Bad Governance under Duterte: Massive Corruption, Gross Fiscal and Economic Mismanagement

BAD GOVERNANCE UNDER DUTERTE:

MASSIVE CORRUPTION, GROSS FISCAL AND ECONOMIC MISMANAGEMENT

THE CORRUPTION AT THE HEART OF DUTERTISMO

By: John Nery - @jnery_newsstand

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:09 AM December 04, 2018

On June 29 last year, in remarks made at the anniversary of a charity, President Duterte gave a new meaning to that biblical phrase, about charity covering a multitude of sins. He said, or rather he joked, that he had stolen from public funds before, but he had used up all of it. Many in the audience laughed.

What did he say, exactly? “I hate corruption. Hindi ako nagmamakalinis [sic]. Marami rin akong nanakaw pero naubos na. So wala na. T*ng*na, hindi ako uma…pero corruption is really out during my term.” Even as a joke, the parts in Filipino are damning. “I hate corruption. I am not pretending to be clean [Or, I am not being holier-than-thou]. I also stole a lot but it’s all used up. So it’s gone. Son of a bitch, I don’t…but corruption is really out during my term.”

Why would the chief executive, the person charged with executing the laws of the land, joke about violating the laws on corruption himself? Because he sees himself as a transgressive leader, and delights in outraging sensibilities. Because he understands this kind of tough talk is part of the appeal of Dutertismo, and he will be seen as authentic. And because he is telling the truth.

Like the American embarrassment he is often compared to, Mr. Duterte likes to talk. Unlike Donald Trump, however, he hardly traffics in projection. Instead, he often indulges in confession.

On Aug. 21, 2016, he admitted — unprompted, unprovoked — that he used to plant evidence when he was a city prosecutor in Davao City. “I’ve learned a lot during my prosecution days. We planted evidence.” (This is the live, beating heart of a disbarment case against him—and because you don’t need to be a lawyer to be President, such a case should fall outside the scope of the largely unchallenged tradition of presidential immunity. It’s worth testing.)

On Sep. 27, 2018, he confessed that his only sin was the extrajudicial killings. “Ano kasalanan ko? Nagnakaw ba ako diyan ni piso? Did I prosecute somebody na pinakulong ko? Ang kasalanan ko lang ’yung extrajudicial killings,” he said. Perhaps the more idiomatic translation of “kasalanan” is not sin, but guilt, as in “What am I guilty of?” But we can use the more literal translation, too: “What’s my sin? Did I steal even P1? Did I prosecute somebody whom I sent to jail? My only sin are those extrajudicial killings.”

We can multiply the examples of President Duterte’s many admissions against self-interest. To be sure, he and his many spokespersons like to use the he-was-joking defense. But consider just these three:

The President was not joking when he defended Solicitor General Jose Calida’s continued participation in government biddings for the chief government lawyer’s security agency. “Why should I fire him? Anything in government as long as there is bidding, there is no problem, that’s OK if he won the bidding.”

But the Constitution expressly prohibits Cabinet officials from being “financially interested in any contract with” the government or any of its agencies, and the antigraft law forbids public officers from receiving any benefit from “the Government or any other part, wherein the public officer in his official capacity has to intervene under the law.”

The President was not joking when, as a presidential candidate, he admitted being given at least three real estate properties and at least two SUVs by his good friend and constituent, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. “Every time si Pastor magbili, dalawa ’yan. Ang isa sa akin diyan, sigurado (Every time Pastor buys something, he buys two at a time. One of them is for me, for sure),” he said.

The antigraft law prohibits “Directly or indirectly requesting or receiving any gift…for himself or for another, from any person for whom the public officer, in any manner or capacity, has secured or obtained, or will secure or obtain, any Government permit or license.”

And the President was not joking when he repeatedly praised his common-law wife Honeylet’s business acumen. By all accounts, she truly works hard at her businesses. But consider Mr. Duterte’s Honeylet narrative, which he has told often. This version is I think the latest, from Oct. 20. After describing her as his “true love,” the President narrated her rags-to-riches story yet again. “When she came home, she had saved up for capital, she franchised another one and then ventured into the meat business. The meat being sold here is hers. Besides, who would try to compete against the wife of the mayor or President? Ah, now she’s really rich.”

The key passage in the original Bisaya is even more emphatic. “Kinsa man pu’y makig-kompitensya’g asawa ka og mayor o Presidente?”

As we say in French: Mismo.

In telling this story again and again, the President admits to corruption. Simply put, corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain. By Mr. Duterte’s own account, hardworking Honeylet became the biggest supplier of meats in Davao City because, well, who wants to compete against the mayor’s wife?

