The Manila Times Why Cesar Purisima is angry C


ESAR PURISIMA is an angry- man these days. Forty years


ago, the 50-year-old Finance sec- retary recalls, the Philippines was the most prosperous country in Asia, after Japan.


Since then, the country has deteriorated into becoming Southeast Asia’s economic lag- gard and become one of the world’s most corrupt. Poverty in- cidence doubled, the number of poor people doubled and govern- ance became a big question mark. Filipinos had to live abroad and even had to change citizenship in search of greener pasture. The Northwestern University


MBA (1983) believes things could still be reversed and return the prosperity Filipinos used to enjoy nearly half a century ago. But that requires a number of things: One, Filipinos must get their act together. Two, they should stop cheating


the government and start paying the correct taxes. An heir to a pawnshop fortune bought a P26-


million sports car in 2007 but failed to pay any income tax. In fact, the individual had not been filing income tax returns at all. Three, even the dead must do their share, at least the rich ones. Their estate must pay the right estate taxes. He cites the case of a prominent individual (an ar- chitect, single) who is said to be in coma or even dead but kept in a freezer just to avoid the gov- ernment from collecting estate taxes on his fortune. Four, local governments—


towns, cities and provinces—may have to raise valuation standards for real estate so they can collect more property taxes instead of relying on their internal revenue allotment (IRA) share from the national government. Five, government-owned and - controlled corporations (GOCCs) will have to have good govern- ance. They must cut excess fat, stop paying their executive gen- erous pay checks, allowances and perks, begin to behave like nor-


TONY LOPEZ


mal corporations do, that is, have a business plan to generate rev- enues and make a profit. Six, businessmen must do their


share. About 82 percent of per- sonal income taxes are paid by ordinary workers, the so-called wage earners. Businessmen—the so-called self-employed—pay only 18 percent. Yet, business- men own 90 percent of the wealth of this country. In fact, the country—its poli- tics and its economy—is owned by no more than 100 families. President Benigno Simeon Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino 3rd is a third generation politician and landowner. The Sumulongs, the


Cojuangcos and the Aquinos of this country have been reigning for at least three generations. The Cojuangco clan of the President owns the country’s largest contigu- ous piece of prime land, the 6,400-hectare Hacienda Luisita. With three SCTEX exits pass- ing through the vast sugar plan- tation, Hacienda Luisita is veri- tably a commercial, rather than, a farm property. Henry Sy Sr. , the country’s rich- est individual, is a first generation riches. His networth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $5 billion, more than double the worth of the second richest Filipino, Lucio Tan, with $2.1 billion. At the Manila Overseas Press


Club’s August 5 “Finance Night,” attended by some of the country’s elite and richest, Purisima was blunt. “Do you know why the rich of other countries are richer than you no matter how much you cheat?” he asked them. The answer is the paradox of cheating, says the La Salle-edu-


Rape victim still crying for justice L


AST August 1, Tricia (not her real name) was supposed to celebrate her 14th birthday. But there was nothing to celebrate be- cause up to now, she still quivers in fear every time she remembers the day three years ago when a rich and influential businessman in Quezon City sexually abused her. It was August 4, 2007 when


Tricia was left alone in the room of the businessman. The young girl, along with her parents, lived in the compound of the business- man attending to his poultry. While alone in his room, the businessman asked the victim to give him a massage. The young girl obliged and started massaging the old man. Suddenly, the old man poked a gun at the teenager and forced her to masturbate him. While the young girl mastur- bated the old man, the latter in- serted his index finger inside the girl’s vagina. She pleaded with the businessman to stop but the lat- ter continued with his bestial act until he had an orgasm. The busi- nessman then threatened the young girl not to tell anybody about what happened or else he would kill her and her parents. But two months after the sexual


abuse, Tricia and her parents were driven out of the compound of the businessman after two of his fight- ing cocks died. The businessman suspected the couple of killing the cocks. It was only then that the young girl had the courage to file a complaint with the Department


ALITO L. MALINAO


of Justice (DOJ) through Atty. Juliano “Jelly” Nacino, a human rights lawyer.


