stumble over one another in hopping aboard the hospitalized lawmaker’s defense bandwagon.
Still, there is a very deep irony in Stratbase itself. While it indicts the vested interests or rent seekers, its officers and academic resources also have strong ties to these oligarchs or their intellectual hires.
Its chairman Jose Ibazeta, for example, was an Anscor (A. Soriano Corp.) president, as well as a director and treasurer of a known port management giant, and a chairman of state holding firm, Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.), which privatizes our country’s power assets to the oligarchs. Meanwhile, Antonio “Tony Boy” Cojuangco is a member of the board, along with Amboy Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario. Among its academic advisers are Calixto Chikiamco of the pro-privatization Foundation for Economic Freedom; Ayala adviser Randy David; and pro-USAid RH (Reproductive Health) bill law professor Raul Pangalangan.
In its prospectus, Stratbase says, “Our knowledge of the government and the ability to establish strategic communications network with policy and decision makers ensures that our client’s voices are heard.” Sounds like lobbying or rent seeking to me.
The Philippine ruling class that runs our society and political-economy today, of which Stratbase appears to be an epitome, is (in a real sense) fraudulent, self-seeking, parasitic, intellectually dishonest, hypocritical, and incompetent — as can be witnessed in all the raging debates about Mrs. Arroyo. Even as worse transgressions by the oligarchs and their foreign masters against our nation continue to escalate, all these are merely glossed over by such lofty campaigns against the “evils” of the past.
Good thing we still have a number of outstanding individuals who represent the interests of the vast silent majority. Paguia, for one, continues to shine a light in the legal arena; while others such as Mang Naro Lualhati, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, Bono Adaza together with Sulo ng Pilipino, Bagong Katipuneros (Magdalos), PLM and others, continue to fight for several nationalistic causes. They certainly prove that, unlike the ruling class, not everybody is simply out for a buck.
But, while the people have yet to seize victory, things can only get worse. No, we’re not just speaking of political-economic decay but one that eats away at the spirit of man, too. With all the demoralization, im-moralization, doublespeak, obfuscation, scapegoatism, hypocrisy and idiocy around, under a supposed democracy where the economic life of the nation deteriorates while only a few monopolize it in greater and greater proportions, just how can one’s humanity be left untarnished?
As Mahatma Gandhi correctly pointed out, “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are.”
True, some may continue to point the accusing finger — like the pot to the kettle — to hide their own corruption; but as long as there are Filipinos who won’t tolerate such hypocrisy, there’s hope that they can be brought together in a political movement that will oust the corrupt in our society in due time.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/28/2011
While mainstream media, politicians, lawyers, text addicts, and the man-on-the-street get sucked into a Gloria Arroyo-carping mindset, the situation on the ground just keeps getting worse. A new think tank that’s making its presence felt recently released some startling findings about the Philippines.
A report by Stratbase entitled, “Study traces poverty incidence to vested interests,” cited World Bank data showing the increase in the number of poverty-stricken Filipinos by 3.4 million between the years 2008 and 2009. Even worse, its comparison of growth rates in Asia showed how much of a basket case we are. It said that “while East Asian economies posted average annual GDP growth rates from 3.6 to 6.0 percent between 1960 and 2008, the Philippines only managed an annual average increase of 1.4 percent during the same period.”
But there’s more: While the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was said to have found “that for every one percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP), poverty incidence has gone down by an average of 1.5 percent across the world and two percent within Asia… poverty incidence in the Philippines had actually risen since 2003, a time when the economy (was) thought to have grown very well.”
Even with the modicum of growth the Philippines has supposedly gained, not only is its poverty incidence not been reduced — it is, in fact, growing. What this means is that we are doing even worse than Africa.
As I have always said, the Philippines is on course toward “Africanization,” i.e. becoming as poor as the poorest in Africa. But, it seems, we are now getting there even faster.
So who exactly are these “vested interests?” They are the “rent seekers” whom Stratbase says “attempt to derive ‘economic rent’ by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by adding value.” Even though it failed to provide specifics, it’s quite easy to glean that these rent seekers comprise the oligarchs who use their money powers to obtain concessions from government and/or take over state contracts and assets; politicians who use their positions to enrich themselves; media prostitutes who peddle information and opinion for a fee; as well as lawyers who answer to the highest bidder; and so on.
Notably, only a few choose not to be part of this rent seeking class. A fine example is eminent lawyer and constitutionalist Alan Paguia, who, despite being among the first to criticize the Department of Justice’s hold departure order, declined the offer to join the legal team of Gloria Arroyo, leaving his other compañeros to stumble over one another in hopping aboard the hospitalized lawmaker’s defense bandwagon.
Still, there is a very deep irony in Stratbase itself. While it indicts the vested interests or rent seekers, its officers and academic resources also have strong ties to these oligarchs or their intellectual hires.
Its chairman Jose Ibazeta, for example, was an Anscor (A. Soriano Corp.) president, as well as a director and treasurer of a known port management giant, and a chairman of state holding firm, Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.), which privatizes our country’s power assets to the oligarchs. Meanwhile, Antonio “Tony Boy” Cojuangco is a member of the board, along with Amboy Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario. Among its academic advisers are Calixto Chikiamco of the pro-privatization Foundation for Economic Freedom; Ayala adviser Randy David; and pro-USAid RH (Reproductive Health) bill law professor Raul Pangalangan.
In its prospectus, Stratbase says, “Our knowledge of the government and the ability to establish strategic communications network with policy and decision makers ensures that our client’s voices are heard.” Sounds like lobbying or rent seeking to me.
The Philippine ruling class that runs our society and political-economy today, of which Stratbase appears to be an epitome, is (in a real sense) fraudulent, self-seeking, parasitic, intellectually dishonest, hypocritical, and incompetent — as can be witnessed in all the raging debates about Mrs. Arroyo. Even as worse transgressions by the oligarchs and their foreign masters against our nation continue to escalate, all these are merely glossed over by such lofty campaigns against the “evils” of the past.
Good thing we still have a number of outstanding individuals who represent the interests of the vast silent majority. Paguia, for one, continues to shine a light in the legal arena; while others such as Mang Naro Lualhati, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, Bono Adaza together with Sulo ng Pilipino, Bagong Katipuneros (Magdalos), PLM and others, continue to fight for several nationalistic causes. They certainly prove that, unlike the ruling class, not everybody is simply out for a buck.
But, while the people have yet to seize victory, things can only get worse. No, we’re not just speaking of political-economic decay but one that eats away at the spirit of man, too. With all the demoralization, im-moralization, doublespeak, obfuscation, scapegoatism, hypocrisy and idiocy around, under a supposed democracy where the economic life of the nation deteriorates while only a few monopolize it in greater and greater proportions, just how can one’s humanity be left untarnished?
As Mahatma Gandhi correctly pointed out, “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are.”
True, some may continue to point the accusing finger — like the pot to the kettle — to hide their own corruption; but as long as there are Filipinos who won’t tolerate such hypocrisy, there’s hope that they can be brought together in a political movement that will oust the corrupt in our society in due time.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Friday, November 25, 2011
Scapegoating again
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/25/2011
Only after a year-and-a-half of very obvious dilly-dallying — with what was deliberately an ill-conceived Truth Commission and countless false starts of much publicized plunder and electoral fraud accusations against Gloria Arroyo that spurred a national chorus of denouncement after a cat-and-mouse comedy unfurled at the international airport — did the BS Aquino III administration finally file a case to legally hold its supposed bête noire in the country.
It’s not a narrative that can convince any keen observer of the seriousness of this government in seeking justice, especially since the hospital arrest of PeNoy’s predecessor changes nothing in the oppressive conditions brought forth by their successive regimes.
Rates for electricity, water, toll ways, the MRT/LRT, tuition, as well as prices of basic goods — and, consequently, poverty and hunger — all continue to rise. These are but a continuing legacy of an Edsa II Yellow coup more than 10 years ago that reversed the pro-people Erap administration’s no price increase policy.
With GDP growth down to 4.5 percent from a projected 6 percent; a massive drop in exports; beleaguered collections at the Bureau of Customs; the worsening poverty and hunger indices; and, among many other things, the embarrassing admission that government will have to import 860,000 tons of rice again despite promises by the Agriculture Secretary and PeNoy himself that rice imports are a thing of the past, the arrest of Mrs. Arroyo is simply an attempt at a PR bonanza for an incumbent regime that now badly — nay, desperately — needs it.
It’s very clear that around two months ago, the foreign and local PR advisers of Aquino III managed to convince him that the Aquinorroyo “deal” had to be revised, with Arroyo sacrificed for the good of his administration. Besides, the clamor from the victims of Gloria’s transgressions, including those who were cheated by her electoral and political violations, could not be denied anymore.
Still, there was no lack of defense of Arroyo from the largest bunch of hypocrites within the administration and outside its circle, convincing me even more that the whole affair is the moro-moro I have said it to be all along.
While the mouthpieces of Malacañang and the Department of Justice (DoJ) insist that they are only pursuing the law while foregoing due process, the so-called experts cum sophistic legal authorities who defiled the law at Edsa II, like that Jesuit Bernas who justified the violation of the people’s democratic vote for President Estrada, now argue in behalf of Mrs. Arroyo’s legal rights to due process and equal protection of the law.
At the same time, as the Supreme Court was believed to have tipped Gloria off on its impending issuance of the TRO to give her time to make a sprint to the airport, Malacañang had to stop the flight by hook or by crook as the skeptic, in seeing the larger ruse, would have busted all of them.
That larger ruse is the continuance of the system that has prevailed since Edsa I: The myth that the rule of law reigns and that democracy and justice exist in this country.
Edsa I restored the old oligarchic families, all of whom, according of Alfred McCoy’s An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, Marcos had begun to dismantle earlier. Only idiots wouldn’t see that since 1986, upon Cory Aquino takeover, government has merely been reduced to an alternation of oligarchic factions in monopolizing the nation’s wealth.
Gloria is now the scapegoat of these families despite the fact that PeNoy and his cronies all aided and abetted her usurpation of power twice and partook of the economic plunder and defilement of all government institutions and the rule of law.
Real justice, thus, can only be attained if we see all of them jailed with Gloria, starting with the businessmen who have transferred loyalties to Aquino to continue their plunder.
Unlike their ouster and persecution of Estrada that were hugely detested by the general population, the scapegoating of Gloria is a very effective move. Estrada had genuine efforts to champion the people such as the lowering of the MRT fares; the non-implementation of any power or water rate increases in his attenuated two-and-a-half year term; the elimination of the MILF camps; his support of the peasantry in land reform and irrigation programs; and, not to forget, his lunches with the urban poor in their homes.
When they tried to make a scapegoat of Estrada, the masses exploded in protest, leading to the Edsa III uprising where Gloria Arroyo had to machinegun them down. Their moves against Estrada were, in fact, popular only with the oligarchs and the US Embassy.
In contrast, when Arroyo’s henchmen allegedly tried to build up her rally crowd last week with an offer of P500 per person, they weren’t even able to muster a few hundred, forcing them to call it off. Of course, Gloria’s better organizers such as Dinky Soliman and Ronald Llamas are now with PeNoy, gleefully handling billions in doleout funds.
As such, the real cancers continue to fester in our political-economy, with the Arroyo scapegoat as the opiate to distract the people from their misery.
Even as my radio listeners rejoiced at the arrest of Gloria, the euphoria quickly dimmed when I asked: “Does this bring down your electricity or water bill, or the VAT (value added tax) that’s now added to the toll ways, and even to marinated meats and fish (yes, Virginia, even tocino)? Will this stop the fare increases in the MRT or other modes of transport, or the corruption in all three branches of government?”
The worst part of this scapegoating is that the looting and plunder under the new administration will exacerbate under the cloud of dust this arrest has kicked up — which will stay in the air for weeks and months while the Office of the Executive Secretary and its allies in Congress, local government (Quezon City, for one), and everywhere else wreak havoc.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “An Interview with Ken Fuller, Author of A Movement Divided”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/25/2011
Only after a year-and-a-half of very obvious dilly-dallying — with what was deliberately an ill-conceived Truth Commission and countless false starts of much publicized plunder and electoral fraud accusations against Gloria Arroyo that spurred a national chorus of denouncement after a cat-and-mouse comedy unfurled at the international airport — did the BS Aquino III administration finally file a case to legally hold its supposed bête noire in the country.
It’s not a narrative that can convince any keen observer of the seriousness of this government in seeking justice, especially since the hospital arrest of PeNoy’s predecessor changes nothing in the oppressive conditions brought forth by their successive regimes.
Rates for electricity, water, toll ways, the MRT/LRT, tuition, as well as prices of basic goods — and, consequently, poverty and hunger — all continue to rise. These are but a continuing legacy of an Edsa II Yellow coup more than 10 years ago that reversed the pro-people Erap administration’s no price increase policy.
With GDP growth down to 4.5 percent from a projected 6 percent; a massive drop in exports; beleaguered collections at the Bureau of Customs; the worsening poverty and hunger indices; and, among many other things, the embarrassing admission that government will have to import 860,000 tons of rice again despite promises by the Agriculture Secretary and PeNoy himself that rice imports are a thing of the past, the arrest of Mrs. Arroyo is simply an attempt at a PR bonanza for an incumbent regime that now badly — nay, desperately — needs it.
It’s very clear that around two months ago, the foreign and local PR advisers of Aquino III managed to convince him that the Aquinorroyo “deal” had to be revised, with Arroyo sacrificed for the good of his administration. Besides, the clamor from the victims of Gloria’s transgressions, including those who were cheated by her electoral and political violations, could not be denied anymore.
Still, there was no lack of defense of Arroyo from the largest bunch of hypocrites within the administration and outside its circle, convincing me even more that the whole affair is the moro-moro I have said it to be all along.
While the mouthpieces of Malacañang and the Department of Justice (DoJ) insist that they are only pursuing the law while foregoing due process, the so-called experts cum sophistic legal authorities who defiled the law at Edsa II, like that Jesuit Bernas who justified the violation of the people’s democratic vote for President Estrada, now argue in behalf of Mrs. Arroyo’s legal rights to due process and equal protection of the law.
At the same time, as the Supreme Court was believed to have tipped Gloria off on its impending issuance of the TRO to give her time to make a sprint to the airport, Malacañang had to stop the flight by hook or by crook as the skeptic, in seeing the larger ruse, would have busted all of them.
That larger ruse is the continuance of the system that has prevailed since Edsa I: The myth that the rule of law reigns and that democracy and justice exist in this country.
Edsa I restored the old oligarchic families, all of whom, according of Alfred McCoy’s An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, Marcos had begun to dismantle earlier. Only idiots wouldn’t see that since 1986, upon Cory Aquino takeover, government has merely been reduced to an alternation of oligarchic factions in monopolizing the nation’s wealth.
Gloria is now the scapegoat of these families despite the fact that PeNoy and his cronies all aided and abetted her usurpation of power twice and partook of the economic plunder and defilement of all government institutions and the rule of law.
Real justice, thus, can only be attained if we see all of them jailed with Gloria, starting with the businessmen who have transferred loyalties to Aquino to continue their plunder.
Unlike their ouster and persecution of Estrada that were hugely detested by the general population, the scapegoating of Gloria is a very effective move. Estrada had genuine efforts to champion the people such as the lowering of the MRT fares; the non-implementation of any power or water rate increases in his attenuated two-and-a-half year term; the elimination of the MILF camps; his support of the peasantry in land reform and irrigation programs; and, not to forget, his lunches with the urban poor in their homes.
