DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27/2012
Much as this space would like to tackle the myriad of other issues bedeviling the nation, we are constantly dragged back to the electricity or power plunder that continues to ravage this country to this day. We have repeatedly highlighted the anomalous fact of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. and National Power Corp. (Napocor) debt staying at $18 billion despite over 10 years and almost 90 percent of the state’s power assets being “sold off” to the private sector since the start of the power privatization program under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001. It is as if money from the sales vanished into thin air.
Last week, one clue was given by the state agency that manages these assets. When its top honcho, Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., said, “Psalm is yet to collect $9.99 billion in additional proceeds from the transfer of IPP (independent power producer) contracts to private administrators as of September 2011,” what it says is that taxpayers and power consumers are to be charged what the IPPs should have paid for but didn’t.
As for the other half of that $18-billion debt, Ledesma claims it as “$8.44 billion in debts assumed from” Napocor. Now wasn’t the privatization of Napocor assets supposed to cover all these? Where did proceeds from the sale of diesel-fired to hydroelectric and geothermal power plants go? How about the latest $4-billion privatization of the TransCo (the erstwhile state-owned transmission grid) to the private sector operator, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), that has also not been collected after two years?
In June 2011, it was reported that “government may use the receivables from the concession contract of the NGCP” on the pretext that “selling the receivables ahead of the scheduled payment of NGCP may help in the efforts to reduce the universal charge (UC).”
Wait a minute: TransCo was earning P18 billion a year when it was sold off; now it’s not even paid while the NGCP is already earning; hence, we now even have to rediscount or sanla the receivables? What name can you give to such a deal if not “historic swindle?”
I am just aghast at the magnitude of this scam and the impunity with which it continues to be perpetrated before the eyes of 95 million Filipinos. With the silent blessings of four Edsa administrations (Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Gloria Arroyo, and now PeNoy), this national swindle rages on because of the silent consent of the entire Senate and Lower House of Congress, in collaboration with all government electricity agencies--from Psalm to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
What is the power behind these power plunderers that all government institutions are cowed into compliance, even as we ordinary folk see their dictates as an unconscionable swindle?
What are we, the people of this nation, to do when our supposed representatives in government stand idly by as our pockets are looted and our economy is systematically laid to waste by the garrote of high electricity prices and a progressively failing economy over years and years of power plunder?
The latest statements of the Psalm chief only reveal how helpless government authorities really are in the face of the IPPs and power plunderer-privateers. Instead of pressing for these companies to pay up what are clearly debt obligations to government and the Filipino people, our supposed leaders continue to find ways on how to unburden these companies--to the detriment of the public.
With deceitful intent, Psalm has been trying to pass on these debts of the privateers via piecemeal transfers: P140 billion to be paid from the national budget and assumed by taxpayers; P0.39 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as UC, shouldered again by power consumers over 20 years; with another bulk to be charged to Malampaya’s earnings; and only God knows what else.
If they were to pass these on as one lump sum to each electricity bill, it would amount to an additional P5/kWh over 20 years, which means up to 35 percent of added cost to each power consumer, who will fork out over P100 billion in power payments annually.
Congress has not approved such piecemeal schemes just yet because the ploy is too blatantly oppressive and dishonest; but it has done nothing to resolve the power plunder for the nation’s welfare either.
Malacañang, for its part, has only played deaf and dumb to the issue and the pleas of all sectors of society. At the rate the situation is developing, it is apparent that government has been made inutile, with the implication being that, at some point, all these debts will finally be transferred to us when we are at our most vulnerable--perhaps under another “revolutionary government” dictatorship a la Cory--so that the IPPs and power plunderers will never be made to pay the $18 billion anymore, thanks to Edsa I, Edsa II, and PeNoy.
Meanwhile, the power crisis in Mindanao is growing unabated despite an overabundance of capacity from hydroelectric dams that were deliberately sabotaged. The NGCP now projects an average shortfall there of 179 megawatts (MW) next month and a high 345 MW in April, even when just one facility, the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, already has 727 MW of installed capacity—this despite its production of only 467 MW today due to seemingly deliberate maintenance deficiencies.
Two Napocor power barges, 117 and 118, privatized to Aboitiz’ Therma Marine Corp. can, as well, generate 200 MW; but the rates are so high that the 33 Mindanao electric cooperatives refuse to buy from them.
Four power barges of Psalm, 101 to 104, lying idle in Luzon are being asked by the Mindanao Business Council to be deployed there to provide emergency power. But this cannot be done allegedly because it would violate the Epira’s ban on government from participating in power generation, even if it is just to help the people. How twisted, indeed, have our country’s laws become? Yet some twisted minds still have reason to celebrate Edsa?