If this is a joke, it’s on all of us.

On Twitter: @jnery_newsstand. E-mail: jnery@inquirer.com.ph

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/117896/the-corruption-at-the-heart-of-dutertismo#ixzz5bQqp1CFh

IMELDA BAIL HIT AS ‘INSULT’ TO MARTIAL LAW VICTIMS

By: Krixia Subingsubing, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:05 AM November 17, 2018

Opposition lawmakers and a lawyers’ group slammed the Sandiganbayan for allowing former first lady Imelda Marcos to post bail even after she had skipped a court session where her conviction on seven counts of graft was handed down last week.

Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said while bail as legal remedy was allowed under the Rules of Court, such a privilege should not be “taken lightly and dismissed on account of her age and health conditions.”

On Monday, Marcos, 89, filed a motion for leave of court to avail herself of postconviction remedies, which are provided under Rule 120 if the court finds the absence of the accused during the promulgation of the verdict to be “without justifiable cause.”

The court said that while the motion was pending, it would defer ordering her immediate arrest and allow her to post bail.

“We knew it. It (the conviction) was too good and beautiful to be true,” said Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), a group of human rights lawyers.

Olalia said the court’s decision granting bail showed how some “were more powerful than others” in the Philippines.

“And so it came to pass that by a mere motion of a convicted plunderer, the Philippine court ‘deferred’ and bid its time in the actual issuance of the arrest warrant against an accused who has lost all legal remedies by reason of her failure to attend the said promulgation,” the NUPL president said.

“So, after 27 long agonizing years, the Filipino people are again made to wait for the reckoning,” Olalia said in a statement on Friday.

Medical excuse

“Meantime,” he added, “Imelda can go on partying the nights away, run for elections together with her forgetful eldest daughter, and wait for [her] son, the dictator’s namesake, to become President.”

The widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos was found guilty of seven counts of graft in connection with Swiss foundations that she and her husband established and used to stash more than $200 million abroad while she was serving as a government official.

Although the medical excuse given by Marcos for not appearing in court to hear the Sandiganbayan announce its judgment on the cases filed 27 years ago—“multiple organ infirmities”—appeared serious, “her actions and demeanor say otherwise,” Villarin said.

He said Marcos was partying to celebrate the birthday of her daughter, Imee, just hours after the Sandiganbayan sentenced her to up to 77 years in prison on Friday last week.

Marcos had also filed for candidacy to succeed her daughter as governor of Ilocos Norte province, which Villarin described as a “stressful job.”

“It is history judging her and this is no ordinary case that we just let pass without a whimper … So why allow her to bail and engage in such a strenuous work in politics? She should be jailed and let fate decide her future,” Villarin said.

Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said the antigraft court’s decision showed a “double standard” of justice.

“Clearly, it’s antipoor,” he lamented. “If you are rich, you can avoid incarceration. But if you are poor, you might spend the rest of your life in jail.”

‘Multiple honesty infirmities’

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said Marcos’ alibi for not appearing in court only proved that she was afflicted with “multiple honesty infirmities.”

The P150,000 bail was “cheap” in comparison to the “billions of pesos (the Marcoses) stole from the people,” according to Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago.

“It’s an insult to martial law victims, their families and the Filipino people who had been waiting for justice to be served on the Marcoses,” she said. 

The bail granted was a “very shameful” decision by the Sandiganbayan justices who showed they were “bowing down to the high and mighty Marcoses for the whole world to see,” said Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1054452/imelda-bail-hit-as-insult-to-martial-law-victims#ixzz5eQpoh0a1

‘PERVERSE RULING’ USED BY PLUNDERERS

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM December 13, 2018

Allow me to comment on Artemio Panganiban’s column, “More questions on Imelda’s conviction” (12/9/18), which pointed out the fact that it was then Associate Justice (now Chief Justice) Lucas Bersamin who invented a “new” (i.e., previously unheard of) doctrine that led to the acquittal of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in a plunder case.

Bersamin practically junked the settled rule in criminal law that the “act of one is the act of all” and therefore it is irrelevant to determine who the “mastermind” and the mere gofers are in a charge of conspiracy.

As Panganiban said, that perverse ruling is now “binding jurisprudence in plunder cases” — which looters of the people’s money are now invoking in their own cases with alacrity.

The former chief justice may have missed one more fact. That same Bersamin decision set aside an elementary rule in the Rules of Court promulgated by the Supreme Court itself which EXPLICITLY PROHIBITS review of any trial court’s ruling denying a demurrer to the evidence.

That rule requires the accused to proceed presenting his/her own defense pronto.

Arroyo’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, went straight to the Supreme Court to seek review of the Sandiganbayan ruling finding sufficient evidence to convict her and therefore denying her demurrer.

