|
GOOD
GOVERNANCE CANNOT BE GAINED
AT THE EXPENSE OF THE CIVIL SERVICE
A PRIVILEGE SPEECH DELIVERED ON
FEBRUARY
18, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the coming days will be difficult and perilous. War is
afoot, terror is upon us, pain and suffering is inevitable. As tension
escalates there are criminal forces plotting subversion and subterfuge and
trying to avoid detection. These evil forces are passionately at work --
even as we speak, in this very Chamber!
Julius Caesar once admonished his senators about the perils of passion.
“It becomes all men”, he said, especially those who deliberate on important
matters to be cautious, for “when the mind is freely exerted, its reasoning
is sound; but passion, if it gains possession of it, becomes its tyrant, and
reason is powerless”.
But lofty advice is often lost among some of us here including Julius
Caesar’s own namesake. Passion begets conspiracy -- manipulation and
misrepresentation tramples upon reason.
Indeed, just yesterday our colleagues in the Senate spoke of a conspiracy to
railroad major economic measures such as the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA)
through misrepresentation. The same strategy is being applied in this
House!
Mr. Speaker, friends, Filipinos, my countrymen lend me your ears! I come
before you to bury Jules, and not to praise him. The evil that men do not
always live after them sometimes they are exposed and stopped.
I refer here to the railroading of the NARA (National Authority for Revenue
Administration) law by a representative and a committee that holds no
jurisdiction over the matter.
“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff,” said Mark Anthony in his funeral
oration to Julius Caesar. But we only see ambition, and no stern stuff to
accompany his passion. In worse shape are the BIR employees who have
suffered “the unkindest cut of all” blamed for the failure of others,
treated shabbily and like criminals without due process, their voices
muffled.
Mr. Speaker, in the interest of truth, fairness, and justice, I now call
your attention to a grave conspiracy -- hatched in Malacañang, nourished by
big business, nurtured by foreign financial interests, and about to
be released in this chamber.
Elements of conspiracy
a conspiracy whose singular aim is to transfer responsibility and
accountability for the country’s fiscal crisis away from the country’s
financial managers towards its tax collectors.
A conspiracy designed to derail congressional scrutiny of the huge
consolidated public sector deficit (CPSD) that may balloon to more than p290
billion unless reined in drastically. A deficit, which is a direct result of
the government’s, failed strategy of deficit-financing through foreign
borrowing and bond floats.
A strategy designed to lay the blame for the expected Argentinean-scale
economic crisis we are about to witness -- on tax collection and
administration, instead of plunder and corruption.
A conspiracy that furthers the interest of business conglomerates and
restores the power and influence of bureaucrats in their employ some of
whom have been booted out of government due to incompetence and fraud.
A couple of months ago I called the attention of this assembly to the
collusion between the former BIR commissioner and some key business
interests that clearly sought to undermine tax collection and perpetrate
economic sabotage. This collusion of interests has been ignored by the new
BIR leadership a concession to the ousted BIR commissioner Rene Bañez and
the Salim-PLDT-Smart-Piltel-Fort Bonifacio group of companies.
By hiding previous crimes and misdeeds the current BIR leadership
perpetuates corruption and the same strategies of tax waivers, tax refunds,
and underreporting of incomes worth billions of pesos used by Bañez.
A conspiracy whose ultimate aim is to privatize revenue collections and
surrender fiscal authority to the private sector both foreign and domestic.
Working towards this aim are criminal entities poised to cripple the BIR
through highly-financed lobby, advocacy, and policy reform initiatives.
The USAID-funded AGILE group is at the head of this process.
Meanwhile, the recommendations of the central bank reorganization plan
provides the rear and the context for manipulating public perception of the
real causes of the fiscal crisis.
These policy studies are highly suspect for the foreign lobby and advocacy
groups involved in their formulation and the long standing interest and
enthusiasm of foreign companies to pry open the local financial services
market.
Worse, the reorganization plan creates a perverse incentive good
governance at the expense of the civil service!
Burying the evidence for good
a conspiracy that will bury forever all records and evidence of plunder
at the BIR leaving in its wake pretentious claims of transparency and good
governance.
The creation of the NARA and the collective firing of all BIR employees
ensures that all tax evasion and tax fraud cases are buried, the information
possessed by BIR personnel ignored, and the perpetrators of numerous tax
scams permanently cleared from civil and criminal liability.
Web of deception
on top of this web of deception, fraud, and corruption is secretary of
finance Jose Isidro Camacho no stranger to conspiracies, who stand accused
as a witting accomplice in defrauding the republic through the odious
p30-billon CODE-NGO peace bonds deal engineered by his sister Marissa
Camacho- Reyes. This financial gang-bang leaves billions in debt to be
shouldered by the Filipino while the scammers laugh their way to the
bank with hundreds of millions in service fees.