When they tried to make a scapegoat of Estrada, the masses exploded in protest, leading to the Edsa III uprising where Gloria Arroyo had to machinegun them down. Their moves against Estrada were, in fact, popular only with the oligarchs and the US Embassy.
In contrast, when Arroyo’s henchmen allegedly tried to build up her rally crowd last week with an offer of P500 per person, they weren’t even able to muster a few hundred, forcing them to call it off. Of course, Gloria’s better organizers such as Dinky Soliman and Ronald Llamas are now with PeNoy, gleefully handling billions in doleout funds.
As such, the real cancers continue to fester in our political-economy, with the Arroyo scapegoat as the opiate to distract the people from their misery.
Even as my radio listeners rejoiced at the arrest of Gloria, the euphoria quickly dimmed when I asked: “Does this bring down your electricity or water bill, or the VAT (value added tax) that’s now added to the toll ways, and even to marinated meats and fish (yes, Virginia, even tocino)? Will this stop the fare increases in the MRT or other modes of transport, or the corruption in all three branches of government?”
The worst part of this scapegoating is that the looting and plunder under the new administration will exacerbate under the cloud of dust this arrest has kicked up — which will stay in the air for weeks and months while the Office of the Executive Secretary and its allies in Congress, local government (Quezon City, for one), and everywhere else wreak havoc.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “An Interview with Ken Fuller, Author of A Movement Divided”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Consumers' Interest Cost Burden
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/21-27/2011
When we buy a retail item such as a pack of tocino, a TV set or a vehicle, we are not only paying for the commodity itself.
A great part of the money we shell out for the things we buy -- as it is too for service -- goes to the interest cost on money, and it’s shockingly far larger than what most people realize.
At every level of the production, distribution, and marketing phases, there are layers of interest charges that are taken for granted and seldom computed.
Layers of Add-Ons
It is only when we look into them that we can begin to realize that these layers upon layers of interest costs can exceed the material and labor cost of the commodity or service that we buy.
For a picture of how shocking the interest cost of commodities is in Western economies, here is a quote from Ellen Brown writing on “Time for an Economic Bill of Rights”:
“According to Margrit Kennedy, a German researcher who has studied this issue extensively, interest now composes 40% of the cost of everything we buy. We don’t see it on the sales slips, but interest is exacted at every stage of production.
"Suppliers need to take out loans to pay for labor and materials, before they have a product to sell.
"For government projects, Kennedy found that the average cost of interest is 50%. If the government owned the banks, it could keep the interest and get these projects at half price.
"That means governments--state and federal--could double the number of projects they could afford, without costing the taxpayers a single penny more than we are paying now.
“This opens up exciting possibilities. Federal and state governments could fund all sorts of things we think we can’t afford now, simply by owning their own banks. They could fund something Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Luther King dreamt of--an Economic Bill of Rights.”
Interest-Free Economy
Readers can go to YouTube and watch the video of Margrit Kennedy explaining her ideal of “the interest-free economy,” which Ellen Brown cites as a central argument to her listing of an Economic Bill of Rights -- something we clearly should have in the Philippines too.
It is important to note that even in Western countries, governments also add to the interest charges burden on their consumers and the public.
This is because the US dollar, upon which most other currencies of the world (except the likes of China or Cuba) are based, is a currency based on debt.
The US government cannot print money or issue credit without borrowing through the US Federal Reserve, which is a private bank constituted by 12 District Federal Reserves owned by private banks.
There is really nothing “Federal” about it, and the name is just a cover for one of history’s largest and most successful banking mafia scams (by JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, et al.).
More than the West's
China’s state banks, meanwhile, are responsible to the Party which is obsessed with public welfare financial management as its responsibility is clear to the public.
Here, Filipinos pay even more interest charges than in the West.
On top of the regular interest charges businesses contract for the goods and services consumers buy, Filipinos have to pay a humongous burden of interest cost on the P4.7-trillion national that is embedded in everything produced in the Philippines, as well as interest on the rollover of principal -- all totaling around P800 billion annually.
At the retail end in the Philippines, when we buy goods such as fresh foods or banana-Q from the palengke or maglalako, we are also paying for the horrendous “5-6” rates that can amount to 500% interest per annum for the market or street vendor.
In between the interest on the national debt and the 5-6 at the lowest retail end, we have the interest charges passed on to us by the farmer or importer of raw materials or the manufacturer-processor, even the interest cost of the wholesaler, distributor, fuel supplier, and gasoline stations that go to transport, before reaching the retail end.
Outright Moratorium
Filipinos must begin to understand the financial system and our money; discovering the role of interest charges in making life so expensive and miserable even for our middle class.
Secondly, we all must begin to clamor for the outright moratorium on our debt in the same manner that people in European countries such as Greece and Italy are demanding form their governments (that’s why there’s been a bankers’ coup against elected leaders Papandreou and Berlusconi, replaced by these bankers’ technocrats).
Then, Filipinos should begin to study the need for state banking to replace the present private banking system which exacts a heavy toll on all Filipino consumers.
The prime example of this is China where, in the midst of the 2008 financial collapse, its banks pumped cheap money to consumers to perk up its economy, unlike in the US and Europe where governments bailed out privately-owned banks.
Ellen Brown quotes Henry Ford in the prelude to her article on “Economic Bill of Rights”:
“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Left Holding the Bag
As I read this, I recall the recent exposé of the Lopez companies’ behest loans of billions from the DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) of which P1.6 billion were written off by the bank.
The companies that benefited were Maynilad, Central CATV, Benpres Holdings, and BayanTel. But they were not alone in ripping off the DBP.
The Ayalas’ BPI also did it for P8.6 billion and the Yuchengcos’ RCBC for P3.9 billion through the SPAV (a law written by Joe de Venecia and Ralph Recto), whereby bad loans (or non-performing assets) are passed on to state banks that are to be left holding the bag.
Philippine public banks are misnomers as they are instruments of the ruling oligarchs that loot them through the politicians they control.
Of course, we need a truly free and independent state dedicated to national welfare before state banks begin to really work.
We do not have space in this column for how Brown’s “Economic Bill of Rights” can be translated in the Philippines setting. But it is imperative that the Political Bill of Rights must be preceded by an economic one to ensure the people’s individual economic independence so as to make political democracy work.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/21-27/2011
When we buy a retail item such as a pack of tocino, a TV set or a vehicle, we are not only paying for the commodity itself.
A great part of the money we shell out for the things we buy -- as it is too for service -- goes to the interest cost on money, and it’s shockingly far larger than what most people realize.
At every level of the production, distribution, and marketing phases, there are layers of interest charges that are taken for granted and seldom computed.
Layers of Add-Ons
It is only when we look into them that we can begin to realize that these layers upon layers of interest costs can exceed the material and labor cost of the commodity or service that we buy.
For a picture of how shocking the interest cost of commodities is in Western economies, here is a quote from Ellen Brown writing on “Time for an Economic Bill of Rights”:
“According to Margrit Kennedy, a German researcher who has studied this issue extensively, interest now composes 40% of the cost of everything we buy. We don’t see it on the sales slips, but interest is exacted at every stage of production.
"Suppliers need to take out loans to pay for labor and materials, before they have a product to sell.
"For government projects, Kennedy found that the average cost of interest is 50%. If the government owned the banks, it could keep the interest and get these projects at half price.
"That means governments--state and federal--could double the number of projects they could afford, without costing the taxpayers a single penny more than we are paying now.
“This opens up exciting possibilities. Federal and state governments could fund all sorts of things we think we can’t afford now, simply by owning their own banks. They could fund something Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Luther King dreamt of--an Economic Bill of Rights.”
Interest-Free Economy
Readers can go to YouTube and watch the video of Margrit Kennedy explaining her ideal of “the interest-free economy,” which Ellen Brown cites as a central argument to her listing of an Economic Bill of Rights -- something we clearly should have in the Philippines too.
It is important to note that even in Western countries, governments also add to the interest charges burden on their consumers and the public.
This is because the US dollar, upon which most other currencies of the world (except the likes of China or Cuba) are based, is a currency based on debt.
The US government cannot print money or issue credit without borrowing through the US Federal Reserve, which is a private bank constituted by 12 District Federal Reserves owned by private banks.
There is really nothing “Federal” about it, and the name is just a cover for one of history’s largest and most successful banking mafia scams (by JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, et al.).
More than the West's
China’s state banks, meanwhile, are responsible to the Party which is obsessed with public welfare financial management as its responsibility is clear to the public.
Here, Filipinos pay even more interest charges than in the West.
On top of the regular interest charges businesses contract for the goods and services consumers buy, Filipinos have to pay a humongous burden of interest cost on the P4.7-trillion national that is embedded in everything produced in the Philippines, as well as interest on the rollover of principal -- all totaling around P800 billion annually.
At the retail end in the Philippines, when we buy goods such as fresh foods or banana-Q from the palengke or maglalako, we are also paying for the horrendous “5-6” rates that can amount to 500% interest per annum for the market or street vendor.
In between the interest on the national debt and the 5-6 at the lowest retail end, we have the interest charges passed on to us by the farmer or importer of raw materials or the manufacturer-processor, even the interest cost of the wholesaler, distributor, fuel supplier, and gasoline stations that go to transport, before reaching the retail end.
Outright Moratorium
Filipinos must begin to understand the financial system and our money; discovering the role of interest charges in making life so expensive and miserable even for our middle class.
Secondly, we all must begin to clamor for the outright moratorium on our debt in the same manner that people in European countries such as Greece and Italy are demanding form their governments (that’s why there’s been a bankers’ coup against elected leaders Papandreou and Berlusconi, replaced by these bankers’ technocrats).
Then, Filipinos should begin to study the need for state banking to replace the present private banking system which exacts a heavy toll on all Filipino consumers.
The prime example of this is China where, in the midst of the 2008 financial collapse, its banks pumped cheap money to consumers to perk up its economy, unlike in the US and Europe where governments bailed out privately-owned banks.
Ellen Brown quotes Henry Ford in the prelude to her article on “Economic Bill of Rights”:
“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Left Holding the Bag
As I read this, I recall the recent exposé of the Lopez companies’ behest loans of billions from the DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) of which P1.6 billion were written off by the bank.
The companies that benefited were Maynilad, Central CATV, Benpres Holdings, and BayanTel. But they were not alone in ripping off the DBP.
The Ayalas’ BPI also did it for P8.6 billion and the Yuchengcos’ RCBC for P3.9 billion through the SPAV (a law written by Joe de Venecia and Ralph Recto), whereby bad loans (or non-performing assets) are passed on to state banks that are to be left holding the bag.
Philippine public banks are misnomers as they are instruments of the ruling oligarchs that loot them through the politicians they control.
Of course, we need a truly free and independent state dedicated to national welfare before state banks begin to really work.
We do not have space in this column for how Brown’s “Economic Bill of Rights” can be translated in the Philippines setting. But it is imperative that the Political Bill of Rights must be preceded by an economic one to ensure the people’s individual economic independence so as to make political democracy work.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
An Invitation to Anarchy and Chaos!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/21-27/2011
OpinYon Regular
The Aquino Administration, especially as regards its Secretary of Justice, is composed of a bunch of Delinquents and Truants.
When they had the time, they did not do their homework and study. When the time came to recite and/or pass the home work or seat work or test or quiz, they were “bokya,” “nada,” “wala,” zero! They had to resort to cheating and lying.
Last week, we asked: “Who is responsible for allowing the Arroyos to legally fly the coop?”
Not based on the Constitution
With all the intelligence, investigative and prosecutorial resources at the disposal of the Executive Branch, they have not yet, as of press time, filed a single criminal case before the courts against GMA or Mike Tuason Arroyo.
It is as though the Rumors and Suspicions of an “Aquinorroyo*" rather than a “Villarroyo” conspiracy in the last May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections are true.
This is one of the allegations of Solidarity 4 Sovereignty, an independent organization that has been consistently questioning the results of the last elections for the past year and a half.
On the other hand, still another organization, the “Tanggulang Demokrasiya,” recently made a presentation at the Fernandina Media Forum, showing that Noynoy’s election was not based on the Constitution and Election Laws and Regulations.
According to them, P-Noy is not a “de Jure” but rather, only a “de facto” President.
Challenged by ‘Who?’
On Tuesday night, the Aquino Administration stole a page from the Marcos Dictatorship (A clumsy one at that).
P-Noy and his unconfirmed Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima refused to follow and honor the Temporary Restraining Order handed down by the Supreme Court late last Tuesday afternoon.
The Department of Justice through the Bureau of Immigration has been violating the Bill of Rights as enshrined in our 1987 Constitution.
A mere DOJ memorandum circular without the force or mandate of a law, has been restricting the Right to Travel of Citizens through a so called “Watch List” rather than the legal “Hold Departure Order” that should be issued by the Courts.
Unfortunately, this was challenged by of all people, the Arroyos.
OK to Assert
Many are now saying that if only it, he, she or they were not the Arroyos, it would be OK to assert the Constitutional Right to Travel.
However, according to them, the Arroyos are not ordinary people, as though there is such an exception in the Bill of Rights.
If we want to reduce the argument “Ad absurdum,” one can say that Ninoy was not an ordinary person and so it was OK to kill him on Sunday, August 21, 1983.
An argument can always be invented as to the “Public Interest…"
Yes, everybody, except the fiscals and prosecutors who are supposed to file the criminal cases, know that the Arroyos are Plunderers, “Magnanakaws,” Grafters and Criminals.
Then, go ahead and file the cases before the Courts.
Hypothetically…
P-Noy and De Lima have been in office for sixteen and a half months.
How many months has Merceditas Gutierrez been out and Carpio-Morales been in at the Office of the Ombudsman?
How many months have passed since the Truth Commission has been thrown out? Who wrote the defective Executive Order in the first place?
Let us compare the Arroyos case with a different kind of hypothetical case.
Instead of a privileged, former “ruling” couple, let us consider a community of squatters that are about to be evicted.
Like the couple, whom everybody knows were guilty of plunder and more, everybody knows that these are squatters.
They illegally built their houses without permission on private land.
They also did not secure building permits from the LGU before they built their illegal structures.
Demolition Day
One day, the owner of the land believes that he has complied with all the legal requirements and has prepared a demolition team to demolish the illegal structures and eject the squatters.
Then, at the last minute, a court issues a TRO against the demolition and ejection and the TRO is served by the Court’s Sheriff.
Can the landowner hide from the Sheriff serving the TRO and eject the squatters between 5 pm and 8 am.
This was what De Lima did when the DOJ refused to be served the Supreme Court’s TRO after 5 pm, on Tuesday, last week.
They argued as though the Constitution and its Bill of Rights may sleep after office hours and be effective only starting at the usual start of office hours at 8 am.
Then, can and may the landowner refuse to obey the TRO until he has filed a Motion for Reconsideration against the TRO?
In the meanwhile, may he proceed to demolish the squatters’ structures, eject them and fence off his cleared property?
Chaos will ensue.
Anarchy and Chaos
The squatters will have no choice but to take the law into their hands and physically resist.
If they lose, then they will take their battle elsewhere in the physical rather than the legal field.