Nacino, former legal counsel of the National Press Club, has filed a rape case against the busi- nessman under the Revised Penal Code as amended by Republic Act (RA) No. 8353 (Anti-Rape Law of l997) in relation to RA 7610, also known as the Anti-Child Abuse Law of l991. Under the law, the act of the respondent in inserting his index finger into the vagina of the then 11-year-old complain- ant already constitutes rape. According to Nacino, because of


Tricia’s traumatic experience, she has stopped going to school and is now having some health problems. But what is most deplorable, Nacino said, is that the past three DOJ secre- taries—Raul Gonzalez, Agnes Divinagracia and Alberto Agra— have sat on the case for three years. The appointment of Leila de Lima, a known human rights champion, at the DOJ has revived Nacino’s hopes to get justice for the young victim.


In his letter to de Lima dated July 7, 2010, Nacino said that he


was emboldened to again seek the DOJ resolution of the case be- cause of the vow of President Aquino to give justice to all re- gardless of their status in life. Nacino also quoted de Lima when she pledged to swiftly re- solve all cases of corruption and human rights violations pending in the DOJ.


Although State Prosecutor Chris-


tine Perolino, on March 29, 2010, has already approved the filing of the rape case against the accused, there was still no word when the case will be finally filed in court. Secretary de Lima should now


prove that she is different from her predecessors and act on Tricia’s case once and for all.


Trial and error


Still on de Lima, she has admit- ted last week that the designation of two sets of officers in charge of the Presidential Commission on Good Government was the result of “miscommunication.” De Lima said that she appointed Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Paras as OIC of the PCGG based on the original MC No. 1 that deemed re- signed all co-terminus officials ap- pointed by former President Arroyo. Later, however, Executive Secre-


tary Paquito Ochoa also designated PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio as OIC in a holdover capacity. What happened was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Before she named Paras as OIC of the


agency, she should have cleared it first with Malacañang. But she did not and that was


why Ochoa extended Sabio’s term in a holdover capacity. This was the latest in a series of booboos of the Aquino administra- tion. A week into his presidency, the President told newsmen that he has already appointed the head of the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage Administration, a recommendee of Public Works and Highways Secre- tary Rogelio Singson. Two days later, Singson denied that he has recommended some- body to the MWSS top post, mak- ing a liar out of the President. In his SONA, the President also accused former President Arroyo of squandering the bulk of the P1.54- trillion budget for 2010, leaving him only with P100 billion. Later, in a press conference in Malacañang, Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos clarified that there is still a cash balance of P591.4 billion in the 2010 budget and that all the disbursements totaling P949.2 bil- lion made by the previous admin- istration were duly authorized. Relampagos, who was sup- ported by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, has virtually ac- cused the President of fooling the Filipino people in his SONA. Is this a government by trial and error? When can officials of the Aquino administration put their act together?


opinion@manilatimes.net Kruger Park and Krugersdorp: South African gems


PUMALANGA: About ten days ago, I took a much- needed break from the political heat and stifling weather of Metro Manila and flew down to Cape Town, at the bottom of the Afri- can continent. Because South Af- rica is located in the southern hemisphere, June, July, and Au- gust are winter months and, in my opinion, the best time to visit the country. For starters, the weather is nice and cool, with highs and lows of about 22 and 12 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, because it’s off-season, hotel rooms, airline flights, and rental cars are much easier and cheaper to book. But most importantly, South Africa isn’t flooded with too many tourists.


M BUDDY CUNANAN


mine in South Africa. Krugersdorp is also an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise with many centers for horse-back riding, bungee-jump- ing, and quad-biking.


A prominent resident of Cape


Much of the beauty of the country lies in her natural attrac- tions, which are best savored in an atmosphere of serenity and peace. Two of my favourite places are Kruger National Park, the country’s premiere game reserve, and Krugersdorp, the home of the Cradle of Humankind, where the oldest hominid fossils in the world have been found. ❋ ❋ ❋


Upon arriving in Cape Town, I linked up with my good friend Steven Chaimowitz and, together, he and I took a Kulula budget air- line flight from the western Cape to Lanseria airport, just outside Johannesburg. Chaimowitz is a businessman and the owner/proprietor of the Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge, which lies at the heart of Krugersdrop. Aside from being next to the Cra- dle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the lodge is a stone’s throw from the famous Lion and Rhino Park and the Kromdraai museum, the first registered gold