In the midst of all these, who will throw the first stone against the
employees and staff of the BIR?
Camacho leads the demolition team
the BIR demolition order has been signed by the DOF secretary with the
tacit approval of Malacañang. Chief ‘berdugo’ Jose Isidro Camacho leads
the demolition team. He is also the de-facto coordinator of a highly funded
public relations offensive and civil society campaign designed to bludgeon
congress into passing amendments and new bills such as the anti-money
laundering act (AMLA) and the establishment of the national authority for
revenue administration (NARA).
He has orchestrated a grand media campaign involving the engagement of a
high-powered public relations outfit with reporting responsibilities to the
office of the executive secretary. In fact, secretary Camacho has dragged
the treasury, the DBM, NEDA, and the central bank as unwitting accomplices
in this web of deception.
The PR offensive involves media operatives such as UP academic, foundation
for economic freedom (FEF) trustee and pr-practitioner Alex Magno, who
handled the BIR account under Bañez and who is once again moonlighting at
the BIR.
He is joined by Malacañang pr person Maui Terrado acting as back-up and cash
distributor to media. Meanwhile, the FEF and the Makati Business Club,
including those involved in the recent AMLA campaign, are at the forefront
of the so-called civil society attack against the BIR.
Have you ever wondered how all of a sudden a wave of anti - BIR stories and
news items have been unleashed in the media. All with one single purpose: to
demonize the BIR and its employees and pave the way for the creation of the
NARA. The ultimate prize? The full privatization of the BIR to satisfy the
greedy designs and rapacious appetites of the conspirators.
Bañez: the vengeful ghost haunts the BIR
a second strand in this web of deception is former BIR commissioner Rene
Bañez, the vengeful ghost who continues to haunt the BIR.
To refresh the memory of my esteemed colleagues, former BIR commissioner
Rene Bañez was the only government official ever named in a state of the
nation address by president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who was praised for his
alleged competence and leadership.
A year later, president arroyo fired Bañez.
The fair haired boy had to unceremoniously leave the BIR after the arroyo
administration incurred a p230 billion budget deficit, the biggest ever and
still growing, in the history of the republic.
Bañez, also stands accused of graft and corruption before the ombudsman by
no less than eleven members of the house of representatives led no less by
three deputy speakers and seven committee chairmen.
This is the same Rene Bañez who should be investigated for multi-billion tax
avoidance or tax fixing schemes which favored his former employers the
Indonesian or Salim family- owned PLDT-Smart-Metro Pacific conglomerate.
This is the same Bañez who boasted before BIR employees and the media during
his early days in office “he will burn down the BIR and build a new one.”
It is clear that his early termination from the bureau has produced this
burning desire and a fixation for revenge and retribution -- to smash the
BIR to pieces before 2004!
Web of fraud, deception and corruption
a third but most strategic strand in the web of fraud, corruption, and
subversion of the civil service are the foreign funded groups such as
agile and the foundation for economic freedom. Both groups are
populated by moonlighting academics funded by USAID, some UN agencies, and
foreign donor foundations with the manifest agenda to promote free trade,
economic liberalization, and greater financial integration.
Among their expert consultants is former world bank staff and DBM consultant
Edgardo Campos, best known as the only Filipino economist who participated
in the 1993 east Asian miracle study of the world bank and who provides some
of the intellectual ammunition behind the move to establish the NARA.
The problem faced by these policy analysts and scholars is the absence of
any genuine consensus even among the international financial institutions (IFIs)
over what constitutes ‘best practice’ in tax administration! In short,
there is very little scholarship supporting their position.
IMF 2001 report: no need for a revenue authority
Mr. Speaker, I call your attention to the fact that the IMF announced in
a 2001 report that flexibility in financial and human resource management in
tax administration is possible “without the introduction of a revenue
authority”. This report has been suppressed and hidden from public
knowledge including from this august chamber.
Which brings me to the final and most important strand in this web of
deception, fraud, and corruption.
The conspiracy entails the active participation of Congress which in this
case meant the usurpation of the powers of the congressional committee on
government reorganization by the committee on ways and means and the denial
of consultations with those most affected the BIR employees and workers.
The usurpation and abuse of power is actually necessary if the chairperson
of the committee on ways and means intends to force down our throats this
hateful piece of legislation. In fact, the kindest thing that can be said
about the NARA at this point is that it is questionable and illegal and thus
-- a waste of valuable government time and resources.