The example given by De Lima in not obeying the Supreme Court is a good excuse for anyone who wants to disobey the orders of the Executive Branch.
“Wala nang ‘No Wang Wang, No Counterflow!’” To each his own!
Don’t wait for the Red light to turn Green! Don’t pay Taxes!
P-Noy and De Lima don’t deserve our respect and obedience!
Simple – “Do Unto Others as You Would Like Others Do Unto You!” “Di ba?”
Do you want Anarchy and Chaos?
What do we do, if we don’t want those to happen?
File contempt proceedings against de Lima and all those who disobeyed the TRO before the Supreme Court.
Contempt for De Lima
According to the Court Administrator and Spokesman Midas Marquez, De Lima may be fined a maximum of P30,000 and imprisoned for a maximum of six months.
Those should not be enough.
If the Arroyos could afford the two-million-peso bond or whatever, P-Noy can afford to pay the fine for De Lima.
In the same way, since De Lima is so eager to get free publicity and run for the Senate, imprisonment will not be bad enough for her.
She can continue to work as the DOJ Secretary while serving a Contempt sentence.
She should be suspended from the bar. That way, she will automatically lose her job as DOJ Secretary because she will lose her principal qualification.
Supreme Court President
If the Supreme Court saw it fit to suspend Atty. Alan Paguia for more than a half a dozen years from the bar, De Lima deserves more.
Atty. Alan Paguia refused to accept the wrong and unconstitutional decision of the Davide Supreme Court based on the theory that President Joseph “Erap” Estrada had “constructively” resigned on Saturday, January 20, 2001.
Therefore, GMA was no longer just the “Acting President.”
Atty. Paguia had no power to thwart the Supreme Court’s decision.
De Lima disobeyed the Supreme Court and did irreparable harm to the Constitutional Rights of the Private Parties and public harm by being the example of Anarchy and Chaos in Society.
*Read the ‘Aquinorroyo’ Conspiracy by Perry Diaz in www.globalbalita.com
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/21-27/2011
OpinYon Regular
The Aquino Administration, especially as regards its Secretary of Justice, is composed of a bunch of Delinquents and Truants.
When they had the time, they did not do their homework and study. When the time came to recite and/or pass the home work or seat work or test or quiz, they were “bokya,” “nada,” “wala,” zero! They had to resort to cheating and lying.
Last week, we asked: “Who is responsible for allowing the Arroyos to legally fly the coop?”
Not based on the Constitution
With all the intelligence, investigative and prosecutorial resources at the disposal of the Executive Branch, they have not yet, as of press time, filed a single criminal case before the courts against GMA or Mike Tuason Arroyo.
It is as though the Rumors and Suspicions of an “Aquinorroyo*" rather than a “Villarroyo” conspiracy in the last May 10, 2010 Presidential Elections are true.
This is one of the allegations of Solidarity 4 Sovereignty, an independent organization that has been consistently questioning the results of the last elections for the past year and a half.
On the other hand, still another organization, the “Tanggulang Demokrasiya,” recently made a presentation at the Fernandina Media Forum, showing that Noynoy’s election was not based on the Constitution and Election Laws and Regulations.
According to them, P-Noy is not a “de Jure” but rather, only a “de facto” President.
Challenged by ‘Who?’
On Tuesday night, the Aquino Administration stole a page from the Marcos Dictatorship (A clumsy one at that).
P-Noy and his unconfirmed Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima refused to follow and honor the Temporary Restraining Order handed down by the Supreme Court late last Tuesday afternoon.
The Department of Justice through the Bureau of Immigration has been violating the Bill of Rights as enshrined in our 1987 Constitution.
A mere DOJ memorandum circular without the force or mandate of a law, has been restricting the Right to Travel of Citizens through a so called “Watch List” rather than the legal “Hold Departure Order” that should be issued by the Courts.
Unfortunately, this was challenged by of all people, the Arroyos.
OK to Assert
Many are now saying that if only it, he, she or they were not the Arroyos, it would be OK to assert the Constitutional Right to Travel.
However, according to them, the Arroyos are not ordinary people, as though there is such an exception in the Bill of Rights.
If we want to reduce the argument “Ad absurdum,” one can say that Ninoy was not an ordinary person and so it was OK to kill him on Sunday, August 21, 1983.
An argument can always be invented as to the “Public Interest…"
Yes, everybody, except the fiscals and prosecutors who are supposed to file the criminal cases, know that the Arroyos are Plunderers, “Magnanakaws,” Grafters and Criminals.
Then, go ahead and file the cases before the Courts.
Hypothetically…
P-Noy and De Lima have been in office for sixteen and a half months.
How many months has Merceditas Gutierrez been out and Carpio-Morales been in at the Office of the Ombudsman?
How many months have passed since the Truth Commission has been thrown out? Who wrote the defective Executive Order in the first place?
Let us compare the Arroyos case with a different kind of hypothetical case.
Instead of a privileged, former “ruling” couple, let us consider a community of squatters that are about to be evicted.
Like the couple, whom everybody knows were guilty of plunder and more, everybody knows that these are squatters.
They illegally built their houses without permission on private land.
They also did not secure building permits from the LGU before they built their illegal structures.
Demolition Day
One day, the owner of the land believes that he has complied with all the legal requirements and has prepared a demolition team to demolish the illegal structures and eject the squatters.
Then, at the last minute, a court issues a TRO against the demolition and ejection and the TRO is served by the Court’s Sheriff.
Can the landowner hide from the Sheriff serving the TRO and eject the squatters between 5 pm and 8 am.
This was what De Lima did when the DOJ refused to be served the Supreme Court’s TRO after 5 pm, on Tuesday, last week.
They argued as though the Constitution and its Bill of Rights may sleep after office hours and be effective only starting at the usual start of office hours at 8 am.
Then, can and may the landowner refuse to obey the TRO until he has filed a Motion for Reconsideration against the TRO?
In the meanwhile, may he proceed to demolish the squatters’ structures, eject them and fence off his cleared property?
Chaos will ensue.
Anarchy and Chaos
The squatters will have no choice but to take the law into their hands and physically resist.
If they lose, then they will take their battle elsewhere in the physical rather than the legal field.
The example given by De Lima in not obeying the Supreme Court is a good excuse for anyone who wants to disobey the orders of the Executive Branch.
“Wala nang ‘No Wang Wang, No Counterflow!’” To each his own!
Don’t wait for the Red light to turn Green! Don’t pay Taxes!
P-Noy and De Lima don’t deserve our respect and obedience!
Simple – “Do Unto Others as You Would Like Others Do Unto You!” “Di ba?”
Do you want Anarchy and Chaos?
What do we do, if we don’t want those to happen?
File contempt proceedings against de Lima and all those who disobeyed the TRO before the Supreme Court.
Contempt for De Lima
According to the Court Administrator and Spokesman Midas Marquez, De Lima may be fined a maximum of P30,000 and imprisoned for a maximum of six months.
Those should not be enough.
If the Arroyos could afford the two-million-peso bond or whatever, P-Noy can afford to pay the fine for De Lima.
In the same way, since De Lima is so eager to get free publicity and run for the Senate, imprisonment will not be bad enough for her.
She can continue to work as the DOJ Secretary while serving a Contempt sentence.
She should be suspended from the bar. That way, she will automatically lose her job as DOJ Secretary because she will lose her principal qualification.
Supreme Court President
If the Supreme Court saw it fit to suspend Atty. Alan Paguia for more than a half a dozen years from the bar, De Lima deserves more.
Atty. Alan Paguia refused to accept the wrong and unconstitutional decision of the Davide Supreme Court based on the theory that President Joseph “Erap” Estrada had “constructively” resigned on Saturday, January 20, 2001.
Therefore, GMA was no longer just the “Acting President.”
Atty. Paguia had no power to thwart the Supreme Court’s decision.
De Lima disobeyed the Supreme Court and did irreparable harm to the Constitutional Rights of the Private Parties and public harm by being the example of Anarchy and Chaos in Society.
*Read the ‘Aquinorroyo’ Conspiracy by Perry Diaz in www.globalbalita.com
Monday, November 21, 2011
‘Serge of the Light Brigade’
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/21/2011
Between the Lopez group’s reported P1.6-billion DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) loan write-off and the fully paid P600-million “behest” loan of Bobby Ongpin that supposedly yielded P1.4 billion in earnings for the bank from speculative trades in the stock market, which was the more disadvantageous to the taxpaying public?
First, it should be clear that all three — the DBP, as well as the Lopez and Ongpin groups — clearly violated the purpose and spirit for which state “development” banks are organized — that is, to provide loans for economic and developmental activities (as opposed to those that are commercial or speculative in nature). And since it was a case of the latter, it is equally clear that the Lopez group has caused more grievous damage to the ones who are ultimately supporting the DBP — the public and the taxpayers. If the Ongpin group had lost its shirt in its speculative play on the loaned funds, I’m sure that it would also have sought help from its patrons for a write-off of that loan.
These are cases of “socialism for the rich,” where losses are privatized to the ordinary and mostly poor taxpayer.
Still, whenever the oligarchs and financial sharks clash, good things can only happen for the people. In the case of the DBP “behest” loan controversy, what began with a tiff between the alleged kingpin of the DBP, who got to put his man there allegedly for P300 million in campaign donations to you-know-who, and the alleged Arroyo crony, who made massive loans for “insider trades” in Philex Mining shares, has now dragged other oligarchic groups into the picture.
While a number of these cases are still successfully muted in mainstream media, we are hoping the same kinds of behest loans and write-offs in other state-owned banks, from the time of Cory Aquino to FVR and GMA, can also be exposed by still hidden whistleblowers — because there certainly is a lot more being kept under the boardroom rug. What we’re now seeing is but the tip of the iceberg.
The DBP controversy had already claimed one life, that of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin who killed himself last August, despondent over threats of legal action from the DBP board in connection with the bank’s P660-million loans to businessman Bobby Ongpin.
The Zamora camp, apparently fronting for the PeNoy administration, traded barbs with Ongpin for the past three months, charging the latter with obtaining the “behest loan” using FG Mike Arroyo’s clout in the last administration.
The issue had since been raised to the Senate, reflecting the escalation in the war; at which point the Ongpin camp fired its major salvo through the columns of Conrad Banal and Neal Cruz, exposing the even more shocking loan scandals — the DBP write-offs for the Lopez businesses, as well as the Special Purpose Asset Vehicles (SPAVs) for the Ayala and Yuchengco banking groups.
Dragged into the fray, the Lopez group hastily issued a rejoinder charging that the two Inquirer columns are but a PR muddling campaign from Ongpin’s camp.
True or not, I believe the public is still happy that this apparently very well-kept dirty secret has been brought out into the open; and, indeed, it tends to show the Lopez group’s alleged predilection for alleged shenanigans that result in billions of losses for the Filipino taxpayers under the guise of its “legitimate” businesses.
The Lopezes’ defense is that their P1.6-billion loan write-off can be justified by their losses in the privatized water system they invested in (Maynilad), as well as in their other interests such as Central CATV, Bayantel, and Benpres Holdings. Question is, why was credit earmarked for development channeled to undeniably commercial projects, whereby losses were passed on to the taxpayer?
The DBP-Ongpin imbroglio is a blessing in disguise for the Filipino people. It’s a chance to awaken the nation to the essentially corrupt character of our ruling elite, particularly the oligarchs.
The episode has provided a unique educational opportunity by focusing the nation’s eyes on the favorite (i.e. crony) family corporations of the Yellow era that have always been behind the Yellow movement, whether through funding coups such as Edsa II or perpetrating stinky Peace Bonds-type deals.
On a broader level, it highlights the captive status of government financial institutions, like many other agencies, invariably doing the bidding of the oligarchs and conspiratorially hiding their shenanigans from the public.
With a little more explaining, the public can be made to understand that all capital really comes from them and that the ruling class only usurps these national assets for itself through its control of government.
When the Lopez group got caught in the mire, a senator married to a Lopez who heads the Senate committee on energy, charged into the scene. That’s when I harkened back to my first prize win in a high school speaking contest for “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Lord Alfred Tennyson as I saw “Serge of the Light Brigade” charge into the investigation of Bobby Ongpin.
Strangely, in spite of being in hot pursuit of that gargantuan loan, Serge Osmeña doesn’t seem to show any concern for the DBP’s losses from the Lopez group’s much staggering loan write-off. In fact, he now even raises another allegation: That Ongpin owns another company named GAS (Global Air Services) that borrowed $90 million to buy the Mertro Rail Transit (MRT), a charge that the former Trade minister flatly denies.
Well, now that another scandal is brewing, will the oligarch groups that have joined the buying spree on the MRT come forward as well? Abangan…
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Banking Cronyism, Behest Loans and Alternatives”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/21/2011
Between the Lopez group’s reported P1.6-billion DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) loan write-off and the fully paid P600-million “behest” loan of Bobby Ongpin that supposedly yielded P1.4 billion in earnings for the bank from speculative trades in the stock market, which was the more disadvantageous to the taxpaying public?
First, it should be clear that all three — the DBP, as well as the Lopez and Ongpin groups — clearly violated the purpose and spirit for which state “development” banks are organized — that is, to provide loans for economic and developmental activities (as opposed to those that are commercial or speculative in nature). And since it was a case of the latter, it is equally clear that the Lopez group has caused more grievous damage to the ones who are ultimately supporting the DBP — the public and the taxpayers. If the Ongpin group had lost its shirt in its speculative play on the loaned funds, I’m sure that it would also have sought help from its patrons for a write-off of that loan.
These are cases of “socialism for the rich,” where losses are privatized to the ordinary and mostly poor taxpayer.
Still, whenever the oligarchs and financial sharks clash, good things can only happen for the people. In the case of the DBP “behest” loan controversy, what began with a tiff between the alleged kingpin of the DBP, who got to put his man there allegedly for P300 million in campaign donations to you-know-who, and the alleged Arroyo crony, who made massive loans for “insider trades” in Philex Mining shares, has now dragged other oligarchic groups into the picture.
While a number of these cases are still successfully muted in mainstream media, we are hoping the same kinds of behest loans and write-offs in other state-owned banks, from the time of Cory Aquino to FVR and GMA, can also be exposed by still hidden whistleblowers — because there certainly is a lot more being kept under the boardroom rug. What we’re now seeing is but the tip of the iceberg.
The DBP controversy had already claimed one life, that of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin who killed himself last August, despondent over threats of legal action from the DBP board in connection with the bank’s P660-million loans to businessman Bobby Ongpin.
The Zamora camp, apparently fronting for the PeNoy administration, traded barbs with Ongpin for the past three months, charging the latter with obtaining the “behest loan” using FG Mike Arroyo’s clout in the last administration.
The issue had since been raised to the Senate, reflecting the escalation in the war; at which point the Ongpin camp fired its major salvo through the columns of Conrad Banal and Neal Cruz, exposing the even more shocking loan scandals — the DBP write-offs for the Lopez businesses, as well as the Special Purpose Asset Vehicles (SPAVs) for the Ayala and Yuchengco banking groups.
Dragged into the fray, the Lopez group hastily issued a rejoinder charging that the two Inquirer columns are but a PR muddling campaign from Ongpin’s camp.
True or not, I believe the public is still happy that this apparently very well-kept dirty secret has been brought out into the open; and, indeed, it tends to show the Lopez group’s alleged predilection for alleged shenanigans that result in billions of losses for the Filipino taxpayers under the guise of its “legitimate” businesses.