Town and a friend of the city’s growing Filipino community, Chaimowitz has excellent ties to the Philippines and has been busy promoting trade, investment, and tourism between Manila, Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. His lodge is graceful, grand, and


colonial—typical of English man- ors in Africa. Built as a country home in the 1930’s and steeped in the history of that genteel era, the Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge has 12 well-appointed, comfortable, thatched-roof dwellings, a confer- ence room, cozy parlor and fire- place, and bar and restaurant that serve sumptuous South African cuisine. It’s the ideal base for ex- ploring the area and taking a break before heading off to Kruger. Chaimowitz and his staff are experts at arranging tailor-made tours that cater to different inter- ests and budgets. For more info, visit www.sterkfonteinheritagelodge. co.za or call über-helpful lodge manager Gerald Fleming at +27119566321. ❋ ❋ ❋


After a day at Sterkfontein, Chaimowitz and I motored to Kruger, in the rugged north-eastern province of Mpumalanga. Billions


of dollars were spent to improve South Africa’s infrastructure for the World Cup and although I had just driven through Mpumalanga last year, I was thoroughly impressed with the recent improvements in the country’s N4 highway. We stopped in the city of Nelspruit, one of the sites of World Cup action and home to a sparkling new stadium, to pick up food and safari supplies, before entering Kruger’s southern Malelane Gate. ❋ ❋ ❋


Kruger National Park is one of


Africa’s premier game reserves, con- sisting of almost 20,000 square kilometers of woodland savanna, an area that is bigger than Wales or Israel, and almost the size of the US state of Massachusetts. It sits in the lowveld between the northern Drakensberg mountains and the Mozambican coastal plains. Kruger has an abundance of wildlife, in- cluding the fabled “Big Five”— lion, leopard, African buffalo, Af- rican elephant, and white rhino. In 1898, the Sabi Game Re-


serve, Kruger’s forerunner, was proclaimed by the president of the Transvaal Boer Republic, Paul Kruger. The park was opened to tourism in 1927 and, within a decade, 3,600 kilometers of roads were built. By 1969, Kruger was fenced with 18,000 kilometers of wire and by 1990, many park ac- tivities and services were com- mercialized. Today, Kruger is managed and administered by South African National Parks, which provides accommodations and services for the millions tour- ists that visit the reserve annually. ❋ ❋ ❋


While at Kruger, Chaimowitz and I met with William Mabasa, the reserve’s newly-promoted


head honcho. Based at Skukuza, the biggest and most organized camp, Mabasa, who has been working in different capacities in Kruger for the last 11 years, is tasked with developing, main- taining, and promoting the sprawling game park. Well-informed, charming, and


jovial, Mabasa regaled us with sto- ries of recent animal sightings, the history of the park, and future plans and programs. In particular, he and Chaimowitz discussed ways to promote Kruger as a destination for Filipino tourists. There is good synergy between Krugersdrop and Kruger National Park and, with Chaimowitz and Mabasa leading the way, I have no doubt that an increasing number Filipinos will be enjoying these precious South Af- rican jewels very soon.


neighborsnbn@gmail.com


lished by the Agriculture depart- ment—that estimates what parents spend on their children. The latest version finds, not surprisingly, that the costs are steep. For a mid- dle-class husband-wife family (average pretax income in 2009: $76,250), spending per child is about $12,000 a year. Assuming modest annual inflation (2.8 per- cent), the report estimates that the family’s spending on a child born in 2009 would total $286,050 by age 17. A two-child family would cost about $600,000. All these esti- mates may be understated because they do not include college costs. These dry statistics ought to in- form the deficit debate, because a budget is not just a catalogue of pro- grams and taxes. It reflects a society’s priorities and values. Our society does not—despite rhetoric to the contrary—put much value on rais- ing children. Present budget policies punish parents, who are taxed heav- ily to support the elderly. Mean- while, tax breaks for children are modest. If deficit reduction aggra- vates these biases, more Americans may choose not to have children or to have fewer children. Down that path lies economic decline. Societies that cannot replace their populations discourage in- vestment and innovation. They have stagnant or shrinking markets for goods and services. With older populations, they resist change. For a country to stabilize its popula- tion—discounting immigration— women must have an average of about two children. That’s a “fer- tility rate” of two. Many countries with struggling economies are well below that. Japan’s fertility rate is 1.2. Italy’s is 1.3, as is Spain’s. These countries are having about one child for every two adults. The US fertility rate isn’t yet close to these dismal levels. In 2007, it was at the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, reports the National Center for Health Statis- tics. Hispanics were at 3.0, and other groups clustered near replace- ment: 1.9 for non-Hispanic whites, 2.1 for non-Hispanic blacks and 2.0 for Asian Americans. (Not all the news is good. About 40 percent of births are to unmarried moth- ers; many children are entering poor or unstable homes.) While having a child is a deeply personal decision, it’s also shaped by culture, religion, economics and gov- ernment policy. “No one has a good answer” as to why fertility varies among countries, says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University. Eroding religious belief in Europe may partly explain lowered birth rates. In Japan, young women may be rebelling against their moth- ers’ isolated lives of child-rearing. General optimism and pessimism