Bersamin, who incidentally was appointed to the Supreme Court by Arroyo, seemed to have obliged happily.

ROMANO M. MONTENEGRO, romor_monger@yahoo.com

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/118130/perverse-ruling-used-by-plunderers#ixzz5cRpYWw5R

SERENO ON ACQUITTAL OF REVILLA OF PLUNDER

‘Nation loses soul when law becomes instrument of injustice’

By: Vincent Cabreza - Reporter / @Inquirer_Baguio

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:23 AM December 11, 2018

BAGUIO CITY — Saying a “nation loses its soul when the law becomes an instrument of injustice,” former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday described the acquittal of former Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. of plunder charges as the latest “legal abomination” plaguing Philippine society.

Speaking at a forum commemorating the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here, Sereno said Revilla’s acquittal came at a time when “people have started to believe that the law is being used against them, given the prevalence of violent deaths due to the Duterte administration’s drug war.”

“How we have seen evil at its most hard core [and] our sense of justice assaulted as if government and laws exist only for the powerful, who may be both corrupt or vengeful, [while] professing a love for the people but demonstrating no fear of God,” she said.

Demand from the Creator

“Justice is a demand from the Creator himself, thus the very sad episode in this nation’s history when we all heard the decision of the Sandiganbayan a few days ago acquitting Sen. Ramon Revilla of the charges of plunder,” Sereno said.

“That encapsulates the latest legal abomination that has been created in the last two years. It is a dagger stroke to the heart of justice,” she said.

Fictitious projects

After a trial that lasted two years, the Sandiganbayan First Division on Friday acquitted Revilla of the charge that he pocketed P224.5 million in kickbacks from fictitious projects financed from his share of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a pork barrel that channeled funds to congressional districts.

Lawyer Richard Cambe, his former chief of staff, and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, were found guilty and sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

The ruling drew scorn from legal experts, who said the pork barrel scam was a conspiracy among the accused so that if one was guilty, all were guilty as well.

“[Sandiganbayan] Justice Efren de la Cruz spoke about the glaring lack of justice when the majority required secret crimes to be proven on all points by direct evidence,” Sereno said, adding that this was an “impossible standard of proof” that led to the dismissal of the charges against Revilla.

Return the loot

The court ruled that all the accused must return the P124.5 million allegedly pocketed by Cambe, but Revilla said on Monday that the charges against him were just invented, indicating that he did not agree with that part of the ruling.

Speaking at Bacoor City Hall in Cavite, his home province, Revilla also vowed to clean up his family’s name.

“I did not steal even a centavo from the people,” Revilla said.

His legal woes, however, are not yet over, as he is still facing 16 charges of graft over the alleged diversion of P517 million in his PDAF share to foundations controlled by Napoles.

He is out on P480,000 bail.

International Human Rights Day should have been “a time of rejoicing” in the country, which was hailed by the world for peacefully unseating dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Sereno said.

The Edsa People Power Revolt showed that “good can conquer evil,” she said.

War on drugs

But the country is dealing with situations where “the very weapons the taxpayers’ money purchased for the Armed Forces and the police are being turned against the people, when the intelligence funds of [the] government are used to hound dissent and oppress political enemies, [and] when [accused] plunderers are allowed to go free by unreasoned court decisions,” Sereno said.

The war on drugs started it all, with wide support from people who voted President Rodrigo Duterte into office, she said.

But polls show that this public support “is not support for the manner with which it (drug war) is being conducted nor its outcome,” she added.

The polls, Sereno said, show “a great majority want suspects to be captured alive, not gunned down.”

‘Unjust, already evil’

The crackdown on illegal drugs has become “unjust,” she said. “It is already evil.”

Sereno said no one would disagree that a campaign to end drug trafficking and drug abuse should be undertaken.

But a good number of institutions, including the courts, have expressed “disapproval of cases when authorities ignore due process, when they act against people on a drug watch list despite the absence of sufficient factual basis, and for direct forensic evidence of rubouts,” she said.

“If those who expect to be protected by the law are themselves its victims, then what else can you call law but an instrument of injustice? What is the recourse of people?” she asked. —With a report from Krissy Aguilar

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1061920/nation-loses-soul-when-law-becomes-instrument-of-injustice#ixzz5aNOOFw5k

The decision to acquit Revilla is an act of the judiciary, but it is abetted and condoned by the Duterte administration, which actively fosters massive corruption, misrule of law, and impunity.

NOT GUILTY—BUT RETURN THE MONEY?