The Lopezes’ defense is that their P1.6-billion loan write-off can be justified by their losses in the privatized water system they invested in (Maynilad), as well as in their other interests such as Central CATV, Bayantel, and Benpres Holdings. Question is, why was credit earmarked for development channeled to undeniably commercial projects, whereby losses were passed on to the taxpayer?
The DBP-Ongpin imbroglio is a blessing in disguise for the Filipino people. It’s a chance to awaken the nation to the essentially corrupt character of our ruling elite, particularly the oligarchs.
The episode has provided a unique educational opportunity by focusing the nation’s eyes on the favorite (i.e. crony) family corporations of the Yellow era that have always been behind the Yellow movement, whether through funding coups such as Edsa II or perpetrating stinky Peace Bonds-type deals.
On a broader level, it highlights the captive status of government financial institutions, like many other agencies, invariably doing the bidding of the oligarchs and conspiratorially hiding their shenanigans from the public.
With a little more explaining, the public can be made to understand that all capital really comes from them and that the ruling class only usurps these national assets for itself through its control of government.
When the Lopez group got caught in the mire, a senator married to a Lopez who heads the Senate committee on energy, charged into the scene. That’s when I harkened back to my first prize win in a high school speaking contest for “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Lord Alfred Tennyson as I saw “Serge of the Light Brigade” charge into the investigation of Bobby Ongpin.
Strangely, in spite of being in hot pursuit of that gargantuan loan, Serge Osmeña doesn’t seem to show any concern for the DBP’s losses from the Lopez group’s much staggering loan write-off. In fact, he now even raises another allegation: That Ongpin owns another company named GAS (Global Air Services) that borrowed $90 million to buy the Mertro Rail Transit (MRT), a charge that the former Trade minister flatly denies.
Well, now that another scandal is brewing, will the oligarch groups that have joined the buying spree on the MRT come forward as well? Abangan…
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Banking Cronyism, Behest Loans and Alternatives”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: The RH Bill: The Sober Views
Guests: Joanne Ilaw, Legislative staff, Office of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Jimmie Regalario, Chairman of Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME) and Lt. Ashley "Ace" Acedillo, spokesperson of Magdalo
Guests: Joanne Ilaw, Legislative staff, Office of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Jimmie Regalario, Chairman of Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME) and Lt. Ashley "Ace" Acedillo, spokesperson of Magdalo
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: Fighting the Oily-gopoly
Guest: Dra. Amanda Cruz, President of Petroleum Dealers Association of the Philippines
Guest: Dra. Amanda Cruz, President of Petroleum Dealers Association of the Philippines
Behest loans and swindling
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
11/19-20/2011
The Senate would be wasting time figuring out whether the P600-million loan provided to former Trade Secretary Roberto Ongpin for his Delta Ventures Resources, Inc. was a “behest loan”. It would not even matter if it turns out to be one, for in the words of my relative columnist, Manong Emil Jurado, Congress has yet to enact a law that would define what constitutes a “behest loan” to make the officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines and Ongpin liable. What matters is that the loans were paid upon maturity, and earned P1.4 billion as a result.
It would have been different if the loan was not paid, or even if paid, only the principal was returned. That now would tally to what DBP chairman Jose “Pepo” Nunez, Jr. claims as lost business opportunities for the bank. Any bank, for that matter, would open its window to any borrower because earning interest it its business.
The media could be right in speculating that the alleged anomaly to accommodate Ongpin boils down to the possibility the Lopezes are still licking their wounds for the loss of their crown jewel corporation to Manuel Pangilinan of PLDT and to Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp. Maybe they are blaming Ongpin for maneuvering the coalition reached by the country’s two behemoth corporations which saw them boarded out of the Meralco board. But the Lopezes could have prevented that if they had enough capital to muster in buying those shares of stocks to prevent that bigger group from wresting control of Meralco from them.
Hence, the counter revelation made by DBP’s former president Reynaldo David, while not exactly about behest loans, is telling of the continuing shortchanging of the government by debtor private corporations. This could not happen had the borrowers not enjoyed the pontifical blessings of the notoriously corrupt Arroyo government. It is an open secret that Mrs. Arroyo virtually made DBP and all government financial institutions her piggy bank to accommodate cronies willing to play the role of political jesters all for that ambition of wanting to remain in power.
The fallout in the raging word war between Ongpin and Senator Sergio Osmeña is the claim by David that the Lopez-family owed DBP P1.67 billion, but was written off in the bank’s ledger. Accordingly, P710 million was incurred by Maynilad Water Services, Inc., (which soured in 2003), P591 million by Bayan Telecommunications (which soured in 2001), P207 million incurred by Central CATV, Inc. (which soured in 2001), and P157 million by Benpres Holdings, Inc., and all that happened when Mrs. Arroyo was at the height of her glory after that infamous hijacking of the government.
To make sure the one-way ticket to the blues would appear legal, the minions of Mrs. Arroyo in Congress led by Speaker Jose De Venecia and in the Senate by Franklin Drilon (now a re-educated pro-Noynoy henchman) hastily crafted a law that would allow the disposition of those non performing assets at fire sale prices to anybody willing to resume their business operations. They crafted what they called Special Purpose Asset Vehicle (SPAV) Law of 2002.
But what the public did not know is that the new law would be used by delinquent borrowers as their special vehicle to get away with their loans because that would then allow government banks to write off their obligations. As one lawyer recalled, under the US Bankruptcy Reform Act, whether under Chapter 11 or Chapter 7, any corporation wanting to rid itself of its unpaid loans has to apply for bankruptcy, and when granted all its assets are to be disposed and distributed to its creditors according to procedure. After that, the bankrupt corporation is automatically dissolved and liquidated.
In our case, instead of those non-performing assets disposed as the SPAV Law proposed, it was used by private debtors to erase their obligations with an added premium of being allowed to operate their business without a consuelo de bobo promise to pay once profitability is regained, say even without interest.
Moreover, the brouhaha about loans resurrected an old ghost, one that involves swindling. The Caucus of Development NGO Networks-Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates (Code-NGO-PEACe Bond) deal was a pressurized transaction to consummate fast the swindling of the government by people in the government. The only reason why no investigation has been conducted which saw the original P10 billion loan balloon to P35 billion is of the fact that those who masterminded it were native kangaroos capable of jumping high to the other side of the fence. It is for this reason why many of them are still basking under the wings of this “anti-mahirap” administration, and that the biggest share of the loot was consigned to an NGO operated by members close to the Church and using as conduit Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation owned by one also identified with the hypocritical yellow horde.
Of course, the hustlers would argue that no behest loan was involved much that they did not borrow from the government. On the contrary, they would say, it was the government that borrowed unbelievably from Code-NGO and from its duplicate partner RCBC that, in turn, resold those shares to the eight banks now in hot water for not paying P4.86 billion representing the 20 percent final income tax. Despite the P1.34 billion commission-profit earned by Code-NGO, with the P400 million divided as commission to those who conceived the idea of stripping-to-the-bone the government of its funds, it insist of not paying anything.
There is little doubt the scheme was not given the blessings by the one at the helm. It was coordinated because their pivot men in the government were also acting as private brokers. It was symbiotic for while one has no money, it has the privilege not to pay the tax. On the other hand, the other has the money, but would only be willing to buy if assured of not paying the 20 percent final income tax. Moreover, the one that merely used its saliva, despite the huge commission of P1.34 billion, now insist in getting an added premium of not paying the 30 percent capital gains tax.
So, comparing all these anomalies that happened under that notoriously corrupt administration, it would seem the elite and their confederates in government always manage to get away with their crimes of raking in billions of pesos all for a song. Yet, these hustlers are the same bunch of hypocrites that at the slightest rustle of destabilization would be the first to shout on top of their shrill voices for us to defend their shabby brand of democracy and freedom.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
11/19-20/2011
The Senate would be wasting time figuring out whether the P600-million loan provided to former Trade Secretary Roberto Ongpin for his Delta Ventures Resources, Inc. was a “behest loan”. It would not even matter if it turns out to be one, for in the words of my relative columnist, Manong Emil Jurado, Congress has yet to enact a law that would define what constitutes a “behest loan” to make the officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines and Ongpin liable. What matters is that the loans were paid upon maturity, and earned P1.4 billion as a result.
It would have been different if the loan was not paid, or even if paid, only the principal was returned. That now would tally to what DBP chairman Jose “Pepo” Nunez, Jr. claims as lost business opportunities for the bank. Any bank, for that matter, would open its window to any borrower because earning interest it its business.
The media could be right in speculating that the alleged anomaly to accommodate Ongpin boils down to the possibility the Lopezes are still licking their wounds for the loss of their crown jewel corporation to Manuel Pangilinan of PLDT and to Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp. Maybe they are blaming Ongpin for maneuvering the coalition reached by the country’s two behemoth corporations which saw them boarded out of the Meralco board. But the Lopezes could have prevented that if they had enough capital to muster in buying those shares of stocks to prevent that bigger group from wresting control of Meralco from them.
Hence, the counter revelation made by DBP’s former president Reynaldo David, while not exactly about behest loans, is telling of the continuing shortchanging of the government by debtor private corporations. This could not happen had the borrowers not enjoyed the pontifical blessings of the notoriously corrupt Arroyo government. It is an open secret that Mrs. Arroyo virtually made DBP and all government financial institutions her piggy bank to accommodate cronies willing to play the role of political jesters all for that ambition of wanting to remain in power.
The fallout in the raging word war between Ongpin and Senator Sergio Osmeña is the claim by David that the Lopez-family owed DBP P1.67 billion, but was written off in the bank’s ledger. Accordingly, P710 million was incurred by Maynilad Water Services, Inc., (which soured in 2003), P591 million by Bayan Telecommunications (which soured in 2001), P207 million incurred by Central CATV, Inc. (which soured in 2001), and P157 million by Benpres Holdings, Inc., and all that happened when Mrs. Arroyo was at the height of her glory after that infamous hijacking of the government.
To make sure the one-way ticket to the blues would appear legal, the minions of Mrs. Arroyo in Congress led by Speaker Jose De Venecia and in the Senate by Franklin Drilon (now a re-educated pro-Noynoy henchman) hastily crafted a law that would allow the disposition of those non performing assets at fire sale prices to anybody willing to resume their business operations. They crafted what they called Special Purpose Asset Vehicle (SPAV) Law of 2002.
But what the public did not know is that the new law would be used by delinquent borrowers as their special vehicle to get away with their loans because that would then allow government banks to write off their obligations. As one lawyer recalled, under the US Bankruptcy Reform Act, whether under Chapter 11 or Chapter 7, any corporation wanting to rid itself of its unpaid loans has to apply for bankruptcy, and when granted all its assets are to be disposed and distributed to its creditors according to procedure. After that, the bankrupt corporation is automatically dissolved and liquidated.
In our case, instead of those non-performing assets disposed as the SPAV Law proposed, it was used by private debtors to erase their obligations with an added premium of being allowed to operate their business without a consuelo de bobo promise to pay once profitability is regained, say even without interest.
Moreover, the brouhaha about loans resurrected an old ghost, one that involves swindling. The Caucus of Development NGO Networks-Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates (Code-NGO-PEACe Bond) deal was a pressurized transaction to consummate fast the swindling of the government by people in the government. The only reason why no investigation has been conducted which saw the original P10 billion loan balloon to P35 billion is of the fact that those who masterminded it were native kangaroos capable of jumping high to the other side of the fence. It is for this reason why many of them are still basking under the wings of this “anti-mahirap” administration, and that the biggest share of the loot was consigned to an NGO operated by members close to the Church and using as conduit Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation owned by one also identified with the hypocritical yellow horde.
Of course, the hustlers would argue that no behest loan was involved much that they did not borrow from the government. On the contrary, they would say, it was the government that borrowed unbelievably from Code-NGO and from its duplicate partner RCBC that, in turn, resold those shares to the eight banks now in hot water for not paying P4.86 billion representing the 20 percent final income tax. Despite the P1.34 billion commission-profit earned by Code-NGO, with the P400 million divided as commission to those who conceived the idea of stripping-to-the-bone the government of its funds, it insist of not paying anything.
There is little doubt the scheme was not given the blessings by the one at the helm. It was coordinated because their pivot men in the government were also acting as private brokers. It was symbiotic for while one has no money, it has the privilege not to pay the tax. On the other hand, the other has the money, but would only be willing to buy if assured of not paying the 20 percent final income tax. Moreover, the one that merely used its saliva, despite the huge commission of P1.34 billion, now insist in getting an added premium of not paying the 30 percent capital gains tax.
So, comparing all these anomalies that happened under that notoriously corrupt administration, it would seem the elite and their confederates in government always manage to get away with their crimes of raking in billions of pesos all for a song. Yet, these hustlers are the same bunch of hypocrites that at the slightest rustle of destabilization would be the first to shout on top of their shrill voices for us to defend their shabby brand of democracy and freedom.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Do unto others...
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/13-20/2011
OpinYon Lite
Marcos’s Martial Law was officially in force thirty-nine. He declared, proclaimed and started its implementation from Wednesday to Saturday, September 21 to 24, 1972.
Then, he officially lifted it in the first quarter of 1981 in anticipation of the Pope’s first visit to the Philippines since before Martial Law.
However, Marcos’ Administration, as well as his residual Martial Law and the 1973 Constitution’s Transitory Provisions, would last another five years (Longer than the 1935 Constitutions’ amended four year Presidential term).
A Pope came twice during the twenty years of the Marcos Administration, once before Martial Law, and a second time after the formal lifting of Martial Law in 1981.
Divided and Impotent
To us, Activists, Critics and Oppositionists, the Dark Ages of Martial Law were the first part, from 1972 – 1978.
The Leftist Activists had fled to the mountains or were in hiding.
The Moderate Activists were still lost and just in the process of reinventing themselves.
Most Mass Media Critics were out of a job, as well as a medium or venue for their criticisms or critique.
Of course, those who had resigned as Critics had gotten new but tame Media jobs.
The Formal Political Opposition was in disarray, divided and impotent.
Ninoy, et al
As a graduated, resigned and retired moderate activist leader, my anti-Marcos and anti-Martial Law activities were limited to giving sparse advise to my juniors, attending anniversary celebrations and lending my immediate family’s presence at masses and prayers for the incarcerated Senator and Liberal Party Secretary General Benigno “Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., as well as Senator, Civil Libertarian and Nationalist Jose W. Diokno.
At that time, it was not easy to secure a venue for religious activities in support of Ninoy or Diokno.
Neither of the Cojuangco parish in Forbes or the Aquino parish in Phil Am were the favorite venues.
The Dioknos had left Magallanes for New Manila, Quezon City.
Liberties Tightened
Either Fr. Nikko was not yet assigned to Magallanes Parish or Fr. Nikko was not yet a Critic and Oppositionist at that time.
At first, it was the relatively, out of the way, Holy Redeemer Parish, near Gregorio Araneta Ave., between Aurora/Santa Mesa Blvd. and E. Rodriguez Ave. in Quezon City, that gave us hospitality and sanctuary.
We had to look over our shoulders, at imagined government agents with cameras and recorders, when we used to join the Aquinos and Cojuangcos and Dioknos, to pray for Ninoy and Pepe Diokno who were incarcerated at the MSU Compound at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Ft. Bonifacio, Taguig.
