Clowns and scammers

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

6/1/2012

The very day that the Senate impeachment hearings were to conclude, the BS Aquino III government also tried to conclude its own P80 billion loan for the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp.'s continued operations, thus ensuring that the agency will be able to privatize the remaining 10 percent or so of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)'s assets and the supply of coal and other fuel requirements of independent power producers (IPPs).

Simultaneous to that, an agreement between BS Aquino III and a foreign finance company, Macquarie Group Ltd. of Australia, was reached to create the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure (PInAI, like Pinay for Aussies) that will set up an infrastructure fund, whereby the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will contribute $300 million and the Australian firm $50 million for so-called public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

Going by the foreign financial agent's negligible contribution, the inexplicable thing is, why would anyone even go for such a tie-up, especially when the Philippines has its own Special Deposit Account (SDA) in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) worth around P1.7 trillion, or 12 times the amount of the P130 billion needed to fund the projects this year?

On the afternoon of the impeachment trial's convoluted conclusion — which this space has unwaveringly predicted would end in conviction — and with the senator-judges hamming it up before the cameras, I compiled and later read out on my radio program the more important issues, foremost of which is the country's debt service. In April of this year alone, our country had already paid out P38.6 billion on principal and P16 billion in interest, or a total drain of around P55 billion.

But more than that, government even has a $2.5-billion borrowing program for the year despite the fact we have P1.7 trillion lying idle in the BSP and foreign reserves of up to $72 billion — as against a debt of $60 billion.

Sadly, the swindles don't end there. The news that a certain bigwig invited foreign partners for financial investments into its MRT project — when it is an established fact that the MRT does not lose money on its operations but only on its financial guarantees to foreign investors — also makes our blood boil.

While it is true that the P5.7 million reportedly spent by the House for the impeachment trial is a measly amount, if we consider what other possible expenses it has meant owing to what the Palace has had to promise congressmen, senators, and other interested parties in exchange for a guilty verdict, we'll also be counting in the tens of billions of pesos.

Aside from the usual pork barrel, what and how much more would it have cost, for example, for the last-minute trip of BS Aquino III to the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) in obtaining the latter's acquiescence to a Corona conviction? Despite Malacañang's pronouncements, the timing of the visit renders its denials laughable. BS Aquino III was certainly in a desperate situation. In order to avoid becoming a lame duck after the ill-conceived impeachment case, he was most probably forced to pay through his nose with the people's resources.

I must admit that I didn't listen to the coverage of the final day of the Corona impeachment as I just couldn't stand the hypocrisy of the kettles and pots pointing fingers and judging others. I did have one hard laugh though from the day before, when the prosecution let out Speaker Sonny Belmonte to close its case. The hard laugh was, of course, triggered by the comedic irony of the chief culprit in what former party-list Rep. Rene Magtubo told of the bribery of congressmen for the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) in 2001.

Moreover, columnist Rod Kapunan texted about Belmonte's alleged role in one apparent Edsa I scam, which we Googled and found in veteran writer Larry Henares' 80s column. It concerns "a real estate property at 212 Stockton Street, on the corner of Geary Street, at San Francisco's famed Union Square, known as the Philippine Airlines Building since 1947… (which) had always been a Filipino corner in a square that a San Francisco newspaper once described as 'an island of sunshine and greenery'… considered one of the very best locations in the whole United States." When Edsa took place, the new dispensation "hurriedly and in near secrecy sold the property for $10 million, in other words, at the original purchase price, without recovering the substantial investments made further in the property…"

The column then recounted the Senate blue ribbon committee investigation that ensued, which told of "an intriguing tale… (where) everyone (was) passing the buck and pointing to someone else… (and where) Speedy Gonzalez (claimed that he)… turned the whole matter over to Sonny Belmonte when the latter was appointed GSIS president," with the current Speaker being the one "who made the final decision in April 1986 on whom to sell and at what price."

According to the records, the Philippine government only got $2,000 of what was valued by an "independent, third-party appraiser, Haley-Leslie Appraisal Co. of San Francisco… in a thorough study (of) the market value of the property at the time of purchase on August 1982 (as) $12 million." The appraisal report was even more explicit in that "the property under consideration (was) clearly a prime property." Now why don't we ever encounter such reports in the Philippine Star?