A Global view


cated accountant and former chair of SGV. “The more you cheat [the government], the more you cheat yourself.”


This is because if a business- man tries to cheat, he cheats not only the government but also his consumers. If government is de- nied the tax revenue due it, it won’t be able to adequately feed people, educate them, render ba- sic services, improve the infra- structure and create an environ- ment that makes business viable. Less people are employed and those employed don’t earn enough. The consequence is weak consumption and fewer consum- ers. And a weak economy. Purisima is determined to run after tax cheats. Back in 2004 to 2005, as President Arroyo’s Fi- nance secretary then, he was al- ready intending to do that. He launched the RATE (Run After Tax Evaders), RATS (Run After The Smugglers) and the RIPS (Rev- enue Integrity Protection Service) campaigns. But he was derailed


by allegations of cheating in the 2004 presidential elections in- volving Arroyo. He quit. This time though, “PNoy has no mandate problem,” Purisima points out. So he has relaunched the RATE, RATS and RIPS drives. A case will be filed against a tax evader every other week. Customs will seize a smuggled cargo ever two weeks. Employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Customs will undergo lifestyle checks. If the homes, cars and number of wives (or girlfriends) they have are more than what their salary could afford, then they must be corrupt—the theory goes. Indeed, the belief that govern- ment people earn less than pri- vate workers has been debunked by a Commission on Audit report that shows that among the coun- try’s highest paid CEOs are execu- tives of GOCCs.


Customs and BIR should run after these government CEOs.


biznewsasia@gmail.com America’s parent trap


MONG the government’s most interesting reports is one—pub-


ROBERT J. SAMUELSON


count. Hopefulness fueled America’s baby boom. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, says Cherlin, “anxiety for the future” depressed birth rates in Russia and Eastern Europe. In poor societies, people have children to improve their economic well-being by increasing the number of family workers and providing support for parents in their old age. In wealthy societies, the logic often reverses. Government now supports the elderly, diminishing the need for children. By some studies, the safety nets for retirees have reduced fertil- ity rates by 0.5 children in the United States and almost 1.0 in Western Europe, reports economist Robert Stein in the journal National Affairs. Similarly, some couples don’t have children because they don’t want to sacrifice their lifestyles to the time and expense of a family. We need to avoid Western Eu-


rope’s mix of high taxes, low birth rates and feeble economic growth. Young Americans already face a bleak labor market that cannot in- still confidence about having chil- dren. Piling on higher taxes won’t help. “If higher taxes make it more expensive to raise children,” says demographer Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, “people will think more about hav- ing another child.” That seems com- mon sense, despite the multiple in- fluences on becoming parents. How to reconcile this with deficit reduction is unclear. From 2011 to 2020, the Obama administration projects budget deficits of $8.5 tril- lion. Other estimates are higher. Even if spending and benefits for the eld- erly are cut—as they should be— higher taxes will still almost certainly be needed. Parents ought to be shielded from the steepest increases. Any tax system rewards some ac- tivities and punishes others. A case in point is the mortgage interest rate deduction that rewards people for buying larger homes with more debt. We might reduce this dubious subsidy and shift some savings to- ward children. Stein advocates com- bining pro-child tax breaks (the per- sonal exemption, the child tax credit, the child-care credit and the adoption credit) into one generous credit. Whatever the details, policies should have a pro-family bias be- cause parenting is, as he writes, “one of the most important services any American can perform.”


TUESDAY


August 10, 2010


A 5


opinion


“POLITICS OF COURSE”


MEN & EVENTS


VIRTUAL REALITY


WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP


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