We felt especially vulnerable when Ninoy and Diokno were taken surreptitiously to Fort Magsaysay, in Laur, Nueva Ecija, without informing their families.
Just as our two leaders were placed in isolation in “bartolinas,” we too, in the outside, felt our liberties tightened down, a few notches.
For us, who experienced and underwent those years of deprivation of liberty and security, it was a great relief for us, to see the, by then, convicted to death by musketry, Ninoy, allowed to leave for his Triple Heart By–Pass Operation in Texas.
FPJ, GMA & Erap
Let us fast forward almost two and a half decades to 2004.
Again, we were Activists, Critics and Oppositionists.
We were no longer Moderate or Radical Activists. We were FPJ – Erap Activists, Allies, Friends, Supporters and Volunteers.
We had been cheated by GMA not once, not twice, but, indeed, three times – in the May 2004 Elections, in the Counting, Canvassing and Proclamation, as well as in the FPJ/Loren Legarda Protests against GMA/Noli de Castro.
Take note that the switching of the genuine Election Returns with the fake Atty. Bello manufactured ERs at the Batasan National Board of Canvassers bodega by the PNP SAF, in January and February of 2005, happened after FPJ had already died.
I had become first, a supporter of FPJ in early 2003.
Then, I became a friend and supporter again of Erap in August 2005.
With our standard bearer dead and Erap in detention, I again felt very vulnerable like twenty five years earlier.
Others have made Lite out of Eraps incarceration at a Presidential Suite at the Veterans Memorial Hospital and at his Tanay Resort.
Over the Bakod
However, I witnessed the meaning of Erap’s “Deprivation of Liberty” on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2006, at the gate of Erap’s so-called “Resort Arrest” in Tanay.
We had organized a Launching of Erap’s “Rebolusyon Kontra Gutom” along the road in front of his Tanay Resort.
As the time approached for the launching Erap walked to his gate. His gate opened.
Then assembled masses cheered. But Erap was not allowed to cross his own gate to the public road beyond by his guards.
Instead, he had to climb a ladder and peer “over the bakod” at the people and the ceremonies.
Having been a weekly visitor to Erap in Tanay from August 2004 to October 2007, I know that the most luxurious detention or incarceration cannot substitute for lack of Liberty and Freedom.
Every time we would leave, especially, at the saddest part of the day – dusk (Agaw-liwanag at dilim!) – we would all be sad, guests and host alike.
Bilog ang Mundo
And so, when Erap was allowed to go to Hong Kong for his knee operation in December of 2004, our heavy hearts shed some weight, we breathed sighs of relief and continued our struggle the following year with stouter hearts and heads held higher and straighter.
Again, let us fast forward to today and the current issue at hand – to allow or not to allow GMA and the former First Gentleman to go abroad for medical diagnosis and treatment.
Our answer is consistent with the past and straight and simple – “Do Unto Others as You Would Like Others Do Unto You!”
We have always believed that the only way to reform the Philippine Government and the Filipino People and Society is through a Genuine Revolutionary Government.
Cory had the chance once, twenty five years ago. She threw it away and lost it for us and future generations.
If we are not willing to do what is necessary then we have to live with our Constitution, Laws and Due Processes, as well as Customs and Traditions.
Among the latter are, “Bilog ang Mundo!,” “Live and Let Live!,” “Weather-weather Lang!”
Let The Law Take its Course
And so we say: “File the cases against GMA and Mike before the courts. Let the appropriate courts issue and serve the arrest warrants. If the cases are not bailable, let them be detained, ‘bahala na kung saan!’”
If the cases are bailable, let the courts set the bail. Let the courts issue the “Hold Departure Orders.”
If GMA and FG want to travel, for whatever reason, let them apply to the courts as Mikey and his wife, Maria Angela, did.
“Nauna pa sila mademanda! Nauna pa sila makabiyahe! Only in the Philippines talaga!”
But seriously, having observed the Erap phenomenon, I believe that Erap would not have maintained and sustained his popularity if he had not stayed in the Philippines and been charged, arrested and incarcerated.
And so I believed that GMA and FG and their family members should have been investigated, prosecuted and tried as just one of the components of “All-Out Justice!”
Instead, the incompetent Aquino Administration has been “Huffing and Puffing” at the Arroyos to no avail.
“Bokya! Nada! Palpak! Wala! Zero!"
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/13-20/2011
OpinYon Lite
Marcos’s Martial Law was officially in force thirty-nine. He declared, proclaimed and started its implementation from Wednesday to Saturday, September 21 to 24, 1972.
Then, he officially lifted it in the first quarter of 1981 in anticipation of the Pope’s first visit to the Philippines since before Martial Law.
However, Marcos’ Administration, as well as his residual Martial Law and the 1973 Constitution’s Transitory Provisions, would last another five years (Longer than the 1935 Constitutions’ amended four year Presidential term).
A Pope came twice during the twenty years of the Marcos Administration, once before Martial Law, and a second time after the formal lifting of Martial Law in 1981.
Divided and Impotent
To us, Activists, Critics and Oppositionists, the Dark Ages of Martial Law were the first part, from 1972 – 1978.
The Leftist Activists had fled to the mountains or were in hiding.
The Moderate Activists were still lost and just in the process of reinventing themselves.
Most Mass Media Critics were out of a job, as well as a medium or venue for their criticisms or critique.
Of course, those who had resigned as Critics had gotten new but tame Media jobs.
The Formal Political Opposition was in disarray, divided and impotent.
Ninoy, et al
As a graduated, resigned and retired moderate activist leader, my anti-Marcos and anti-Martial Law activities were limited to giving sparse advise to my juniors, attending anniversary celebrations and lending my immediate family’s presence at masses and prayers for the incarcerated Senator and Liberal Party Secretary General Benigno “Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., as well as Senator, Civil Libertarian and Nationalist Jose W. Diokno.
At that time, it was not easy to secure a venue for religious activities in support of Ninoy or Diokno.
Neither of the Cojuangco parish in Forbes or the Aquino parish in Phil Am were the favorite venues.
The Dioknos had left Magallanes for New Manila, Quezon City.
Liberties Tightened
Either Fr. Nikko was not yet assigned to Magallanes Parish or Fr. Nikko was not yet a Critic and Oppositionist at that time.
At first, it was the relatively, out of the way, Holy Redeemer Parish, near Gregorio Araneta Ave., between Aurora/Santa Mesa Blvd. and E. Rodriguez Ave. in Quezon City, that gave us hospitality and sanctuary.
We had to look over our shoulders, at imagined government agents with cameras and recorders, when we used to join the Aquinos and Cojuangcos and Dioknos, to pray for Ninoy and Pepe Diokno who were incarcerated at the MSU Compound at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Ft. Bonifacio, Taguig.
We felt especially vulnerable when Ninoy and Diokno were taken surreptitiously to Fort Magsaysay, in Laur, Nueva Ecija, without informing their families.
Just as our two leaders were placed in isolation in “bartolinas,” we too, in the outside, felt our liberties tightened down, a few notches.
For us, who experienced and underwent those years of deprivation of liberty and security, it was a great relief for us, to see the, by then, convicted to death by musketry, Ninoy, allowed to leave for his Triple Heart By–Pass Operation in Texas.
FPJ, GMA & Erap
Let us fast forward almost two and a half decades to 2004.
Again, we were Activists, Critics and Oppositionists.
We were no longer Moderate or Radical Activists. We were FPJ – Erap Activists, Allies, Friends, Supporters and Volunteers.
We had been cheated by GMA not once, not twice, but, indeed, three times – in the May 2004 Elections, in the Counting, Canvassing and Proclamation, as well as in the FPJ/Loren Legarda Protests against GMA/Noli de Castro.
Take note that the switching of the genuine Election Returns with the fake Atty. Bello manufactured ERs at the Batasan National Board of Canvassers bodega by the PNP SAF, in January and February of 2005, happened after FPJ had already died.
I had become first, a supporter of FPJ in early 2003.
Then, I became a friend and supporter again of Erap in August 2005.
With our standard bearer dead and Erap in detention, I again felt very vulnerable like twenty five years earlier.
Others have made Lite out of Eraps incarceration at a Presidential Suite at the Veterans Memorial Hospital and at his Tanay Resort.
Over the Bakod
However, I witnessed the meaning of Erap’s “Deprivation of Liberty” on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2006, at the gate of Erap’s so-called “Resort Arrest” in Tanay.
We had organized a Launching of Erap’s “Rebolusyon Kontra Gutom” along the road in front of his Tanay Resort.
As the time approached for the launching Erap walked to his gate. His gate opened.
Then assembled masses cheered. But Erap was not allowed to cross his own gate to the public road beyond by his guards.
Instead, he had to climb a ladder and peer “over the bakod” at the people and the ceremonies.
Having been a weekly visitor to Erap in Tanay from August 2004 to October 2007, I know that the most luxurious detention or incarceration cannot substitute for lack of Liberty and Freedom.
Every time we would leave, especially, at the saddest part of the day – dusk (Agaw-liwanag at dilim!) – we would all be sad, guests and host alike.
Bilog ang Mundo
And so, when Erap was allowed to go to Hong Kong for his knee operation in December of 2004, our heavy hearts shed some weight, we breathed sighs of relief and continued our struggle the following year with stouter hearts and heads held higher and straighter.
Again, let us fast forward to today and the current issue at hand – to allow or not to allow GMA and the former First Gentleman to go abroad for medical diagnosis and treatment.
Our answer is consistent with the past and straight and simple – “Do Unto Others as You Would Like Others Do Unto You!”
We have always believed that the only way to reform the Philippine Government and the Filipino People and Society is through a Genuine Revolutionary Government.
Cory had the chance once, twenty five years ago. She threw it away and lost it for us and future generations.
If we are not willing to do what is necessary then we have to live with our Constitution, Laws and Due Processes, as well as Customs and Traditions.
Among the latter are, “Bilog ang Mundo!,” “Live and Let Live!,” “Weather-weather Lang!”
Let The Law Take its Course
And so we say: “File the cases against GMA and Mike before the courts. Let the appropriate courts issue and serve the arrest warrants. If the cases are not bailable, let them be detained, ‘bahala na kung saan!’”
If the cases are bailable, let the courts set the bail. Let the courts issue the “Hold Departure Orders.”
If GMA and FG want to travel, for whatever reason, let them apply to the courts as Mikey and his wife, Maria Angela, did.
“Nauna pa sila mademanda! Nauna pa sila makabiyahe! Only in the Philippines talaga!”
But seriously, having observed the Erap phenomenon, I believe that Erap would not have maintained and sustained his popularity if he had not stayed in the Philippines and been charged, arrested and incarcerated.
And so I believed that GMA and FG and their family members should have been investigated, prosecuted and tried as just one of the components of “All-Out Justice!”
Instead, the incompetent Aquino Administration has been “Huffing and Puffing” at the Arroyos to no avail.
“Bokya! Nada! Palpak! Wala! Zero!"
Friday, November 18, 2011
HDO: An Aquinorroyo PR bonanza
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/18/2011
How long has this Department of Justice (DoJ)-Malacaang hold departure order (HDO) issue been dragging? Two weeks? All the while, everybody knows its illegal and unconstitutional. Even Malacaang and the DoJ, with their battery of lawyers, would have had enough sense to know the same. As many sensible watchers of PeNoy and Justice chief Leila de Limas HDO drama have pointed out, the easy way to avoid the controversy is to just file one of the numerous complaints that already have ample evidence to ensure a prima facie case. The Hello Garci caper alone would have sufficed as the tapes and the witness testimonies are already there.
Many have also surmised that both PeNoy and De Lima (a former Gloria Arroyo appointee) dont really want to keep the supposedly ailing Pampanga solon in the country. So they had to set things in motion in such a way that the Supreme Court (SC) would have to decide on the issue to get them off the hook all, while enjoying the PR bonanza from appearing anti-Gloria.
In turn, both GMA and her husband also get to reap tons of sympathy from pro-Arroyo dumbos and not-so-dumbos alike, including those whom she reportedly calls by cellphone to give the invariable parting words, Just bill me. That goes for radio and other media too, and its a real gold rush for many in this sector which is actually one way of redistributing the couples alleged plunder.
In fact, it may be a good reason for keeping the pressure on them much longer so that the economic burden on the shoulders of many Filipinos may somewhat be relieved. A trickle-down effect from this would be more certain than if we were to allow them to stay in foreign lands like Portugal or the Dominican Republic where these countries people would be enjoying the alleged purloined wealth instead.
If GMA and FG were to leave the country, even many in the military will be sad as prospects of getting some share of this loot would disappear, as with all hopes of a new coup.
But then, the husband-and-wife tandems payback from the HDO imbroglio goes farther than just PR bonanzas. The two also get a treasure trove of anti-GMA and FG government tirades and threatening official pronouncements published in the newspapers and broadcast in media, which can then be used as justification for a political asylum plea.
Given the incendiary statements coming from the Justice Secretary and Palace spokesmen, especially from BS Aquino III himself, any foreign government will find easy cause to justify the grant of safe haven to the poor and oppressed couple. Throw in that picture of GMA with the Frankenstein contraption around her neck, and what foreign government wouldnt sympathize?
Of course, these foreigners dont know how GMA looked so much younger and perkier after the last election; that is, until the avalanche of cases rushed in like a tsunami wave which seemed to have tossed her hair about and weighed her eyes and cheeks in scowl.
Aquino III doesnt want to really hold GMA back from leaving the country and neither does De Lima, which is why no formal charges have yet been filed. But the SC has no choice given the constitutional provisions, as well as the opinion of highly respected legal luminaries like Alan Paguia and less luminous ones like the Jesuit Joaquin Bernas to allow the couples unrestricted travel unless government files a case, despite the vain attempts by certain quarters to link the prohibition to so-called national security.
Gloria and Mike know that they ultimately will be able to travel, but only if they get the SC decision before any case is filed by this government. They know that they have little to fear from the officialdom, be it BS Aquino III or De Lima or the SC. Still, the proverbial Murphys Law that says what can go wrong will go wrong prompts them, despite their tacit Aquinorroyo modus operandi, to want to get the SCs blessings fast.
Somebody texted us, E + E = A or Elite plus Elite equals Accommodation. And this is what was always in the cards. Ever since the designed-to-fail Truth Commission was put forth, people were already provided a glimpse into the real plans of the current dispensation from the very beginning. The fact that, after 18 months, the Aquino government has not filed a single case against GMA in court behooves even the doubters to comprehend the basis for the theorized Aquinorroyo or Arroyoquino alliance: That they are coddling each other as the ruling class, including their patron, uncle Thomas of the US Embassy, is coddling them.
However, accommodation can go only as far as the ruling powers need the central circus attraction the lion, chimpanzee, hyena, or dwarf. If greater roars from the mindless spectators were to become much more pressing, then the center attraction would have to be caged, even temporarily, to regale the crowds no end.
Those who refuse to see this are but hopeless cases that are better left alone. They and their dead brains can only impede the rest of us who will have to carry on with the impending revolt against the entire system.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/18/2011
How long has this Department of Justice (DoJ)-Malacaang hold departure order (HDO) issue been dragging? Two weeks? All the while, everybody knows its illegal and unconstitutional. Even Malacaang and the DoJ, with their battery of lawyers, would have had enough sense to know the same. As many sensible watchers of PeNoy and Justice chief Leila de Limas HDO drama have pointed out, the easy way to avoid the controversy is to just file one of the numerous complaints that already have ample evidence to ensure a prima facie case. The Hello Garci caper alone would have sufficed as the tapes and the witness testimonies are already there.
