BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
1/21-22/2012
Most of us believe Chief Justice Renato Corona is being tried principally for his alleged failure to disclose his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). Although that now appears moot for the fact that Supreme Court clerk of court Enriqueta Vidal was compelled to surrender those documents under pain of contempt, to the more discerning, that opened the Pandora’s Box on the wealth of those secretive justices. Her submission to the majesty of the Senate impeachment court, viz. to disregard the high court’s resolution, is not so much that the public now knows the value of Corona’s property. Rather, it is that the institution we know as our final refuge to redress the wrongs inflicted on us stand as violators of the law with those dour-faced men in robe claiming to be above the law.
To recall, the origin of why the yearly submission of SALN was made compulsory was by virtue of the passage of Republic Act 6717, otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. The author and leading exponent of that bill was then-Senator Rene Saguisag, no doubt, was goaded to enact it, for like the rest of us, he was intoxicated by the euphoria of the Edsa People Power and wanted to impose moral regeneration in our society.
The ousted Marcos regime was banefully classified as a government of “kleptocracy”, and all that his family owned, like those properties they inherited, acquired before marriage, including those that were acquired before Ferdinand entered public service were given their generic classification as “ill-gotten.”
All wanted to scrub-clean the government and its employees, and the novel idea of Saguisag fit into their self-righteous crusade. The hypocrites thought they could monitor the progressive accumulation of wealth of all public servants. It was laudable because Cory Aquino thought that Sasuisag’s bill would serve to plug the loophole of corruption in public service. So, every lowly public servant was made to comply under pain of being dismissed from the service or accused of unexplained wealth.
But unknown to most of us, the Supreme Court that we look upon with reverential awe for its enlightening interpretation of our laws, silently passed a resolution in 1989, or right after Saguisag’s pet bill was enacted, ordering its personnel that all SALN submitted by the justices are off-limits to public scrutiny. The justices were unmindful their resolution carried an implication of exempting their SALN as public document that could be demanded by any taxpayer as a matter of right.
So, beginning with the late Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan, that self-serving resolution was successively reiterated by Andres Narvasa, Hilario Davide, Jr., Artemio Panganiban and Reynato Puno. Embattled Chief Justice Corona could no longer reaffirm that for that could be used as added point against him.
We are not saying the Supreme Court does not have any inherent power to pass resolutions to enjoin its personnel to obey its rules and observe confidentiality on the status of pending cases before it. However, ordinary observers interpret that power as mainly intended for internal consumption, but not for it to carry out judicial legislation that would negate laws of general application. To agree to that supposition is to extend to the high court a questionable power to judicially legislate matters designed to deflect laws inimical to their interest.
Of course, the resolution stands as immoral and questionable, but not unconstitutional or illegal. Who will judge that now? Rather, it brought embarrassment to our system that openly adheres to transparency and to the principle of equality before the law. Surely, nobody from among our taxpayers would like the idea of seeing the interpreters of our laws seeking to exempt themselves, not for the flimsy reason they are “honorable”, for on the contrary they should be the ones to set the moral guidance to our people.
The implication goes beyond that bedeviling view of seeing them standing above the law, but on how the public could objectively judge them on the basis of what they declared. For that they forfeited whatever moral ascendancy they had to punish any man facing litigation before it for unexplained wealth. That also placed the Bureau of Internal Revenue in a dilemma. While justices may unavoidably pay their income tax, the BIR cannot make a disclosure on how much they paid by virtue of that questionable judicial limitation.
The issue of SALN reminds us of that pathetic Supreme Court decision that instead of convicting the accused, who stood as owner of an alleged ill-gotten wealth, it proceeded to convict his money. I am referring to the $687 million escrow deposit made by the Swiss government at the Philippine National Bank, a condition set by the Swiss court that said amount could only be released upon declaration of guilt by our local court in a criminal case against the Marcoses. The Supreme Court managed to garnish said deposit on July 15, 2003 in favor of the Arroyo government without declaring the Marcoses guilty of any criminal offense.
The unusual thing about that out-of-this-world decision, the magistrates proceeded to hear the case by summary judgment. For that they managed to do away with the tedious process of summoning the witnesses, and possibly prevent anybody from contesting the proceedings. In addition, the presidential good-for-nothing commission came out with a simpleton’s formula that since the amount was way beyond the income of the late President, presto, said deposit was ill-gotten, and all that was required was a summary proceedings to come out with an ex party judgment.
They likewise thought it as “logical” that a dead man has no right to defend himself, or can he testify and confront the witnesses against him. So, instead of dismissing the case, they went ahead to convict his money. It was on that basis why the political hijacker, or the government that appointed Corona to his thrown was able to garnish the deposit. Rep. Imelda Marcos believes part of the “convicted money” was used in the now celebrated “Joc Joc Bolante Fertilizer Scam.”