Philippine Daily Inquirer

05:16 AM December 08, 2018

That, in a nutshell, is the exceedingly odd decision rendered by the Sandiganbayan yesterday that acquitted former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. of plunder in the case arising from the infamous pork-barrel scam. Only Revilla’s former chief of staff, Richard Cambe, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, were found guilty of the charge and sentenced to reclusion perpetua and absolute disqualification from public office.

However, despite the prosecution having failed, in the words of the court, “to establish beyond reasonable doubt that accused Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. received, directly or indirectly the rebates, commission and kickbacks from his PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund]” and therefore “cannot hold him liable for the crime of plunder,” the next paragraph of the dispositive portion declared that the “accused” (not the convicted, mind, meaning all three—Revilla, Cambe and Napoles) “are held solidarily and jointly liable to return to the National Treasury the amount of One Hundred Twenty-Four Million, Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (PhP124,500.00).”

Put another way, Revilla is not guilty of stealing public money, according to the court—but he needs to return the money anyway.

…Other than the testimony of whistleblower Benhur Luy, who testified that Revilla, through his aide Cambe, funneled his pork-barrel funds to bogus foundations set up by Napoles in exchange for kickbacks, the crux of the prosecution’s case was a report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that looked into Revilla’s bank deposits and transactions.

What it found should have been deemed damning. According to the AMLC, from April 6, 2006 to April 28, 2010, the former senator, his wife then Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, and their children had assets in banks amounting to some P87.6 million. The details of those amounts, said the AMLC, corresponded to Luy’s records of transactions when  Revilla supposedly received his share of the laundered PDAF from Napoles’ office.

So Revilla had millions in unexplained funds, which already raises questions of ill-gotten wealth (he still faces 16 counts of graft, a bailable offense). The Sandiganbayan must think that money doesn’t belong to Revilla in any way, else why would it order him to return it to the government? Still, Revilla ends up absolved of plunder, and only  his underling Cambe and Napoles are convicted. How, then, did Revilla end up with the stash? Where did he get it? And does this mean Cambe, Revilla’s factotum, engaged all on his own in fraudulent transactions with Napoles involving millions of pesos in kickbacks over several years, under the very nose of his unsuspecting boss? That is a scenario hard to believe. But that is what the Sandiganbayan is asking the public to swallow with its decision.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/118034/not-guilty-but-return-the-money#ixzz5dCQVfdny

UNREASONABLE DOUBT

By: Joel Ruiz Butuyan - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:04 AM December 17, 2018

Former senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile will both be declared innocent next, following the acquittal of ex-senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. of the heinous crime of plunder.

…The fear is well-founded if one reads the 186-page decision of the three justices who found Revilla innocent. And the anger is warranted if one studies the combined 158 pages of the dissenting opinions of the two justices who found Revilla guilty.

The three former senators were all charged with plundering their pork barrel allotments, known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). They were accused of receiving the following kickbacks: P224.5 million for Revilla; P183.79 million for Estrada; and P172.8 million for Enrile.

A common modus operandi was employed by the three men, according to witnesses. The senators conspired with Janet Lim Napoles who created 20 fake nongovernment organizations (NGOs) through which their pork barrel funds were drained. The bogus NGOs had officers and stockholders who were Napoles’ secretaries, drivers, security guards, employees, friends, and family members.

Through their designated representatives, the three senators received their kickbacks in bags of cash from Napoles or her trusted aides. Revilla’s representative was his legislative staff officer, lawyer Richard Cambe.

The pieces of evidence presented in the Revilla case provide the commonalities in all the three cases because the key witnesses are the same.

Prosecution star witness Benhur Luy, cousin and trusted aide of Napoles, testified that Revilla’s pork barrel funds were shared in this manner: Revilla, 50 percent; Napoles, 32-40 percent; Cambe, 5 percent; head of the government implementing agency (IA), 2-10 percent; management fee of the IA, 3 percent. Virtually 100 percent of Revilla’s PDAF went to kickbacks and commissions.

The majority of three justices reasoned that it was “not sufficiently established” that Revilla was part of the conspiracy and that there was no evidence that heactually received the millions in kickbacks given to Cambe.

They ruled thus notwithstanding documents presented by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that “[b]etween 6 April 2006 and 28 April 2010, Revilla and his immediate family made numerous deposits to their various bank accounts and placed investments totaling P87,626,587.63 within 30 days from the dates mentioned in Benhur Luy’s ledger when Revilla, through Cambe, allegedly received commissions or rebates to his PDAF in cash.”

It’s astonishing that the majority was convinced that Napoles and Cambe were guilty of plunder even in the absence of evidence that they had fat bank deposits, while they acquitted Revilla even if the AMLC submitted proofs of his and his family’s large bank deposits that are inconsistent with his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth.