Many have also surmised that both PeNoy and De Lima (a former Gloria Arroyo appointee) dont really want to keep the supposedly ailing Pampanga solon in the country. So they had to set things in motion in such a way that the Supreme Court (SC) would have to decide on the issue to get them off the hook all, while enjoying the PR bonanza from appearing anti-Gloria.
In turn, both GMA and her husband also get to reap tons of sympathy from pro-Arroyo dumbos and not-so-dumbos alike, including those whom she reportedly calls by cellphone to give the invariable parting words, Just bill me. That goes for radio and other media too, and its a real gold rush for many in this sector which is actually one way of redistributing the couples alleged plunder.
In fact, it may be a good reason for keeping the pressure on them much longer so that the economic burden on the shoulders of many Filipinos may somewhat be relieved. A trickle-down effect from this would be more certain than if we were to allow them to stay in foreign lands like Portugal or the Dominican Republic where these countries people would be enjoying the alleged purloined wealth instead.
If GMA and FG were to leave the country, even many in the military will be sad as prospects of getting some share of this loot would disappear, as with all hopes of a new coup.
But then, the husband-and-wife tandems payback from the HDO imbroglio goes farther than just PR bonanzas. The two also get a treasure trove of anti-GMA and FG government tirades and threatening official pronouncements published in the newspapers and broadcast in media, which can then be used as justification for a political asylum plea.
Given the incendiary statements coming from the Justice Secretary and Palace spokesmen, especially from BS Aquino III himself, any foreign government will find easy cause to justify the grant of safe haven to the poor and oppressed couple. Throw in that picture of GMA with the Frankenstein contraption around her neck, and what foreign government wouldnt sympathize?
Of course, these foreigners dont know how GMA looked so much younger and perkier after the last election; that is, until the avalanche of cases rushed in like a tsunami wave which seemed to have tossed her hair about and weighed her eyes and cheeks in scowl.
Aquino III doesnt want to really hold GMA back from leaving the country and neither does De Lima, which is why no formal charges have yet been filed. But the SC has no choice given the constitutional provisions, as well as the opinion of highly respected legal luminaries like Alan Paguia and less luminous ones like the Jesuit Joaquin Bernas to allow the couples unrestricted travel unless government files a case, despite the vain attempts by certain quarters to link the prohibition to so-called national security.
Gloria and Mike know that they ultimately will be able to travel, but only if they get the SC decision before any case is filed by this government. They know that they have little to fear from the officialdom, be it BS Aquino III or De Lima or the SC. Still, the proverbial Murphys Law that says what can go wrong will go wrong prompts them, despite their tacit Aquinorroyo modus operandi, to want to get the SCs blessings fast.
Somebody texted us, E + E = A or Elite plus Elite equals Accommodation. And this is what was always in the cards. Ever since the designed-to-fail Truth Commission was put forth, people were already provided a glimpse into the real plans of the current dispensation from the very beginning. The fact that, after 18 months, the Aquino government has not filed a single case against GMA in court behooves even the doubters to comprehend the basis for the theorized Aquinorroyo or Arroyoquino alliance: That they are coddling each other as the ruling class, including their patron, uncle Thomas of the US Embassy, is coddling them.
However, accommodation can go only as far as the ruling powers need the central circus attraction the lion, chimpanzee, hyena, or dwarf. If greater roars from the mindless spectators were to become much more pressing, then the center attraction would have to be caged, even temporarily, to regale the crowds no end.
Those who refuse to see this are but hopeless cases that are better left alone. They and their dead brains can only impede the rest of us who will have to carry on with the impending revolt against the entire system.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
SB, Ochoa, et al's last 'HURA'?
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/24-20/2011
Quezon City Hall’s P180-million real estate tax hike was passed some three weeks ago over the vehement objections of many homeowners, businessmen, real estate developers, and -- you will be surprised to know -- even the supposed beneficiaries of QC politicians’ socialized housing program.
The urban poor themselves of such squatter areas as Payatas, Barangay Holy Spirit, Batasan Hills, and 77 others, whom the mayor, vice mayor, and the 24-member city council supposedly pander to, are also opposing the tax hike -- but, more specifically, the socialized housing program that the city government claims it wants to implement.
I was surprised to hear these urban poor associations speak up during a meeting of the Better QC civic groups last Nov. 5 at the QC Sports Club, opposing the real estate tax hike and explaining that Quezon City’s socialized housing program is only intended for those who can pay amortizations set by the administration.
Quarter of a Billion what?
The urban poor certainly know they won’t be able to qualify for this and will only be displaced to make way for those whom city hall will favor.
But the most intriguing part of the whole real estate tax hike for “socialized housing” rigmarole is that there is already money allotted for socialized housing amounting to some P250,000,000 from the Sonny Belmonte period. (Yes, Virginia, that’s TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION or A QUARTER OF A BILLION PESOS.)
But where is this money that Mayor Herbert Bautista can’t seem to find for his socialized housing projects?
Bistek doesn’t really have to look far as I didn’t have to step out of my residence to find out and witness all the documents attesting to this amount and the scandalous way in which it was allocated by the previous administration and who were involved.
All the mayor has to do is turn on his computer or iPad and go to www.betterqc.org.
HURA Incorporators
There he will find the registration of a corporation named Quezon City Housing and Urban Renewal Authority, Inc. (QC-HURA), with the following incorporators and directors (and their respective capital contributions):
Paquito Ochoa was made corporate treasurer.
And so the question arises now: Is he still holding that position simultaneous with his being Executive Secretary of BS Aquino III?
Where’s the Money?
The QC-HURA was organized and registered in May 2003.
Has the money been frittered away that QC has to raise P180 million yearly from its home and real estate owners?
Something very fishy is going on, reminiscent of the sale of the Marcos properties in Stockton and the PAL property in Union Square, USA by Sonny Belmonte when he headed GSIS during the early years of Cory Aquino; as fishy as the rags-to-riches real estate developer in QC reportedly tied to the HURA and the coattails of Belmonte from the time of the latter’s GSIS stint.
When former QC Mayor Sonny Belmonte finished his term last 2010 and set his sights for the Speakership of the House, he had published claims that his administration left behind a budget surplus of P6.5 billion.
Treading Straight Path
When current Mayor Herbert Bautista started raising this call for new real estate taxes that really amounted to a whopping 25% increase overnight, the Better QC Movement naturally queried him about Belmonte’s surplus.
Well, it now seems that the surplus, like QC-HURA’s P250,000,000 is nowhere to be found.
It may never have existed and, as some claim, may have even been diverted to the respective 2010 campaigns of BS Aquino III and the former mayor.
Of course, the Executive Secretary of the “Daang Matuwid” government, who could never walk straight with morning drinks when he was QC administrator (solely because, it is said, he is brod-in-law to a Belmonte crony), is allegedly privy to all these.
With a background like this, how can Malacañang claim to be walking the straight and narrow?
Loving the Poor
Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte (whose father is the former mayor), and the 24 councilors of Quezon City shouldn’t be allowed to burden the city’s taxpayers until they fully explain the Commission on Audit’s findings, as reported in the news, of 3,000 “ghost employees” in city hall, amounting to at least P200 million in salaries annually.
Further, the mayor has P20 million in confidential expenses, another P20 in intelligence expenses, P10 million for honoraria, P70 million for donations (made to god knows what), while the vice-mayor has a budget of P116 million, and the councilors have over P40 million each per year.
Plus, the total budget of Quezon City in 2009 was P8.7 billion, and today it is estimated at over P10 billion.
And yet they couldn’t get a measly 2% from that to devote to their socialized housing for the poor whom they “love so much”?
What’s more likely is that they’d love to kick these people out of their small plots in order to let their crony developer takeover these to sell off to some “sosyal” home buyers in and out of the city.
Given these startling revelations, we may yet see the “Last Hurrah” of the Belmonte-Ochoa gang in Quezon City soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives.)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/24-20/2011
Quezon City Hall’s P180-million real estate tax hike was passed some three weeks ago over the vehement objections of many homeowners, businessmen, real estate developers, and -- you will be surprised to know -- even the supposed beneficiaries of QC politicians’ socialized housing program.
The urban poor themselves of such squatter areas as Payatas, Barangay Holy Spirit, Batasan Hills, and 77 others, whom the mayor, vice mayor, and the 24-member city council supposedly pander to, are also opposing the tax hike -- but, more specifically, the socialized housing program that the city government claims it wants to implement.
I was surprised to hear these urban poor associations speak up during a meeting of the Better QC civic groups last Nov. 5 at the QC Sports Club, opposing the real estate tax hike and explaining that Quezon City’s socialized housing program is only intended for those who can pay amortizations set by the administration.
Quarter of a Billion what?
The urban poor certainly know they won’t be able to qualify for this and will only be displaced to make way for those whom city hall will favor.
But the most intriguing part of the whole real estate tax hike for “socialized housing” rigmarole is that there is already money allotted for socialized housing amounting to some P250,000,000 from the Sonny Belmonte period. (Yes, Virginia, that’s TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION or A QUARTER OF A BILLION PESOS.)
But where is this money that Mayor Herbert Bautista can’t seem to find for his socialized housing projects?
Bistek doesn’t really have to look far as I didn’t have to step out of my residence to find out and witness all the documents attesting to this amount and the scandalous way in which it was allocated by the previous administration and who were involved.
All the mayor has to do is turn on his computer or iPad and go to www.betterqc.org.
HURA Incorporators
There he will find the registration of a corporation named Quezon City Housing and Urban Renewal Authority, Inc. (QC-HURA), with the following incorporators and directors (and their respective capital contributions):
- Feliciano Belmonte P1,000.00
- Herbert Bautista 1,000.00
- Jesus Suntay 1,000.00
- Tadeo Palma 1,000.00
- Paquito Ochoa 1,000.00
- Bernadette Herrera-Dy 1,000.00
- Salvador Enriquez 1,000.00
Paquito Ochoa was made corporate treasurer.
And so the question arises now: Is he still holding that position simultaneous with his being Executive Secretary of BS Aquino III?
Where’s the Money?
The QC-HURA was organized and registered in May 2003.
Has the money been frittered away that QC has to raise P180 million yearly from its home and real estate owners?
Something very fishy is going on, reminiscent of the sale of the Marcos properties in Stockton and the PAL property in Union Square, USA by Sonny Belmonte when he headed GSIS during the early years of Cory Aquino; as fishy as the rags-to-riches real estate developer in QC reportedly tied to the HURA and the coattails of Belmonte from the time of the latter’s GSIS stint.
When former QC Mayor Sonny Belmonte finished his term last 2010 and set his sights for the Speakership of the House, he had published claims that his administration left behind a budget surplus of P6.5 billion.
Treading Straight Path
When current Mayor Herbert Bautista started raising this call for new real estate taxes that really amounted to a whopping 25% increase overnight, the Better QC Movement naturally queried him about Belmonte’s surplus.
Well, it now seems that the surplus, like QC-HURA’s P250,000,000 is nowhere to be found.
It may never have existed and, as some claim, may have even been diverted to the respective 2010 campaigns of BS Aquino III and the former mayor.
Of course, the Executive Secretary of the “Daang Matuwid” government, who could never walk straight with morning drinks when he was QC administrator (solely because, it is said, he is brod-in-law to a Belmonte crony), is allegedly privy to all these.
With a background like this, how can Malacañang claim to be walking the straight and narrow?
Loving the Poor
Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte (whose father is the former mayor), and the 24 councilors of Quezon City shouldn’t be allowed to burden the city’s taxpayers until they fully explain the Commission on Audit’s findings, as reported in the news, of 3,000 “ghost employees” in city hall, amounting to at least P200 million in salaries annually.
Further, the mayor has P20 million in confidential expenses, another P20 in intelligence expenses, P10 million for honoraria, P70 million for donations (made to god knows what), while the vice-mayor has a budget of P116 million, and the councilors have over P40 million each per year.
Plus, the total budget of Quezon City in 2009 was P8.7 billion, and today it is estimated at over P10 billion.
And yet they couldn’t get a measly 2% from that to devote to their socialized housing for the poor whom they “love so much”?
What’s more likely is that they’d love to kick these people out of their small plots in order to let their crony developer takeover these to sell off to some “sosyal” home buyers in and out of the city.
Given these startling revelations, we may yet see the “Last Hurrah” of the Belmonte-Ochoa gang in Quezon City soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives.)
Who is Allowing the Arroyos to Legally Fly the Coop?
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/14-20/2011
“Do unto others, as you would like others, to do unto you!” This is the Greatest Commandment.
Shall we follow this Greatest of All Commandments that sums them all up as one?
Or, shall we be selective in our choice of what to follow and what not to follow?
Shall we do whatever we want to do to others and still expect them not to do the same to us?
Or, do we believe, like the Aquinos, that we are always right and “they” are always wrong!
Accused-in-Waiting
The question at hand, is, whether to allow or not to allow former President GMA and former First Gentleman Mike Tuason Arroyo to leave the Philippines and go abroad while they are still “accused-in-waiting?”
As of press time, we know of no cases that have already been filed in court against GMA and the FG.
And yet the incompetent Aquino Administration has been in power for more than five hundred days or a year, four months and two weeks already.
By the end of the year, it will be into one fourth of its six-year term.
And yet, we see no improvements in its ability to govern.
Hardly Any to Show
If, on the one hand, any new administration or official needs time to learn its or his job, in the case of P-Noy and his Ka… , we see no “so-called” learning curve.
In terms of ability, experience, knowledge, even wisdom, P-Noy and his Administration are flat, Zero, as in “Wala Talaga!”
However, in terms of perception, he, his officials and the whole Aquino Administration have what is definitely not flat, nor a mere plateau. They are in precipitous decline.
Considering that the centerpiece slogans of his program of government and reform, as promised in the September 2009 to May 2010 campaign, were “Walang Mahirap, pag Walang Korap!” and “Matuwid na Daan!,” P-Noy has hardly any accomplishments to show.
His first and biggest mistake was to create a Constitutionally-infirm Truth Commission and rely on it completely, to deliver on his biggest and noisiest campaign promises. He did not employ or have multilevel strategy and tactics. In case his plan A failed or was lacking, he did not have a Plan B, C, etc…
Top Cronies
Although, the Ombudsman was in the hands of a GMA Loyalist and a Law Classmate of the former FG, Merceditas “Mercy” Gutierrez, P-Noy still had a feisty, and still very credible, at that time, Secretary of Justice, Leila de Lima.
As President and Commander–in–Chief, he wielded the entire intelligence, investigation and prosecution arms of the Executive Branch minus, off course, the independent Commission on Audit, COMELEC and Ombudsman.
However, there was nothing to prevent his Administration from coordinating and seeking the help of these independent Constitutional Bodies.
Meanwhile, private individuals and organizations have been filing cases against family members of the Macapagal–Arroyo clan, before the DOJ and Ombudsman for almost a year.
What have become of the cases filed with De Lima’s DOJ?