Any proposed legislative measure seeking the restructuring of the BIR, by
operation of the first word alone reorganization simply means that the
proposed bill should be taken up and handled by the appropriate
congressional committee.
In this particular case, the appropriate committee is the Committee
on Government Reorganization chaired by rep. Vince Sumulong of Rizal.
But woe unto all of you at the BIR and the civil service, your lives and
your futures have been trifled upon by Mr. Jules Ledesma of pure ambition
and no stern stuff!
This is highly irregular, illegal and devoid of any cogent reason. There is
a very appropriate word in the vernacular to describe this: palpak!
Bakit po kapalpakan ito?
Because there is no revenue or tax measure being discussed by the proposed
NARA law. Thus, there is nothing for the committee on ways and means to
justify its authority to hear the BIR reorganization bill.
How and why this came about is simple.
The conspiracy I had just exposed sought to railroad the NARA bill. At the
expense of the individual and collective rights of BIR 12,000 BIR employees
and their families; the country’s civil service and the integrity and
respectability of the house of representatives.
I deplore in the strongest terms the high-handed manner by which
deliberations and the procedures in hearing the proposed NARA act had been
conducted by the committee on ways and means.
Virtually every trick in parliamentary procedure had been resorted to in
railroading this measure. Let me cite a few:
1. The arbitrary and questionable assignment of the NARA act to the
committee on ways and means.
2. Evidently “last minute” invitations or notices to committee hearings were
issued to oppositors and interested parties especially BIR and other
concerned government employees.
3. Arrogant and high-handed handling of committee hearings that prevented
oppositors from airing their views.
4. Abusive and high-handed handling of the hearing wherein the approval on
third reading of the NARA bill was pushed despite and in spite protests of
house members to be allowed to air their views first.
5. Open insult on the independence and integrity of the house of
representatives by the chair of the committee on ways and means when he
declared that ‘the approval of the NARA bill is being rushed on orders of
the president and will be a gift to her on or before the end of the
session”.
Mr. Speaker, since when have we passed legislation just to humor and gift
the president with half-baked and ill-conceived legislation?
Since when have we stooped down and allowed the members of this august
chamber to be tagged as psychopants of the executive department?
Have we finally lost all sense of decency and dignity to dispense with the
hallowed democratic principle of separation of powers?
Did we authorize the chairman of the committee on way and means to
compromise our individual and collective integrity, independence and
respectability as members of congress when he went out on a limb to dance to
the ‘asereje’ of palace drumbeaters?
Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my concern for the need to allow openness and
transparency in all our actions, especially on matters involving proposed
laws that affect the lives and welfare of our people, especially those in
the civil service like the proposed NARA law.
Mr. speaker, we cannot permit this injustice to continue.
At the outset, allow me to express my steadfast commitment to a clean,
honest, graft-free and efficient BIR. I would not like to be misunderstood.
Just as I do not want my detractors to exploit my declaration of support for
a strong, clean, graft free BIR as cannon fodder for their high powered,
well funded black propaganda campaign that is being funded by
taxpayer’s money.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot just allow a conspiracy fueled by despicable
vengeance, hidden selfish agenda and illegal and unconstitutional processes
to railroad the passage of the proposed NARA law by the House of
Representatives.
We can institute reforms in the BIR without running afoul of the law.
Without inflicting injustice and pain on 12,000 BIR employees and their
families.
On august 1, 2004, the BIR will be celebrating its centennial. For nearly
one hundred years this premier revenue collection agency of the republic has
lived up to its mandate. From as early as the American colonial government
there had been no major foul ups and blunders as huge as the p230 billion or
god forbid -- p290 billion-- budget deficit incurred under the arroyo
administration.
Now why is this being blamed on the BIR? How can it be that we now want to
abolish the BIR when the government’s financial geniuses were the ones
directly responsible for raising the fiscal burden to the high heavens!
I’d rather argue that the DOF, under the principle of command
responsibility, should get the ax. Lets be honest shouldn’t Camacho’s head
be on top of the spike? We are all aware that the P230 billion tax deficit
occurred because Camacho went on a wild borrowing spree.
The huge budget deficit of the arroyo government will not be conveniently
swept aside by the NARA. Nor by the abolition of the BIR. It will continue
to bedevil this country long after the Gloria, Camacho, Roxas, Neri, and
Buenaventura’s of this Republic are gone from the public service.
The budget deficit, as we all know, is a complex problem brought about by
skewed economic and fiscal policies -- from unbridled and misguided trade
liberalization policies, indiscriminate tax incentive programs in the guise
of luring foreign investors, smuggling and other big time tax avoidance
crimes. And, last but not the least, the miserably inept, corrupt and
incompetent leadership at the BIR during the time of Rene Bañez.