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Hocus PCOS: New proof of cheating?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Defying debt and tax sins
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27-3/4/2012
In our previous issue we reported the spectacular performance of Argentina’s economy, which grew 94% over the 10 years since defaulting on over $100-billion debt in 2001. With its new economic vitality, Argentina has also emerged with a reinvigorated political will and, in the past month, rose to challenge Britain’s colonial claim on the islands of Malvinas off its coast.
Meanwhile, another country that defied the international “bankster” (banker-gangster) mafia is also doing very well today. Iceland voted several times to reject IMF and the Western banking community’s demand for its citizens to repay British and Dutch banks’ losses from deposits in Icesave, an Icelandic bank used by the banksters to hyper-leverage their Ponzi schemes that led to the global liquidity contraction in 2008 with the Wall Street crash.
As a response to the Icelanders’ vehement opposition to the dictates of the international financial mafia, Iceland’s financial authorities imposed currency controls, prohibited foreign exchange related to capital account transactions, and required domestic parties to submit all the foreign currency they acquire, either from the sale of goods and services or, in another manner, through a domestic financial institution. Despite this, the ratings agencies have upgraded Iceland’s credit rating, making it investment grade again, leading some to comment, “Iceland upgrade sure makes default look palatable” (www.creditwritedowns.com by Edward Harrison). That, too, is what we Filipinos need to learn from: Defy the IMF-WB and the global banksters; stare them down; and shrug off their financial goon tactics since they can’t do much about it anyway.
Iceland’s victory over the global financial mafia has prompted analysts to call the attention of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece to that Nordic island country’s example. The same should hold for the Philippines as we Filipinos have had to deal with our own “debt trap,” one that has been wrapped around us like a straight jacket, perennially being pulled tighter and tighter with tax demands left and right.
After the past two and a half decades of tax “reform” (code word for “deform”) in the guise of VAT and constantly expanding, new “sin taxes” being pressed on our legislature, and with the looming increase of this VAT from 12% to 15% that is being pitched to the media by top honchos of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who are just waiting for the opportune time to spring this on our people, the Philippines is practically suffering the same fate as hapless Greece, whose ruling politicians are allowing the financial oppression--but ours is only 10 times worse.
Filipinos should therefore no longer believe the “no new taxes” promise of PeNoy as his people are imposing new ones by hook or by crook--via direct taxes and/or higher rates from privatized public utilities.
Argentina and Iceland both defied the international banking cartel. Now look at the economic freedom and progress they gained from their resistance and revolt.
Unfortunately, Philippine mainstream media still choose not to be instrumental in making the nation understand the financial crisis and the need for Filipinos to stand together and shun continued servitude to foreign (and even domestic) debts without question. What most of our media practitioners do is to only highlight the opinions and commentaries of mainstream economists, such as those from the baby boom generation of the UP School of Economics, whose views are almost all co-opted by the international bankster mafia, which promote debt and more debt, as well as taxes and more taxes to service that debt.
These economists, like Ben Diokno and Filomeno Sta. Ana, praise the “tax reforms” without questioning the debt where these are geared for, and push for more “sin taxes.”
The “sin” tax proponents, by the way, argue that their proposal is good for tobacco farmers and consumers as it discourages the unhealthy practice of smoking and will force farmers to shift to other “more profitable” crops. But why is the tax collector so suddenly concerned with the welfare of the taxpayer?
And where is the support facility for the shift to other crops? Last I checked, tobacco farmers are only being assisted by companies such as Fortune Tobacco in constructing water impounding projects all over the tobacco growing regions.
And while Sta. Ana suggests a shift from tobacco to vegetables, peanuts, corn, and mungbeans, the fact is, these crops are not suitable for growing in the province of Ilocos.
Tobacco earns P70,000 to P120,000 per hectare per season. Sta. Ana’s crops certainly cannot earn that much. Just look at the galvanized roofs of tobacco farmers’ homes versus the ones made of nipa of vegetable farmers.
I have fought against these “sin” tax reforms since the 80s, arguing against the likes of Vic Abola of the corporatist University of Asia and Pacific and foreign think tanks. As they call for a standard rate for all tobacco products, denying any distinction among the different classes and price categories, which invariably discriminates against locally manufactured brands and consequently local tobacco farmers, their prescriptions have not changed. It is like pitting 140 lbs. welterweight Manny Pacquiao against 224 lbs. heavyweight Muhammad Ali during his prime.
The present tax on tobacco products is tiered on several classes and costs. It is thus clear that this new sin tax “reform” campaign is designed only to favor foreign interests.
Well, this isn’t surprising anymore since most of our so-called economists rely on these foreign entities for their bread and butter. So why should they care when our own farmers will suffer in the process?
I am told that tobacco farmers are now on the verge of revolt due to this new attempt to impose these unjust taxes on our tobacco products. As such, we Filipino taxpayers and tobacco players should jointly put up defiant media and popular campaigns against these foreign impositions that bedevil our economic liberty, progress, and prosperity.