As for the loyalty and ties of Ombudsman Gutierrez to GMA/FG, do we take it to mean that the anti – corruption and reform programs of then Presidential Candidate Noynoy Aquino were only aimed, designed and good against the immediate Macapagal–Arroyo Family and their close and top cronies.
What about more distant and lower officials who were as guilty, even if to a lesser degree? Will they go scot-free?
Impact on P-Noy’s Credibility
If P-Noy had some brains, he should have planned and implemented a three-phased and three-pronged approach.
Everything starts with intelligence and evidence gathering.
Then come the prosecution.
And finally, the last stage is through the independent judicial process.
While he was still credible and his campaign promises still rung true, he should have prioritized the work of public intelligence and investigative resources.
Government should have harnessed the energies and resources of private individuals and organizations as well, in producing clues, leads, evidences and witnesses against past and present graft and corruption.
It is the latter rather than the former that would have a bigger impact in maintaining P-Noy’s credibility.
However, P-Noy did not have the character necessary to go after his Kabarilans, Kaklases, Kamaganaks, etc… We saw this very early on as regards “Jueteng: and DILG Usec Rico Puno, cousin Tony Boy, brother–in–law Eldon and sister, Balsy."
Appropriate Jurisdiction
Not all government officials and employees have to be tried by the Sandiganbayan.
Below a certain salary grade, jurisdiction resides in the ordinary fiscals to prosecute and the ordinary courts to try.
As a layman, I believe that the DOJ can investigate and prosecute all levels of government officials.
The differentiation would come at the third phase, the court with the appropriate jurisdiction.
P-Noy should have utilized the DOJ against a broad range of grafters, past and present, and filed cases more expeditiously both before the Ombudsman and the appropriate courts.
If he had done this, he would not have appeared personal and vindictive.
In which case, he would have held the moral high ground instead of descending to the gutter of “Ka Cronyism.”
Target and Victim
He should have been doing all of these while waiting for the final Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Truth Commission.
If the Supreme Court had not overturned the creation of the Truth Commission, the not impartial former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide would have provided a much better venue, than the DOJ or Ombudsman Carpio Morales, for a simultaneous Trial by Publicity.
In much the same way, if Ombudsman Gutierrez had not resigned, her Impeachment, being more political than judicial, would have been a terrific Trial by Publicity of the GMA Administration.
However, P-Noy was deprived of both of these.
Therefore, he ended up having or being the target and victim of bad publicity most of the time. And at the end of the day, they have been so incompetent as to have let the Cats, GMA and FG, legally out of the bag.
Here, we keep our fingers crossed as to whether the Supreme Court will issue a TRO against the illegal and unconstitutional DOJ Memorandum Circular that is the basis for Immigration not to allow the departure of GMA and FG, between our Press Deadline and the time we hit the Bookstores and Kapihans on Mondays.
Acting Faster
There is also a second possibility, and that is that before a Supreme Court TRO can be issued and the Arroyos can fly the coop, the DOJ or Ombudsman files even a single criminal case against either or both of them, namely, GMA and FG.
The question is whether a Government that is more noted for incompetence and inefficiency will be able to act faster with a Court issued Hold Departure Order, than the DOJ was not able to in the case of Ramgen Revilla murder suspect Ramona Bautista.
P-Noy should have depended on his badly thought out Truth Commission more for Propaganda than Justice and Reform.
Maybe, all these debate regarding the illegal and unconstitutional DOJ Memorandum Circular, would be academic in so far as the million dollar question at hand is concerned.
Appropriate Courts
A case or cases should have already been filed against both GMA and FG, as well as Mikey perhaps. Warrants of Arrest should have been issued by the appropriate courts.
Even if the cases were not for Capital Offenses or Plunder, a proper court should have acquired the Legal Jurisdiction to Issue a Legal Hold Departure Order.
And that should have been the case even if, bail had been granted, posted and availed of, so that the accused could be at Liberty within the territory of the Philippines.
What a “Palpak!”
Linggoy Alcuaz
11/14-20/2011
“Do unto others, as you would like others, to do unto you!” This is the Greatest Commandment.
Shall we follow this Greatest of All Commandments that sums them all up as one?
Or, shall we be selective in our choice of what to follow and what not to follow?
Shall we do whatever we want to do to others and still expect them not to do the same to us?
Or, do we believe, like the Aquinos, that we are always right and “they” are always wrong!
Accused-in-Waiting
The question at hand, is, whether to allow or not to allow former President GMA and former First Gentleman Mike Tuason Arroyo to leave the Philippines and go abroad while they are still “accused-in-waiting?”
As of press time, we know of no cases that have already been filed in court against GMA and the FG.
And yet the incompetent Aquino Administration has been in power for more than five hundred days or a year, four months and two weeks already.
By the end of the year, it will be into one fourth of its six-year term.
And yet, we see no improvements in its ability to govern.
Hardly Any to Show
If, on the one hand, any new administration or official needs time to learn its or his job, in the case of P-Noy and his Ka… , we see no “so-called” learning curve.
In terms of ability, experience, knowledge, even wisdom, P-Noy and his Administration are flat, Zero, as in “Wala Talaga!”
However, in terms of perception, he, his officials and the whole Aquino Administration have what is definitely not flat, nor a mere plateau. They are in precipitous decline.
Considering that the centerpiece slogans of his program of government and reform, as promised in the September 2009 to May 2010 campaign, were “Walang Mahirap, pag Walang Korap!” and “Matuwid na Daan!,” P-Noy has hardly any accomplishments to show.
His first and biggest mistake was to create a Constitutionally-infirm Truth Commission and rely on it completely, to deliver on his biggest and noisiest campaign promises. He did not employ or have multilevel strategy and tactics. In case his plan A failed or was lacking, he did not have a Plan B, C, etc…
Top Cronies
Although, the Ombudsman was in the hands of a GMA Loyalist and a Law Classmate of the former FG, Merceditas “Mercy” Gutierrez, P-Noy still had a feisty, and still very credible, at that time, Secretary of Justice, Leila de Lima.
As President and Commander–in–Chief, he wielded the entire intelligence, investigation and prosecution arms of the Executive Branch minus, off course, the independent Commission on Audit, COMELEC and Ombudsman.
However, there was nothing to prevent his Administration from coordinating and seeking the help of these independent Constitutional Bodies.
Meanwhile, private individuals and organizations have been filing cases against family members of the Macapagal–Arroyo clan, before the DOJ and Ombudsman for almost a year.
What have become of the cases filed with De Lima’s DOJ?
As for the loyalty and ties of Ombudsman Gutierrez to GMA/FG, do we take it to mean that the anti – corruption and reform programs of then Presidential Candidate Noynoy Aquino were only aimed, designed and good against the immediate Macapagal–Arroyo Family and their close and top cronies.
What about more distant and lower officials who were as guilty, even if to a lesser degree? Will they go scot-free?
Impact on P-Noy’s Credibility
If P-Noy had some brains, he should have planned and implemented a three-phased and three-pronged approach.
Everything starts with intelligence and evidence gathering.
Then come the prosecution.
And finally, the last stage is through the independent judicial process.
While he was still credible and his campaign promises still rung true, he should have prioritized the work of public intelligence and investigative resources.
Government should have harnessed the energies and resources of private individuals and organizations as well, in producing clues, leads, evidences and witnesses against past and present graft and corruption.
It is the latter rather than the former that would have a bigger impact in maintaining P-Noy’s credibility.
However, P-Noy did not have the character necessary to go after his Kabarilans, Kaklases, Kamaganaks, etc… We saw this very early on as regards “Jueteng: and DILG Usec Rico Puno, cousin Tony Boy, brother–in–law Eldon and sister, Balsy."
Appropriate Jurisdiction
Not all government officials and employees have to be tried by the Sandiganbayan.
Below a certain salary grade, jurisdiction resides in the ordinary fiscals to prosecute and the ordinary courts to try.
As a layman, I believe that the DOJ can investigate and prosecute all levels of government officials.
The differentiation would come at the third phase, the court with the appropriate jurisdiction.
P-Noy should have utilized the DOJ against a broad range of grafters, past and present, and filed cases more expeditiously both before the Ombudsman and the appropriate courts.
If he had done this, he would not have appeared personal and vindictive.
In which case, he would have held the moral high ground instead of descending to the gutter of “Ka Cronyism.”
Target and Victim
He should have been doing all of these while waiting for the final Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Truth Commission.
If the Supreme Court had not overturned the creation of the Truth Commission, the not impartial former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide would have provided a much better venue, than the DOJ or Ombudsman Carpio Morales, for a simultaneous Trial by Publicity.
In much the same way, if Ombudsman Gutierrez had not resigned, her Impeachment, being more political than judicial, would have been a terrific Trial by Publicity of the GMA Administration.
However, P-Noy was deprived of both of these.
Therefore, he ended up having or being the target and victim of bad publicity most of the time. And at the end of the day, they have been so incompetent as to have let the Cats, GMA and FG, legally out of the bag.
Here, we keep our fingers crossed as to whether the Supreme Court will issue a TRO against the illegal and unconstitutional DOJ Memorandum Circular that is the basis for Immigration not to allow the departure of GMA and FG, between our Press Deadline and the time we hit the Bookstores and Kapihans on Mondays.
Acting Faster
There is also a second possibility, and that is that before a Supreme Court TRO can be issued and the Arroyos can fly the coop, the DOJ or Ombudsman files even a single criminal case against either or both of them, namely, GMA and FG.
The question is whether a Government that is more noted for incompetence and inefficiency will be able to act faster with a Court issued Hold Departure Order, than the DOJ was not able to in the case of Ramgen Revilla murder suspect Ramona Bautista.
P-Noy should have depended on his badly thought out Truth Commission more for Propaganda than Justice and Reform.
Maybe, all these debate regarding the illegal and unconstitutional DOJ Memorandum Circular, would be academic in so far as the million dollar question at hand is concerned.
Appropriate Courts
A case or cases should have already been filed against both GMA and FG, as well as Mikey perhaps. Warrants of Arrest should have been issued by the appropriate courts.
Even if the cases were not for Capital Offenses or Plunder, a proper court should have acquired the Legal Jurisdiction to Issue a Legal Hold Departure Order.
And that should have been the case even if, bail had been granted, posted and availed of, so that the accused could be at Liberty within the territory of the Philippines.
What a “Palpak!”
Monday, November 14, 2011
That anti-Aquino-Cojuangco YouTube video
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/14/2011
As of the last count, I read that 577,000 hits had already registered for YouTube video, “Aquino-Cojuangco: Facts they don’t want you to know.” That’s what some would call having gone “viral.” Made by “PinoyMonkeyPride Production,” the opening sequence introduces us to a riveting historical account while offering a glimpse into the makers’ real intentions.
The story begins with the Philippine Revolution and Gen. Antonio Luna taking the gold of the revolutionary movement from the Ilocos treasury and the Governor of Pampanga to Paniqui, Tarlac, specifically to the home of Luna’s supposed girlfriend, Ysidra Cojuangco. Three days later, Luna was assassinated by Aguinaldo officers and the “gold treasures of the First Philippine Republic suddenly disappeared,” which “even the American forces couldn’t find.”
By the year 1900, “Ysidra Cojuangco became one of the richest women in the Philippines,” leading to the expansion of Cojuangco lands across central Luzon, the establishment of the Paniqui Sugar Mills, the Finance and Investments Corp. and the Philippine Bank of Commerce, among other things.
By the 1930s, the family owned 12,000 hectares and controlled the rice trade of the entire province of Tarlac. It goes on to tell of the Cojuangcos’ invasion of politics, beginning with Melecio Cojuangco in Congress, followed by a long, long line down to Gibo, with special highlights on Corazon Aquino and son Noynoy. A voice fired off a list of all Cojuangco politicos in machinegun mode while decrying the lack of progress in the family’s home turf.
The narrative then moves on to the union of the two Tarlac clans, with the wedding of Ninoy Aquino and Corazon Cojuangco, whose matrimonial ninong was President Ramon Magsaysay.
With the crony deal concluded in 1958 for the Cojuangcos’ purchase of Compania Tabacalera’s Azucarera with government money, Magsaysay provided two conditions: The inclusion of the adjoining Hacienda Luisita and the distribution of hacienda lands to its farmers after 10 years.
We all know where that story ends and the video names the hundreds killed in the course of the Cojuangcos’ defense of the hacienda over the decades, including the Luisita Massacre and the murder of farmer-supporter Bishop Alberto Ramento, plus, the violation of the land reform law by Cory herself when she was president.
The video goes on to present Ninoy as the non-hero who died only for his ambition (as distinguished from Jose Rizal), as well as of Cory restoring the oligarchs; of Kris being the “Mary Magdalene of Media;” and of Noynoy as the “blame game” rock star.
I have been telling almost the exact same story in debunking the myths of the Yellow media, which the video brands as “Pro-Poor, Pro-Poverty, Pro-Oligarchy” Yellow Propaganda.
While I am happy that it is somehow shattering the hold that the Yellows still have over the mind of many Filipinos, especially the youth, there is one caveat that the public should take note of: It is part of a more insidious campaign to subvert a more basic issue for our nation.
The subliminal message does this so well by first latching on to the popular antipathy against oligarch families like the Aquino-Cojuangcos and then intersperses this with the argument that since the nationalist economic provisions in our Constitution only protects the oligarchs, the charter must be changed to open the country to foreigners.
This “Aquino-Cojuangco” video is part of a seemingly very well-funded Web campaign that clamors for Charter change (Cha-cha) and the removal of the protectionist provisions in our Constitution, as well as the shift to a parliamentary form of government. It is part of a series of YouTube videos that links up with GetRealPhilippines.com and AntiPinoy.com.
While I have issues in these sites that I can enthusiastically agree with, this one enigma — their push for the opening up of the Philippines to untrammeled entry of foreign capital and control of its economy; and for the removal of restrictions on foreign ownership of our national patrimony and media through Cha-cha by any means (including constituent assembly), which they say will end the rule and abuse of the local oligarchy — casts a very dark shadow on all the rest.
Given that we can already see the West having tumultuous revolts in the occupy protests against their own oligarchs, from the Wall Street mafia, Warren Buffet, et al., General Motors, to even Rupert Murdoch and the other media mega-corporations, that call to get rid of the local oligarchs, and in their place welcome their foreign counterparts, is simply inane. How can anyone think that giving the Philippines to these voracious profit gorgers will make things better for us?
The global oligarchs won’t be kinder and gentler than the local oligarchs have been to the Filipino public all these decades. The two will only reinforce each other.
Therefore, the antithesis to the local oligarchy is not the global oligarchy. The antithesis to both is national or popular ownership!
If there is to be any change in the Constitution, what’s needed is the further protection of the nation and the people’s fundamental economic rights. This can only be done through the nationalization and/or cooperativization of, among other things, basic and strategic utilities and industries, basic function of issuing money and credit management, the fundamental right to work, and the right to be free from the abuse and exploitation of private monopolies. Only through these can the state ensure the right of every citizen to employment, affordable food, low-cost government services, medical care, education and basic shelter.