The conclusion made by the majority—that Revilla’s signatures on the PDAF documents were forged—has so many holes including, among others, the fact that the private handwriting expert who testified was hired and compensated with P200,000 by Revilla himself, and examined mere photocopies of the questioned signatures.

There’s a telling contrast between the two decisions. The majority decision examined each piece of strong evidence against Revilla in quarantined isolation, and poked spears of unreasonable doubt at each one. In contrast, the dissenting opinions wove together the various actors and events to complete a vividly convincing picture of how the conspirators committed plunder beyond reasonable doubt.

The majority decision paints Revilla as a strange species of politician. He authorized the release of half a billion pesos to finance his antipoverty, livelihood, and agricultural programs. Unlike other politicians, he didn’t cut project inauguration ribbons or meet the beneficiaries to cultivate loyalty and patronage. He closed his eyes for four years while Napoles and Cambe wantonly plundered public funds in his name.

Comments to fleamarketofideas@gmail.com

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/118216/unreasonable-doubt#ixzz5bzHt8Bmc

THE MORAL OF THE PHILIPPINE JUSTICE SYSTEM

If you were to steal, never steal bread, noodles or canned goods; surely, you will be jailed. Instead, steal millions of taxpayers’ money and you will be in power; or steal billions so that when you die, you will be buried among heroes.

—Gideon Peña, Abogado (December 9, 2018)

Link: https://abogado.com.ph/gideon-pena-on-stealing-in-ph-wag-small-time/

NOT ‘SANDIGAN NG BAYAN’

Inquirer.net

05:01 AM December 19, 2018

For absolving the crime of a very well-known name of high social standing, the Sandiganbayan should modify or change its name to: “Sandigangarapal.”

Why the change? With its lopsided verdict that set Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. free with no punishment whatsoever other than to return part of the P224-million pork barrel fund he was accused of plundering — while the two other parties to the crime were meted out 40 years of prison time and ordered to return the looted money — doesn’t that imply that the Sandiganbayan is not truly an institution that the people (“bayan”) can lean on for fairness and equality, which is what the word “sandiganbayan” suggests?

It’s obvious that the Sandiganbayan’s sense of fairness is lost in cases involving those with familiar-sounding names and powerful positions even when enough circumstantial evidence exists, like the unexplained bank deposits in Revilla’s case that should have been reason enough to convict him.

How sad that corruption seems to have become a way of life for most of those in government service; there’s hardly a day that corruption issues are not part of the news.

Coupled with Duterte’s antiquated style of leadership, is it any wonder that the Philippines has now become a very chaotic nation?

All these anomalies only exacerbate the suffering of those already deep in misery for being poor and deprived of opportunities by self-serving politicians masquerading as public servants.

JUANITO T. FUERTE,

jtfuerte@comcast.net

Philippine Daily Inquirer (December 19, 2018)

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/118256/not-sandigan-ng-bayan#ixzz5bUuL22ra

DUTERTE’S CORRUPTION DRIVE AS SHALLOW AS DRUG WAR
Inquirer.net

05:01 AM December 11, 2018

“Stolen wealth does not make the thief respectable. Neither will the trappings of wealth mask [nor] cap the stink that thievery exudes.” (President Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address).

In most of his public appearances, President Duterte has stressed his hate for corrupt officials. He has fired executive officials whom he had accused of stealing public funds.

But, at the same time, he has recycled Customs chiefs under whose watch billions of shabu were smuggled into the country.

The President’s fight against corruption is also being overshadowed by the acquittal/granting of bail/bestowal of honor to big-time plunderers who happen to be his political allies.

It is during his administration that the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani; former president Gloria “I am sorry” Macapagal Arroyo was acquitted; and bail was granted to former senators Jinggoy “Sexy” Estrada and Juan “No one was arrested during martial law because of their political beliefs” Ponce Enrile.

And now, the acquittal of former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Can one really believe that Revilla’s chief of staff engaged in those transactions without his approval and knowledge?

The President’s fight against corruption is as shallow as his campaign against drugs.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/118088/dutertes-corruption-drive-as-shallow-as-drug-war#ixzz5aT8nDE4P

ANDAYA BARES FAVORED PALACE CONTRACTOR
By: Marlon Ramos - Reporter / @MRamosINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:25 AM December 11, 2018

How did a single contractor bag 30 government projects worth billions of pesos before Congress could even approve the national budget for 2019?

It could only happen through “a miracle,” Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Monday as he defended the House of Representatives from allegations that some of its members benefited from a pork bonanza because they were close allies of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Worse, Andaya said the Bulacan-based construction firm, CT Leoncio Construction and Trading, was not even a registered corporation but a single proprietorship owned by a certain Consolacion Tubuhan Leoncio.

