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)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
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)
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