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Education policies: Retrogression?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27-3/4/2012
In our previous issue we reported the spectacular performance of Argentina’s economy, which grew 94% over the 10 years since defaulting on over $100-billion debt in 2001. With its new economic vitality, Argentina has also emerged with a reinvigorated political will and, in the past month, rose to challenge Britain’s colonial claim on the islands of Malvinas off its coast.
Meanwhile, another country that defied the international “bankster” (banker-gangster) mafia is also doing very well today. Iceland voted several times to reject IMF and the Western banking community’s demand for its citizens to repay British and Dutch banks’ losses from deposits in Icesave, an Icelandic bank used by the banksters to hyper-leverage their Ponzi schemes that led to the global liquidity contraction in 2008 with the Wall Street crash.
As a response to the Icelanders’ vehement opposition to the dictates of the international financial mafia, Iceland’s financial authorities imposed currency controls, prohibited foreign exchange related to capital account transactions, and required domestic parties to submit all the foreign currency they acquire, either from the sale of goods and services or, in another manner, through a domestic financial institution. Despite this, the ratings agencies have upgraded Iceland’s credit rating, making it investment grade again, leading some to comment, “Iceland upgrade sure makes default look palatable” (www.creditwritedowns.com by Edward Harrison). That, too, is what we Filipinos need to learn from: Defy the IMF-WB and the global banksters; stare them down; and shrug off their financial goon tactics since they can’t do much about it anyway.
Iceland’s victory over the global financial mafia has prompted analysts to call the attention of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece to that Nordic island country’s example. The same should hold for the Philippines as we Filipinos have had to deal with our own “debt trap,” one that has been wrapped around us like a straight jacket, perennially being pulled tighter and tighter with tax demands left and right.
After the past two and a half decades of tax “reform” (code word for “deform”) in the guise of VAT and constantly expanding, new “sin taxes” being pressed on our legislature, and with the looming increase of this VAT from 12% to 15% that is being pitched to the media by top honchos of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who are just waiting for the opportune time to spring this on our people, the Philippines is practically suffering the same fate as hapless Greece, whose ruling politicians are allowing the financial oppression--but ours is only 10 times worse.
Filipinos should therefore no longer believe the “no new taxes” promise of PeNoy as his people are imposing new ones by hook or by crook--via direct taxes and/or higher rates from privatized public utilities.
Argentina and Iceland both defied the international banking cartel. Now look at the economic freedom and progress they gained from their resistance and revolt.
Unfortunately, Philippine mainstream media still choose not to be instrumental in making the nation understand the financial crisis and the need for Filipinos to stand together and shun continued servitude to foreign (and even domestic) debts without question. What most of our media practitioners do is to only highlight the opinions and commentaries of mainstream economists, such as those from the baby boom generation of the UP School of Economics, whose views are almost all co-opted by the international bankster mafia, which promote debt and more debt, as well as taxes and more taxes to service that debt.
These economists, like Ben Diokno and Filomeno Sta. Ana, praise the “tax reforms” without questioning the debt where these are geared for, and push for more “sin taxes.”
The “sin” tax proponents, by the way, argue that their proposal is good for tobacco farmers and consumers as it discourages the unhealthy practice of smoking and will force farmers to shift to other “more profitable” crops. But why is the tax collector so suddenly concerned with the welfare of the taxpayer?
And where is the support facility for the shift to other crops? Last I checked, tobacco farmers are only being assisted by companies such as Fortune Tobacco in constructing water impounding projects all over the tobacco growing regions.
And while Sta. Ana suggests a shift from tobacco to vegetables, peanuts, corn, and mungbeans, the fact is, these crops are not suitable for growing in the province of Ilocos.
Tobacco earns P70,000 to P120,000 per hectare per season. Sta. Ana’s crops certainly cannot earn that much. Just look at the galvanized roofs of tobacco farmers’ homes versus the ones made of nipa of vegetable farmers.
I have fought against these “sin” tax reforms since the 80s, arguing against the likes of Vic Abola of the corporatist University of Asia and Pacific and foreign think tanks. As they call for a standard rate for all tobacco products, denying any distinction among the different classes and price categories, which invariably discriminates against locally manufactured brands and consequently local tobacco farmers, their prescriptions have not changed. It is like pitting 140 lbs. welterweight Manny Pacquiao against 224 lbs. heavyweight Muhammad Ali during his prime.
The present tax on tobacco products is tiered on several classes and costs. It is thus clear that this new sin tax “reform” campaign is designed only to favor foreign interests.
Well, this isn’t surprising anymore since most of our so-called economists rely on these foreign entities for their bread and butter. So why should they care when our own farmers will suffer in the process?
I am told that tobacco farmers are now on the verge of revolt due to this new attempt to impose these unjust taxes on our tobacco products. As such, we Filipino taxpayers and tobacco players should jointly put up defiant media and popular campaigns against these foreign impositions that bedevil our economic liberty, progress, and prosperity.
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Education policies: Retrogression?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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