The decision steered much confusion with many thinking whether those magistrates were some kind of nuts. We are saying this because by any stretch of one’s imagination, one can never convict a thing, but that is exactly what they did. One can charge, try and convict a living person, which reason why courts automatically dismiss criminal cases upon being informed the accused has died. Dismissal is peremptory because there is no use convicting a dead man. Cadavers can never be sent to jail! For that, we now stand as the only country in the world that managed to convict an inanimate object, something that could never be matched by any civilized court even by ions of centuries to come.
Right now we are seeing the reality of a badly deteriorated ethical conduct of most justices and judges, and maybe the self-serving prohibition to keep confidential their SALN is one reason that caused the erosion of faith by our people in our judicial system.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Consumer-taxpayers should revolt
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/16-22/2012
Do you wonder why the call for higher and newer taxes of all forms is forever being raised by the government, the BSP, the IMF, WB and ADB, even as government service institutions are declining in number due to privatization?
While new taxes and higher tax goals are instituted at the same time public services such as power, water, road infrastructure among many other privatized public utilities raise their rates without end even as these companies continue to report ever increasing profits year-after-year.
Just the same, public infrastructure projects are supposedly being jointly funded in the BS Aquino III flagship PPP (public-private partnership) scheme.
Hence, government funding requirements should not be as significant as it would be if government had to go it alone, right?
Yet, BS Aquino III is still requiring greater and greater collections from the revenue raising agencies.
Why more taxes?
New tax impositions that all of us, at one time, raise our arms up against eventually come to be accepted as part of life, like the VAT on the Expressways toll which is still unjustified despite the reality that we have to live with it.
The increase on “sin taxes” slated this year, which proponents justify by invoking health concerns, even when they are just obfuscating what is simply an unjustified additional burden.
Last January 3, Malacañang said in a regular press conference that “new taxes still ‘last resort’” but only betrays the government’s continuing intention to raise collection in the face of the question we posed above. Why more taxes, even from so called “improved collection”, which really means forcing businesses to shell out more under-the-table for the BIR and Customs to “mediate” any final amount, when the taxpayer is not getting its worth from the existing taxes being extracted and even less from additional tax burdens?
Run after professionals, self-employed
The last columns in this space for 2011 focused on the essentials issues, including the incontrovertible fact that the Philippines now has sufficient internal financial resources to bankroll its public and private investment needs.
We have to drill this into our readers’ memory that the Philippines GIR (gross international reserves) is now $ 76-B and growing against the $ 62.5-B foreign debt of the country.
We cited Vice President Binay’s reiteration of this position which we have crusaded on for the past year.
In a speech before the PCCI, Binay called for the country to use its GIR for public and private investment requirements.
Yet, the government wants to squeeze more out of our countrymen, with Malacañang and the BIR stressing that it will now run after “self-employed and professionals – tagged as a major source of tax leaks - to help hit its P1.066-trillion goal” collection in 2011.
Averse to real hard work
Aside from the surplus GIR the Philippines holds in its coffers, there is also the SDA (special deposit account) held by the BSP with at least P1.7 trillion in deposits, paying out 4% interest.
Local bankers have urged the BSP to release it by reducing the interest it pays to keep this from circulating.
A mere reduction of interest paid on it by 1% would spur the depositors, like the local banks, to withdraw the funds to seek financial investments that would allow it to earn more.
The bankers want the BSP to bear the burden of the decision and evade the responsibility of making a patriotic decision to help the national economy by seeking worthwhile productive physical investments to fund, like agricultural projects or factories.
But the banks are averse to real hard work.
They are borrowing and borrowing
Much of the deposits are from the conversion of remittance dollars to peso parked in the BSP, which the BSP uses as a mere tool to control and balance money supply and credit instead of spurring real growth.
Despite the existence of this huge reservoir of funds, the BSP continues to harp on the greatness of its performance as measured by the “credit ratings” upgrade by Fitch’s, Moody’s or Standard and Poor’s--despite the fact that these ratings agencies have been discredited the world over for being tools of manipulation by the global finance mafia.
In the case of the Philippines, this mafia wants to keep us borrowing and borrowing without end, with the BSP officials such as Tetangco and Guinigundo in cahoots.
A hole in the head
Last Jan. 3, the headline, “Lenders swarm Philippine’s first global bond issue” appeared, making it like it was Christmas again from the financial Santa Claus in time for the Three Kings’ Feast.
“The oversubscription came within hours of the announcement by the Bureau of Treasury that it would raise between $500 million and $1.5 billion in what would be the first sovereign dollar-denominated bond sale for the year.
“Tapped to jointly coordinate the bond float were Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
“They were also mandated as joint book runners, along with Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS.”
My oh my, they make it sound so great, except that we need this gift like a hole in the head, with the only true beneficiaries , the financial brokers and the bankers.
Making them richer and richer
The Philippines is already in a perfect position to do what Brazil did in 2005, which paid all its $15-billion debt while telling the IMF to go to hell. Argentina did the same after defaulting and negotiating a 70%-write-off. Today, it is one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America, growing between 8 to 9% per annum.