No amount of media hype can extinguish the pain and anguish brought about by
the scourge of Bañez and his ilk on the bureaucracy and this republic during
his watch at the BIR. And the mistake of having him appointed at the BIR is
blamed on BIR employees? On sabotage?
The failure at BIR is merely a reflection of the numerous failures in
governance today. It mirrors what is terribly wrong in our bureaucracy and
country. Yet the culprits and those responsible for the mess cannot provide
real, concrete solutions except abolition and destruction of government
agencies. How convenient indeed! What best to cover their tracks and close
the multi-billion tax cases they face. Mga kriminal talaga!
Such hypocrisy and recourse to the abolition policy is despicable. We
should not allow congress to be part of this charade. We can reform the BIR
without setting harsh and questionable precedents in government
reorganization that could result in irreparable harm to the country’s civil
service.
We must not wilt against the onslaught of black propaganda and muckraking
unleashed against the BIR and its employees by a government funded media
campaign.
We must expose and oppose the sinister conspiracy to railroad the law to
wreck the BIR and in is place create an internal revenue authority that will
simply be the start up effort in establishing a privatized revenue
collection agency.
Mr. Speaker, there is a concrete need for openness and transparency in the
discussions and deliberations of the proposed NARA act.
Just as there is an urgent need to be just and fair to all employees of the
BIR that are affected by the proposed NARA law. They have every right as
constituents to be heard by their elected representatives in open,
transparent, fair public hearings.
And lastly, there is an urgent need to correct what could be lightly
described as an oversight, or worst, the irregularity in the assignment and
the ensuing deliberations of the proposed NARA law, by having such measure
reassigned and taken up by the appropriate congressional committee the
committee on government reorganization.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I will be filing the appropriate resolutions demanding
an investigation of the following:
1. Foreign funding and intervention in the restructuring of the BIR and in
the formulation of national internal revenue policy through an entity called
AGILE. There are reports that the us agency for international development (USAID)
has put up a multi-million dollar fund for AGILE to work hand in hand with
other government entities to privatize not only tax collections but also the
bureau of customs patterned after south American models.
2. Use of government funds for a multi-million peso media blitz under
finance secretary Jose Isidro Camacho aimed at pressuring and lobbying
congress for the passage of the AMLA and the NARA law, among others. DOF
Secretary Camacho will oversee this operation to be handled by a private
public relations firm that will be paid thru public funds. Considering the
huge P230 billion-budget deficit, this multi-million PR blitz aggravates the
government’s financial woes.
3. I will file resolutions seeking congressional inquiries on:
b. Multi billion tax exemptions granted by former BIR chief Rene Bañez to
manila water and Maynilad water and other big business conglomerates.
C. Unnumbered BIR rulings allegedly signed by former BIR commissioner Rene
Banes and Finance Undersecretary Cornelio Gison which provided undue tax
exemptions and tax credits and other privileges worth billions of pesos to
certain favored corporations and big taxpayers.
These questionable and highly-irregular unnumbered rulings by the BIR during
the tenure of ex BIR commissioner Rene Bañez had considerably reduced the
tax take of the BIR and aggravated the budget deficit. Hence, the need for a
house inquiry.
D. Questionable and highly onerous decisions made by ex-BIR chief Rene Bañez
who allowed tax credits issued to PLDT, his former employer, worth billons
of pesos to be converted into cash refunds. The preferential treatment given
to PLDT by Bañez is highly irregular and deviated from standard practice
because special treatment was never given to other corporate taxpayers.
The multi-billion peso tax credit conversions to cash availed of by PLDT aggravated
the tax collection shortfall of the BIR and the budget deficit that we are
suffering from today.
Mr. Speaker, the issues I have raised strike at the very root of our
democratic system. It is time to act on crucial matters like the following
now:
first, whether the legislature will allow itself to be manipulated by
certain misguided but influential members to railroad bills of strategic
national importance like the proposed NARA law to please the president.
Second. Will the members of congress individually and collectively close
their eyes to a brazen, totally high-handed and arrogant usurpation of
authority in the passage of vital legislation by a committee which had no
business in handling such a measure. The Committee on Government
Reorganization should take over deliberations of the proposed NARA law.
It’s time to put an end to this perfidy and abuse of congressional
prerogative by certain misguided and imperious members of this chamber.
It’s time to unmask the real grafters, the totally non- performing assets (NPAs)
and incompetents in government.
It’s time to let the ax fall on all the conspirators out to make another
killing at the people’s expense!
Thank you and a pleasant evening to everyone.
|