“That is bad business practice. It’s wrong. It cannot be done, but it already happened,” the House leader said in a privilege speech during the House plenary session.

“A single proprietorship from Bulacan cornered contracts from even the farthest areas of the region. A miracle happened here,” he said.

Ongoing deliberations

The Camarines Sur representative said Leoncio’s company was awarded the projects long before the 292-member chamber could finish its deliberations on the proposed P3.8-trillion budget for next year.

“This happens when you rush the passage of the budget. You don’t notice that even before you could pass the budget, the funds had already been apportioned,” Andaya said.

 “And to think, we are being accused of having pork barrel,” he said.

“It’s clear that even before the budget could be enacted, the funds already belonged to somebody and when (the National Expenditure Program) becomes law on Jan. 1, that lone contractor would have the projects, which it would just subcontract to other contractors.”

Government contracts

To back up his claims, he produced documents showing that Leoncio’s company had won government contracts in several provinces, including Catanduanes and Sorsogon.

“It’s not a single A or triple A company,” the House leader lamented.

 “It’s a single proprietorship, just like a variety store. But it won billions [of pesos in projects]. How did that happen? Somebody in the higher echelons must be behind this,” he said.

Andaya also disclosed that billions of pesos worth of flood control projects and other infrastructure projects had been earmarked for Catanduanes and Sorsogon without the knowledge of their respective district representatives.

“I understand that a lot of members have the same experience. Maybe it’s about time some of you stand up for us to retake the power of the purse. We have been misunderstood and maligned all these years,” he said.

“Now, with me coming out and showing you hard proof of what you know, what has been done to you, maybe it’s about time we all, as one voice, stand up and expose this sham,” he said.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1061924/andaya-bares-favored-palace-contractor#ixzz5aT7r18cm

LACSON: P2.4-B FOR ARROYO’S DISTRICT
By: DJ Yap - Reporter / @deejayapINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:29 AM December 06, 2018

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be getting the lion’s share of a pork bonanza in the House of Representatives, as her district, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, has been allotted P2.4 billion worth of projects after last-minute realignments in the proposed national budget for 2019.

That includes P500 million in farm-to-market roads alone, said Lacson, who on Wednesday disclosed a snippet of his initial scrutiny of the P3.8-trillion general appropriations bill (GAB) on the second day of Senate debates on the budget.

Besides Arroyo’s hometown, the district of a favored congressman from Camarines Sur would be getting P1.9 billion worth of projects next year, the senator said, sharing more details of an allegation he first made on Monday night.

Blessed few

Lacson would not disclose the identity of either lawmaker, but he said the two House members were among the “blessed few” representatives whose districts or constituencies were allocated much bigger funds than the P60-million pork promised by the Speaker to each of them.

“I’ll say most of them or all of them (legislators) got P60 million. But some blessed few got more,” he said.

Last week, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. admitted that Arroyo had directed the allotment of at least P60 million worth of government projects to each House member.

But Andaya insisted the allocations were all itemized and not pork, or postenactment, lump-sum appropriations, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2013.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1060469/lacson-p2-4-b-pork-for-arroyos-district#ixzz5drLOx6dh

EX-SPEAKER ALVAREZ ALLOTTED P5-B PORK

By: Marlon Ramos - Reporter / @MRamosINQ

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:29 AM December 12, 2018

The district of former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, not that of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or those of her allies in the House of Representatives, was allotted the biggest infrastructure funding in the proposed P3.8-trillion national budget for next year, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Tuesday.

In a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte, Andaya said P5 billion was earmarked for projects in Alvarez’s district in Davao del Norte province, making the former Speaker’s constituency the biggest recipient of infrastructure allotments.

Former Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, who relinquished his post after he was named secretary to the Cabinet, got P4 billion, while the district of Andaya’s predecessor, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, was allotted P3.5 billion.

When sought for comment, Alvarez and Fariñas said they had no hand in earmarking funds for their districts.

Breaking her silence on the issue, Arroyo, who was accused by Sen. Panfilo Lacson of getting P2.4 billion worth of projects, said it was not true that her district in Pampanga province was showered with infrastructure projects.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1062228/ex-speaker-alvarez-allotted-p5-b-pork-says-andaya#ixzz5cuTUFMCS

DIOKNO ACCUSED OF INSERTING P75-B FOR DPWH

By: Marlon Ramos - Reporter / @MRamosINQ

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:27 AM December 12, 2018

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno orchestrated the “insertion” of some P75 billion in the proposed P3.8-trillion national budget for 2019 without President Rodrigo Duterte’s consent, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Tuesday.