Our title for this week’s piece is “Consumers/taxpayers should revolt” because the continuing additional public utility rate hikes and tax increases are absolutely useless to those paying them.
The money extracted goes only to making the financial oligarchy richer and richer while the real, physical economy gets dried up even more. It’s time to revolt for real!
(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
1/16-22/2012
Do you wonder why the call for higher and newer taxes of all forms is forever being raised by the government, the BSP, the IMF, WB and ADB, even as government service institutions are declining in number due to privatization?
While new taxes and higher tax goals are instituted at the same time public services such as power, water, road infrastructure among many other privatized public utilities raise their rates without end even as these companies continue to report ever increasing profits year-after-year.
Just the same, public infrastructure projects are supposedly being jointly funded in the BS Aquino III flagship PPP (public-private partnership) scheme.
Hence, government funding requirements should not be as significant as it would be if government had to go it alone, right?
Yet, BS Aquino III is still requiring greater and greater collections from the revenue raising agencies.
Why more taxes?
New tax impositions that all of us, at one time, raise our arms up against eventually come to be accepted as part of life, like the VAT on the Expressways toll which is still unjustified despite the reality that we have to live with it.
The increase on “sin taxes” slated this year, which proponents justify by invoking health concerns, even when they are just obfuscating what is simply an unjustified additional burden.
Last January 3, Malacañang said in a regular press conference that “new taxes still ‘last resort’” but only betrays the government’s continuing intention to raise collection in the face of the question we posed above. Why more taxes, even from so called “improved collection”, which really means forcing businesses to shell out more under-the-table for the BIR and Customs to “mediate” any final amount, when the taxpayer is not getting its worth from the existing taxes being extracted and even less from additional tax burdens?
Run after professionals, self-employed
The last columns in this space for 2011 focused on the essentials issues, including the incontrovertible fact that the Philippines now has sufficient internal financial resources to bankroll its public and private investment needs.
We have to drill this into our readers’ memory that the Philippines GIR (gross international reserves) is now $ 76-B and growing against the $ 62.5-B foreign debt of the country.
We cited Vice President Binay’s reiteration of this position which we have crusaded on for the past year.
In a speech before the PCCI, Binay called for the country to use its GIR for public and private investment requirements.
Yet, the government wants to squeeze more out of our countrymen, with Malacañang and the BIR stressing that it will now run after “self-employed and professionals – tagged as a major source of tax leaks - to help hit its P1.066-trillion goal” collection in 2011.
Averse to real hard work
Aside from the surplus GIR the Philippines holds in its coffers, there is also the SDA (special deposit account) held by the BSP with at least P1.7 trillion in deposits, paying out 4% interest.
Local bankers have urged the BSP to release it by reducing the interest it pays to keep this from circulating.
A mere reduction of interest paid on it by 1% would spur the depositors, like the local banks, to withdraw the funds to seek financial investments that would allow it to earn more.
The bankers want the BSP to bear the burden of the decision and evade the responsibility of making a patriotic decision to help the national economy by seeking worthwhile productive physical investments to fund, like agricultural projects or factories.
But the banks are averse to real hard work.
They are borrowing and borrowing
Much of the deposits are from the conversion of remittance dollars to peso parked in the BSP, which the BSP uses as a mere tool to control and balance money supply and credit instead of spurring real growth.
Despite the existence of this huge reservoir of funds, the BSP continues to harp on the greatness of its performance as measured by the “credit ratings” upgrade by Fitch’s, Moody’s or Standard and Poor’s--despite the fact that these ratings agencies have been discredited the world over for being tools of manipulation by the global finance mafia.
In the case of the Philippines, this mafia wants to keep us borrowing and borrowing without end, with the BSP officials such as Tetangco and Guinigundo in cahoots.
A hole in the head
Last Jan. 3, the headline, “Lenders swarm Philippine’s first global bond issue” appeared, making it like it was Christmas again from the financial Santa Claus in time for the Three Kings’ Feast.
“The oversubscription came within hours of the announcement by the Bureau of Treasury that it would raise between $500 million and $1.5 billion in what would be the first sovereign dollar-denominated bond sale for the year.
“Tapped to jointly coordinate the bond float were Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
“They were also mandated as joint book runners, along with Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS.”
My oh my, they make it sound so great, except that we need this gift like a hole in the head, with the only true beneficiaries , the financial brokers and the bankers.
Making them richer and richer
The Philippines is already in a perfect position to do what Brazil did in 2005, which paid all its $15-billion debt while telling the IMF to go to hell. Argentina did the same after defaulting and negotiating a 70%-write-off. Today, it is one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America, growing between 8 to 9% per annum.
Our title for this week’s piece is “Consumers/taxpayers should revolt” because the continuing additional public utility rate hikes and tax increases are absolutely useless to those paying them.
The money extracted goes only to making the financial oligarchy richer and richer while the real, physical economy gets dried up even more. It’s time to revolt for real!
(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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