Lastly, from one House Speaker to another, we have this final point: Those who thought Sen. Manny Villar and his group would vote for an acquittal were fooling themselves all along. With the string of cases possibly awaiting him, Villar was likely among the most ready to convict. Indeed, whether seasoned or neophyte, whether young or old, what clowns and scammers these members of the political ruling class are!

(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 "The Corona conviction: Politics or rule of law?" with Atty. Alan Paguia; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

The hypocrites on the defensive

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

5/26-27/2012

The hypocrites once again found themselves squirming like worms after beleaguered Chief Justice Renato Corona threw back the challenge to the 188 members of Congress who signed the impeachment complaint, including Senator Franklin Drilon.

Such is the pathetic scenario of a country that has gone haywire. They wanted Corona to defend himself as not guilty, and not for them to prove that he is. Of course, the critics would insist on their right to cross-examine him. But whatever he says now has become irrelevant because he has taken the offensive of challenging them to do the same, of signing a waiver that would allow the opening not only of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, but also of their bank accounts, including their foreign currency deposits. Drilon cannot give his con-man's argument that it is Corona who is on trial, and therefore it is for him to prove his innocence.

It may sound logical, but if one knows what constitutes fair play, that argument of Drilon is pathetically illogical and stupid. First, Corona was compelled to raise that challenge because the trial that has been reduced to a circus has not proven anything. Second, many of those charges listed in the original impeachment complaint have already been dismissed, and the hypocrites have to swallow their pride by amending their complaint for fear the presiding judge might just dismiss their complaint altogether.

As Corona would put it, the discrepancies in one's SALN is not an impeachable offense because he is not under any legal obligation to declare all his assets to which the laws itself provides protection, and he is referring to the banking secrecy law. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 1405 provides, to quote: "All deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions in the Philippines x x x, are x considered as of an absolutely confidential nature and may not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office, except upon written permission of the depositor, or in cases of impeachment, or upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials, or in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation."

Despite that specific provision, the hypocrites thought it wise to just violate R.A. No. 1405 entertaining the usual notion that once disclosed, the accused would, by moral compulsion, have to explain his bank account or why he failed to include it in his SALN. They wanted to skip the civilized process of proving their case based on the merits of that they could legally obtain. When asked how they managed to obtain copies of those dubious bank records that purport to represent the deposits of Corona, which was not even certified by the bank, the complainants come out with their silly alibi that even a man just released from a mental asylum would have doubts.

Nonetheless, the hypocrites came back dangling the same line that allegedly Corona has 82 bank accounts. They were out to publicly ridicule and discredit the chief justice and make travesty of our laws. Thus, when they came out with their fantastic figure of summing up Corona's dollar account reaching a staggering figure of $12 million by the simpleton process of just adding all the transactions that put on the spotlight the sanity of those who testified. As one would quip, it was not the dollar account of Corona the public discovered, but on the insanity of people who have been parading themselves as "holier than thou."

More than anything else, Republic Act No. 6426 or An Act Instituting a Foreign Currency Deposit System in the Philippines is more stringent than R.A. No. 1405. Specifically, Section 8 provides, to quote: "All foreign currency deposits authorized under this Act, x x x, are hereby declared as and considered of an absolutely confidential nature and, except upon the written permission of the depositor, in no instance shall foreign currency deposits be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office whether judicial or administrative or legislative, or any other entity whether public or private; x x x, That said foreign currency deposits shall be exempt from attachment, garnishment, or any other order or process of any court, legislative body, government agency or any administrative body whatsoever." Note that Section 8 did not put any proviso that would give the courts an excuse to examine foreign currency deposits.

Finally, the prosecution panel, being members of Congress, should have anticipated that contradiction between the law that mandates all government officials to submit their SALN and the law on bank secrecy. It is because of this that Corona believes he has not committed any wrongdoing; and that he will continue to abide by those laws for as long as they are not amended to synchronize them with the objective sought by the law on SALN. In the meantime, either the impeachment court acquit Corona, or take his challenge to put truism to their vagaries about their so-called "tuwid na daan", or follow what that infamous Supreme Court precedent during the time of Hilario Davide, that instead of convicting the Marcoses of acquiring ill-gotten wealth, it proceeded to convict their money, thus justifying the grabbing of the foreign currency deposit without the hypocrites having to prove anything.

• rodkap@yahoo.com.ph 

Don’t just believe; think!

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/25/2012

At the recent anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) rallies in Chicago, a placard captured on TV and the Internet that caught my attention read: "Don't believe them again!"