During Question Hour in the House of Representatives, Andaya took to task Diokno for allegedly placing huge amounts for infrastructure projects in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) without its knowledge.

He said Public Works Secretary Mark Villar had told him that he was not aware that projects worth P51 billion were added to the original budget requested by his office.

Public works projects

Grilled by Andaya, the budget secretary said the additional budget for public works projects was actually P75 billion.

“It’s clear now that the insertion is not P51 billion, but P75 billion. Thanks so much for admitting that,” the House leader said.

To which Diokno replied: “You cannot call that insertion because it’s part of the budget preparation process. That’s not insertion.”

But Andaya disclosed that he personally discussed the budget insertion with the President who, he claimed, had no idea about the matter.

“The President told me that he had nothing to do with it and that I should ask you,” he told Diokno.

When Diokno insisted that the President was informed about the additional budget, he said: “So he’s lying to me? He’s a liar?”

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1062249/andaya-says-diokno-behind-p75-b-insertion-in-dpwh-budget#ixzz5cuUJ1b00

Amidst claims and counter-claims, one thing is clear—the huge budget allocations are opportunities for government officials to use their power and influence for trading favors.

WHAT THE GOV’T IS NOT TELLING US ABOUT DEBT

By: Eduardo C. Tadem - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM November 08, 2018

The Philippines’ public debt reached an all-time high of P7.16 trillion (about $133 billion) in September 2018, an 11.1-percent increase from the September 2017 figure. Foreign obligations amounted to 36 percent of the total debt. The budget department projects the yearend debt to hit P7.33 trillion ($136 billion), and will breach P8 trillion in 2019. This will be a huge 33.33-percent increase from the time President Duterte took over in 2016.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez attempted to dispel fears of an impending debt crisis by pointing to the debt-to-GDP ratio “holding steady” at 42.1 percent in 2017, “same as 2016.” Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno argued that “the right metric is not the size of the debt itself, but the size of debt-to-GDP.” Diokno also compared the Philippine ratio to Japan (200 percent) and the US (over 100 percent) to ostensibly show that the country is in a better debt situation.

Focusing exclusively on the debt-to-GDP ratio, however, is at best disengenuous, and at worst deceitful and misleading. There are many other indicators that the Filipino people should be made aware of regarding the country’s debt. Civil society organizations campaigning on the debt issue have long raised what they consider to be more important and meaningful indices that impact directly on the everyday lives of the people, particularly in developing societies.

In general, debts must be evaluated on whether they ultimately benefit the poor and marginalized populations and the less developed regions of the country. Debts that result in granting more privileges to the rich and propertied classes and favor more developed areas, while further exacerbating social inequalities, can be deemed illegitimate and may consequently be canceled or suspended.

As I pointed out in an earlier Inquirer commentary (“Historic audit of illegitimate debts,” 2/9/2017), a debt can be regarded as “illegitimate” if it violates principles of “human rights and sustainable human development, justice and fairness, accountability and responsibility, sovereignty of peoples and nations, and democratic rights.” Illegitimate debts, therefore, are those that “violate procedures mandated by law such as bribery, fraud, coercion or misrepresentation; contain onerous provisions such as public guarantees of private profits; negatively impact on the environment, communities and people’s wellbeing, and on basic social services, human welfare and safety; waste funds through corruption, mismanagement and project failures; convert private loans into public debts due to sovereign guarantees; subject the economy to shocks, unreasonable creditor demands and financial market instabilities; and impose conditionalities that violate national sovereignty and democratic principles.”

Safeguard measures are needed to prevent large infrastructure projects from forcing the dislocations of affected communities and causing widespread ecological harm. Loan provisions must not bind the government to fiscal restraints on social protection measures. Tied foreign loans are self-serving and unacceptable, since they only revert to the donor country through feasibility studies, consultancies, procurement and project construction.

Under a Marcos-era automatic appropriations law, debt service has the first cut of the budget before any other item. This debilitating law should be repealed, as it prevents government from allocating more funds for underserved social development sectors such as health, education and housing. In the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the total debt service is P371 billion or 10 percent of the budget, an amount better utilized for human development programs.

To evaluate the debt in a more holistic manner, both pre- and post-audits of the country’s loan arrangements must be conducted along the above indicators. The Philippine government actually recognizes the notion of illegitimate debts, as the GAAs of 2017 and 2018 included a special provision calling on government “to conduct a debt audit to determine the legitimacy of 20 government-contracted foreign loans.”

In December 2016, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Aquilino Pimentel III jointly filed Senate Resolution No. 253 “directing the appropriate Senate committee to inquire… into the foreign loans contracted by the Philippine government within the last 15 years through the conduct of a debt audit.”