PinoyMonkeyPride, AntiPinoy, and GetRealPhilippines are really insulting the Filipino intelligence if, like Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte, they think Filipinos of all classes don’t already know that the country’s highest power costs in Asia is the very thing keeping local and foreign investments away — instead of the restriction on foreigners from owning properties and corporations in the Philippines, who, it must be said, already own the local oligarchs here.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/14/2011
As of the last count, I read that 577,000 hits had already registered for YouTube video, “Aquino-Cojuangco: Facts they don’t want you to know.” That’s what some would call having gone “viral.” Made by “PinoyMonkeyPride Production,” the opening sequence introduces us to a riveting historical account while offering a glimpse into the makers’ real intentions.
The story begins with the Philippine Revolution and Gen. Antonio Luna taking the gold of the revolutionary movement from the Ilocos treasury and the Governor of Pampanga to Paniqui, Tarlac, specifically to the home of Luna’s supposed girlfriend, Ysidra Cojuangco. Three days later, Luna was assassinated by Aguinaldo officers and the “gold treasures of the First Philippine Republic suddenly disappeared,” which “even the American forces couldn’t find.”
By the year 1900, “Ysidra Cojuangco became one of the richest women in the Philippines,” leading to the expansion of Cojuangco lands across central Luzon, the establishment of the Paniqui Sugar Mills, the Finance and Investments Corp. and the Philippine Bank of Commerce, among other things.
By the 1930s, the family owned 12,000 hectares and controlled the rice trade of the entire province of Tarlac. It goes on to tell of the Cojuangcos’ invasion of politics, beginning with Melecio Cojuangco in Congress, followed by a long, long line down to Gibo, with special highlights on Corazon Aquino and son Noynoy. A voice fired off a list of all Cojuangco politicos in machinegun mode while decrying the lack of progress in the family’s home turf.
The narrative then moves on to the union of the two Tarlac clans, with the wedding of Ninoy Aquino and Corazon Cojuangco, whose matrimonial ninong was President Ramon Magsaysay.
With the crony deal concluded in 1958 for the Cojuangcos’ purchase of Compania Tabacalera’s Azucarera with government money, Magsaysay provided two conditions: The inclusion of the adjoining Hacienda Luisita and the distribution of hacienda lands to its farmers after 10 years.
We all know where that story ends and the video names the hundreds killed in the course of the Cojuangcos’ defense of the hacienda over the decades, including the Luisita Massacre and the murder of farmer-supporter Bishop Alberto Ramento, plus, the violation of the land reform law by Cory herself when she was president.
The video goes on to present Ninoy as the non-hero who died only for his ambition (as distinguished from Jose Rizal), as well as of Cory restoring the oligarchs; of Kris being the “Mary Magdalene of Media;” and of Noynoy as the “blame game” rock star.
I have been telling almost the exact same story in debunking the myths of the Yellow media, which the video brands as “Pro-Poor, Pro-Poverty, Pro-Oligarchy” Yellow Propaganda.
While I am happy that it is somehow shattering the hold that the Yellows still have over the mind of many Filipinos, especially the youth, there is one caveat that the public should take note of: It is part of a more insidious campaign to subvert a more basic issue for our nation.
The subliminal message does this so well by first latching on to the popular antipathy against oligarch families like the Aquino-Cojuangcos and then intersperses this with the argument that since the nationalist economic provisions in our Constitution only protects the oligarchs, the charter must be changed to open the country to foreigners.
This “Aquino-Cojuangco” video is part of a seemingly very well-funded Web campaign that clamors for Charter change (Cha-cha) and the removal of the protectionist provisions in our Constitution, as well as the shift to a parliamentary form of government. It is part of a series of YouTube videos that links up with GetRealPhilippines.com and AntiPinoy.com.
While I have issues in these sites that I can enthusiastically agree with, this one enigma — their push for the opening up of the Philippines to untrammeled entry of foreign capital and control of its economy; and for the removal of restrictions on foreign ownership of our national patrimony and media through Cha-cha by any means (including constituent assembly), which they say will end the rule and abuse of the local oligarchy — casts a very dark shadow on all the rest.
Given that we can already see the West having tumultuous revolts in the occupy protests against their own oligarchs, from the Wall Street mafia, Warren Buffet, et al., General Motors, to even Rupert Murdoch and the other media mega-corporations, that call to get rid of the local oligarchs, and in their place welcome their foreign counterparts, is simply inane. How can anyone think that giving the Philippines to these voracious profit gorgers will make things better for us?
The global oligarchs won’t be kinder and gentler than the local oligarchs have been to the Filipino public all these decades. The two will only reinforce each other.
Therefore, the antithesis to the local oligarchy is not the global oligarchy. The antithesis to both is national or popular ownership!
If there is to be any change in the Constitution, what’s needed is the further protection of the nation and the people’s fundamental economic rights. This can only be done through the nationalization and/or cooperativization of, among other things, basic and strategic utilities and industries, basic function of issuing money and credit management, the fundamental right to work, and the right to be free from the abuse and exploitation of private monopolies. Only through these can the state ensure the right of every citizen to employment, affordable food, low-cost government services, medical care, education and basic shelter.
PinoyMonkeyPride, AntiPinoy, and GetRealPhilippines are really insulting the Filipino intelligence if, like Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte, they think Filipinos of all classes don’t already know that the country’s highest power costs in Asia is the very thing keeping local and foreign investments away — instead of the restriction on foreigners from owning properties and corporations in the Philippines, who, it must be said, already own the local oligarchs here.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Belmonte’s last HURA
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
11/12-13/2011
There is nothing wrong with putting up a corporation, especially if motivated with some “laudable” projects, like building low-cost housing and carrying out urban renewal for the city. But in Quezon City, its officials, many of whom were not even elected by the residents, organized a corporation and giving it a high-sounding name called “Quezon City Housing and Urban Renewal Authority (QC-HURA), Inc.”
Among the incorporators of this mutant corporation that was granted certificate of incorporation by the SEC on July 15, 2003, were Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., former mayor and now Speaker of the House; Herbert Bautista, the incumbent mayor; councilor Jesus Suntay; Tadeo Palma, secretary to the office of the Mayor; Paquito Ochoa, Jr., former city administrator and now executive secretary; Bernadette Herrera-Dy, now party-list representative; and Salvador Enriquez, Jr., former budget secretary and now president and general manager of QC-HURA, Inc.
There are asking why our big time operators in City Hall took it to themselves to organize a corporation using the funds of the city government, specifically its revenues, with them openly parading as incorporators. These people should know that as officials they are required by law to divest their holdings in any private corporation, and the reason behind is to prevent then from incurring possible conflict of interest. In their case, they defied with impunity the ban by using their position to funnel the funds entrusted to them to their newly-created “private corporation.”
One lawyer whom this column consulted said local governments are prohibited from forming a corporation, be it public or private. Only Congress, by a legislative act, can create a government-owned and controlled corporation, irrespective of its purpose, and whether its scope and jurisdiction is national or local. The prohibition goes with the saying that public funds cannot be diverted by the simple expedient of forming a corporation, and making it appear that their systematic looting of public funds is legal all because they complied with the requirements of registering their corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Aside from being required to have their own charter, the law mandates the officers to act independently, as they can likewise be held liable for graft and corruption. Hence, for all their ranting of QC-HURA, Inc. as a city--owned corporation, it is nothing more but an illegal corporation using the funds of the city as their seed capital, and the incorporators having their final say on how they intend to dispose of the funds they looted from the city government.
As the lawyer explained, for the city government to appropriate an amount to an illegal corporation amounts to malversation, and those who allowed it, including those now manning that questionable corporation, are liable for graft and corruption. For the fact that the amount is more than P50 million that now could make them liable for plunder for illegally diverting the funds of the city government to a “private corporation” thinking it could transform the status of the funds to a private fund, with them free to hire their private external auditor.
What is shocking about this last HURA of Belmonte and his acolytes is their enumeration of its primary duties. Among them: 1) “To own, develop, improve, administer, deal in, subdivide or lease any and all kinds of lands, buildings, estates and other forms of real property, owned, managed, controlled and/or operated by the Quezon City Government”; 2) “To borrow funds from any local or foreign institution independent of the bonds it may issue or may continue to issue, to carry out its purposes; and” 3) “To enter into contracts of any kind and description, to enable it to carryout its purposes and functions.”
Evidently clear in the ultra vires purposes of this questionable corporation is it practically usurped all the functions of the city council where as a matter of legal procedure every undertaking requiring the release of public funds has to be approved by an ordinance. The premium to this circumvention is it allowed the incorporators to open a sluice channel directly to their corporation with no responsibility to the people of Quezon City, they not having been elected or if were elected before are no longer officials of the city government. Some are even be thinking they could continue their racket of siphoning the funds of the city for as long as the illegal ordinance is not repealed, superseded or abrogated by another ordinance.
Curiously enough, the city government approved recently an ordinance dated October 17, 2011 imposing a special assessment tax equivalent to 0.5 percent of the assessed value of the land in excess of P100,000.00, as if there is still a property in the city valued less than that. The proponents, mostly hucksters of that Bautista-Belmonte tandem in the City Council, argued they need P223 million to finance the socialized housing and urban development forgetting it was their erstwhile boss who made a valedictory bluff of leaving a P6.5 billion surplus to the coffers of the city.
The question that puzzles is why Mayor Herbert Bautista and his confederates kept it to themselves the existence of QC-HURA, Inc. which was approved by city ordinance SP-1236 S-2003. Even if at its face the ordinance is patently illegal, the city government paid P100 million for the paid up capital upon incorporation, with the remaining P150 million of its subscribed capital paid later. In that one could see how these hustlers committed P250 million of our taxes to finance their “privatized corporation,” which they could operate even if they have long been trashed out by the voters of Quezon City.
If one will dissect QC-HURA, Inc., it states to have a subscribed capital of P250 million divided into 250,000 shares. All the mentioned incorporators contributed less than one percent of its capital stocks, while committing the city government they have made their regular milking cow to subscribe more than 99 percent amounting to P249,993,000.00. The ugly part is while the incorporators contributed a consuelo de bobo of P1,000 each representing their respective one share of stock, the city government paid the P249,993,000.00 for the project that is now being repeated by the so-called “socialized housing tax.”
Many are wondering because the objectives of this dubious corporation are no different to the objectives of their newly approved ordinance. The question is not even about the duplication of funds and functions, but the ulterior motive for clearly we have been witnessing how our corrupt and greedy officials in City Hall have been imposing confiscatory taxes left and right that every time they run out of money all they do is pass an ordinance, an actuation no different from an alley extortionist.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
11/12-13/2011
There is nothing wrong with putting up a corporation, especially if motivated with some “laudable” projects, like building low-cost housing and carrying out urban renewal for the city. But in Quezon City, its officials, many of whom were not even elected by the residents, organized a corporation and giving it a high-sounding name called “Quezon City Housing and Urban Renewal Authority (QC-HURA), Inc.”
Among the incorporators of this mutant corporation that was granted certificate of incorporation by the SEC on July 15, 2003, were Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., former mayor and now Speaker of the House; Herbert Bautista, the incumbent mayor; councilor Jesus Suntay; Tadeo Palma, secretary to the office of the Mayor; Paquito Ochoa, Jr., former city administrator and now executive secretary; Bernadette Herrera-Dy, now party-list representative; and Salvador Enriquez, Jr., former budget secretary and now president and general manager of QC-HURA, Inc.
There are asking why our big time operators in City Hall took it to themselves to organize a corporation using the funds of the city government, specifically its revenues, with them openly parading as incorporators. These people should know that as officials they are required by law to divest their holdings in any private corporation, and the reason behind is to prevent then from incurring possible conflict of interest. In their case, they defied with impunity the ban by using their position to funnel the funds entrusted to them to their newly-created “private corporation.”
One lawyer whom this column consulted said local governments are prohibited from forming a corporation, be it public or private. Only Congress, by a legislative act, can create a government-owned and controlled corporation, irrespective of its purpose, and whether its scope and jurisdiction is national or local. The prohibition goes with the saying that public funds cannot be diverted by the simple expedient of forming a corporation, and making it appear that their systematic looting of public funds is legal all because they complied with the requirements of registering their corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Aside from being required to have their own charter, the law mandates the officers to act independently, as they can likewise be held liable for graft and corruption. Hence, for all their ranting of QC-HURA, Inc. as a city--owned corporation, it is nothing more but an illegal corporation using the funds of the city as their seed capital, and the incorporators having their final say on how they intend to dispose of the funds they looted from the city government.
As the lawyer explained, for the city government to appropriate an amount to an illegal corporation amounts to malversation, and those who allowed it, including those now manning that questionable corporation, are liable for graft and corruption. For the fact that the amount is more than P50 million that now could make them liable for plunder for illegally diverting the funds of the city government to a “private corporation” thinking it could transform the status of the funds to a private fund, with them free to hire their private external auditor.
What is shocking about this last HURA of Belmonte and his acolytes is their enumeration of its primary duties. Among them: 1) “To own, develop, improve, administer, deal in, subdivide or lease any and all kinds of lands, buildings, estates and other forms of real property, owned, managed, controlled and/or operated by the Quezon City Government”; 2) “To borrow funds from any local or foreign institution independent of the bonds it may issue or may continue to issue, to carry out its purposes; and” 3) “To enter into contracts of any kind and description, to enable it to carryout its purposes and functions.”
Evidently clear in the ultra vires purposes of this questionable corporation is it practically usurped all the functions of the city council where as a matter of legal procedure every undertaking requiring the release of public funds has to be approved by an ordinance. The premium to this circumvention is it allowed the incorporators to open a sluice channel directly to their corporation with no responsibility to the people of Quezon City, they not having been elected or if were elected before are no longer officials of the city government. Some are even be thinking they could continue their racket of siphoning the funds of the city for as long as the illegal ordinance is not repealed, superseded or abrogated by another ordinance.
Curiously enough, the city government approved recently an ordinance dated October 17, 2011 imposing a special assessment tax equivalent to 0.5 percent of the assessed value of the land in excess of P100,000.00, as if there is still a property in the city valued less than that. The proponents, mostly hucksters of that Bautista-Belmonte tandem in the City Council, argued they need P223 million to finance the socialized housing and urban development forgetting it was their erstwhile boss who made a valedictory bluff of leaving a P6.5 billion surplus to the coffers of the city.
The question that puzzles is why Mayor Herbert Bautista and his confederates kept it to themselves the existence of QC-HURA, Inc. which was approved by city ordinance SP-1236 S-2003. Even if at its face the ordinance is patently illegal, the city government paid P100 million for the paid up capital upon incorporation, with the remaining P150 million of its subscribed capital paid later. In that one could see how these hustlers committed P250 million of our taxes to finance their “privatized corporation,” which they could operate even if they have long been trashed out by the voters of Quezon City.
If one will dissect QC-HURA, Inc., it states to have a subscribed capital of P250 million divided into 250,000 shares. All the mentioned incorporators contributed less than one percent of its capital stocks, while committing the city government they have made their regular milking cow to subscribe more than 99 percent amounting to P249,993,000.00. The ugly part is while the incorporators contributed a consuelo de bobo of P1,000 each representing their respective one share of stock, the city government paid the P249,993,000.00 for the project that is now being repeated by the so-called “socialized housing tax.”
Many are wondering because the objectives of this dubious corporation are no different to the objectives of their newly approved ordinance. The question is not even about the duplication of funds and functions, but the ulterior motive for clearly we have been witnessing how our corrupt and greedy officials in City Hall have been imposing confiscatory taxes left and right that every time they run out of money all they do is pass an ordinance, an actuation no different from an alley extortionist.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
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