The US has invited more than 80 heads-of-state and heads-of-government to the Nato meet in Obama's hometown. Rick Rozoff, journalist and "Stop Nato" movement manager, reports that the matters to be discussed range from how to close the book on the now Vietnam-like quagmire of the Afghan war — Nato's first ground war and the US' longest armed conflict to date; to the alliance's defense capabilities as well as the US-Nato missile "defense" system; and to the expansion of the military bloc's global military partnerships that would lead up to the consolidation of a Nato-oriented global intervention force. But not tabled for the talks is why Nato, an organization formed expressly for the defense of Europe, is in a war 5,583 kilometers away in Afghanistan, and why the US invited over 50 non-members to its summit.

Suspicions have been raised that the Nato Chicago summit is the beginning of the Global Nato, a fear that is very well-founded given the extra-European theater wars the US is bringing Nato into — from Afghanistan in Asia to Libya in Africa. Nato's former secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has denied the allegations of a planned "global policeman" role, pointing to a lack of material resources, which is the same problem befogging today's secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen as European countries suffer economic debacles while spending billions in Afghanistan and angering constituencies back home.

But that still won't stop US Conservative think-tanks from continuing to argue and lay the basis for US shepherding of Nato into its global misadventures, such as in the case of Foreign Affairs magazine contributors, Ivo Daalder and James Goldgeier, who wrote: "The advent of a new global politics after the Cold War has led Nato to expand its geographic reach and the range of its operations. Now, Nato must extend its membership to any democratic state that can help it fulfill its new responsibilities. Only a truly global alliance can address the global challenges of the day."

In September of 2010, Rick Rozoff reports that Daalder, also the US permanent representative to Nato, told Indian journalists visiting Nato's Brussels headquarters: "I think it is important to have a dialog (with India) and deepen that dialog. It is through dialog, through understanding each other's perceptions and perhaps by working on misperceptions that may exist, that we can strengthen the relations between India and Nato," bluntly suggesting that India should abandon its policy of neutrality and collaborate with the US and Nato in developing an international interceptor missile system.

Last December, US President Obama declared the "re-balancing" of his country's presence in Asia, announced US Marine deployment in Australia, followed in March by initiatives for a missile defense shield in Asia, with Japan, South Korea and even the Philippines ostensibly guarding against the North Korean "threat." In Africa, Nato has been enticing the African Union to sign a partnership agreement and reinforcing the African Standby Force (ASF) which saw action in the Côte d'Ivoire coup against a sitting president in favor of an IMF man (reminds us of the parliamentary coup in Greece and Italy where Goldman Sachs men grabbed power).

It is no wonder that a placard imploring people to "Don't believe them anymore" — a small but powerful message — has been suppressed violently, with over 300 protesters arrested in a martial law-like atmosphere in Obama's hometown. The protests, attended even by a delegation of Afghan children, shows the world doesn't believe the global powers anymore and has learned to think.

In the Philippines, we have countless formal and informal spokesmen for US geopolitical interests, starting with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense chief Voltaire Gazmin, supported by a cast of hundreds in media and other institutions. One media talking head, for instance, said over radio that "Anyone who thinks of sharing the China Sea with China is a traitor," with him, of course, saying nothing about the US-British swindle of the Filipinos in Malampaya, or the larceny that is about to happen in the Reed Bank with Monte Oro Corp. and MVP where nothing will be left for the Filipino nation — all invariably backed by Western mafias (like Carlyle or Goldman Sachs) that have been culprits in many Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) deals that have shortchanged the nation. So is such posturing patriotic or a build-up to the acceptance of an Asian Nato?

As the global and local Establishment — the mainstream — is absolutely no longer credible, thinking Filipinos should thus declare, "Don't believe them anymore," as my radio program audience did in their texts.

The mainstream's attitude is typified by what certain quarters have on the Corona impeachment trial, especially the forces pushing it, from Malacañang to the Ombudsman; to the haven of Harvey Keh, the Ateneo de Manila University and its Jesuits; to the Yellow evil society (who counts the ham-acting Heidi Mendoza as a member) worthy of being sued by the defense panel; and, most of all, Benigno Aquino III, who has not a shred of integrity and reliability as a democratic leader after two years of absolutely incompetent governance.

And since we ought to not believe them, too, something must be done about this, the sooner the better.

(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.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)