Obviously, there is much more to the debt issue than the mechanical and uncreative use of the single indicator of debt-to-GDP ratio, which government economic managers have continuously been drumbeating while turning a blind eye to more relevant and meaningful parameters.

* * *

Eduardo C. Tadem, PhD, is convenor of the Program on Alternative Development, UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies, retired professor of Asian Studies at UP Diliman, and past president of the Freedom from Debt Coaliton (2014-2018).

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/117314/what-the-govt-is-not-telling-us-about-debt#ixzz5lV9LIdNS

PH STILL LAGGING BEHIND PEERS IN ATTRACTING FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
By: Ben O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:50 AM December 08, 2018

London-based Capital Economics sees the Philippines remaining a laggard in the region in terms of attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) due to political uncertainties.

“There are signs that the election of President Duterte in the Philippines is scaring off foreign investors and the situation is unlikely to improve when he is gone. The country has a poor history when it comes to electing competent governments,” Capital Economics said in its Long-Term Global Economic Outlook report for 2019.

Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/261866/ph-still-lagging-behind-peers-in-attracting-foreign-investments#ixzz5d7EnVAJn

INFLATION FOR POOR AT 5-YEAR HIGH

Bottom 30% of households still reeling from impact of high prices

By: Ben O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:00 AM December 08, 2018

The rate of increase in prices of basic commodities among poor families remained at an almost five-year high of 9.5 percent year-on-year in October even as food inflation slightly eased that month, the government reported Friday.

The Philippine Statistics Authority’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Bottom 30-Percent Income Households report for October showed that the year-on-year rate matched September’s similar 9.5 percent, the highest since 2014, based on 2000 prices.

Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/261868/inflation-for-poor-at-5-yr-high#ixzz5d7EJ7jXj

LACSON: WASTEFUL PROJECTS WORTH P583 BILLION
By: DJ Yap – Reporter / @deejayapINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:30 AM December 21, 2018

Out of every P100 Juan de la Cruz paid in taxes to run the government for a year, almost P20 went to projects that were later suspended, stopped or under litigation as these were found to be irregular, unnecessary, extravagant or unconscionable.

That’s the bane of Philippine government spending, as P583.5 billion had been “wasted” on discontinued or shelved projects as of December last year, according to Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.

That represented 17.4 percent of the P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.

In a roundtable discussion with Inquirer editors and reporters on Thursday, Lacson said an audit of government agencies showed the extent of wasteful and questionable spending practices that caused taxpayer money to go down the drain.

Lacson was referring to the Commission on Audit (COA) list of government projects issued “notices of suspensions, disallowances and charges,” which, as of the end of last year, had ballooned to nearly P600 billion.

“It is revolting in the sense that we keep paying taxes, then you see this is where our money goes,” he said.

“We’re either overtaxed or underserved, or both,” said Lacson, who opened a can of worms this month when he discussed last-minute insertions of multibillion-peso allocations for the districts of favored lawmakers in the proposed P3.8-trillion budget for 2019.

As of December 2017, the COA had suspended government transactions worth P402.8 billion, disallowed projects worth P20 billion, and issued notices to other projects worth P160.7 billion under litigation or “charged,” according to a list provided by Lacson’s staff and cross-checked by the Inquirer with official COA records.

…The Inquirer, independently checking the senator’s compilation with COA reports, found that two agencies accounted for the biggest slices of the pie of disallowed or suspended projects.

Bureau of Customs

For instance, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was No. 1 on the list, accounting for P392.8 billion of all disallowed, suspended or charged funds, representing more than two-thirds of the total.

BOC notices of suspension cover P379.7 billion; notices of disallowances, P424.2 million; and notices of charges, P12.7 billion.

No. 2 on the list was the Department of Energy (DOE), which registered P146.9 billion worth of suspended or stopped projects, or about a quarter of the total.

DOE’s notices of charges, however, accounted for the lion’s share of the P146.8 billion, owing to a suit filed in connection with the “undercollection” of the government’s 60-percent share of royalties from the Malampaya natural gas project, which resulted from the deduction of corporate income taxes of the service contractors.

As of the reporting date, an appeal is pending with the COA, according to records.

Altogether, the BOC and the DOE accounted for 92 percent of the total, by the Inquirer’s reckoning.

Link: https://pinglacson.net/2018/12/21/lacson-wasteful-projects-worth-p583-billion-inquirer/

Bad governance, especially massive corruption, has deleterious economic effects, inevitably. If the Philippine people believe we can carry on in this manner without being impacted by disastrous consequences, they delude themselves.