GOTCHA
By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star
By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star
Abad and Aquino
Budget Sec. Florencio Abad is lying through his teeth. He says the Supreme Court has barred him from fulfilling his promise to disclose the projects under the prickly Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). To defy its order would be to disrespect the SC, he adds. So advise Malacañang lawyers, supposedly.
Phooey! Ask anybody in the SC about the ten pending petitions against the DAP, and they’ll say there’s no gag order. At best, since the case is sub judice (awaiting adjudication), the litigants may not, as a general rule, discuss its merits in public. But to state facts about the case does not violate the sub judice rule. Such facts include who, what, where, and when of issues at hand. Why and how can be iffy. But merely publicizing the list of projects funded by the DAP is factual, not opinion, thus okay. Lawyer Abad knows that; then again, dullards learn only to lie in law school.
If Abad did consult a Malacañang lawyer, it must have been his Liberal Party-mate, sidelined Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda. And Lacierda must have given him not legal but PR counsel. Why, Abad emerged unsure if he may divulge the DAP list even after the SC hears the arguments on Dec. 10 and subsequently rules on its hazy rationale. He’s really hiding something.
Abad’s opacity about the DAP only proves what critics say it is: criminal. It is a P142-billion presidential pork barrel devised in 2011-2012, akin to the congressional PDAF that the SC recently discontinued 14-0. Malacañang accrued the money yearend from savings of some Executive agencies and, unconstitutionally, midyear from budgets of others duly approved by Congress. It then moved the fund, again unconstitutionally, to works for which it never sought Congress consent. Some of it went, still unconstitutionally, to non-Executive agencies: P13 billion to the co-equal Congress, and P143 million to the independent Commission on Audit, among others. A fourth unconstitutionality: the DAP is a discretionary lump sum, for Malacañang, Congress, COA, etc., to spend at will.
Abad’s sudden respect for the SC is odd. He was one of those who put up President Noynoy Aquino to defend the DAP in a primetime-TV hookup last Oct. 30. Anti-DAP petitions already were filed then. So, for Abad to now clam up about DAP projects is hypocritical, says the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
At any rate, P-Noy swore the DAP was for economic stimulants. He rattled off five works: the Project Noah weather mapping that alerted farmers and fishermen about storms, TESDA trainings for 150,000 youths that got 90,000 employed, infrastructures in Mindanao, restoration of public teachers’ cancelled GSIS benefits, and something about Air Force and police personnel. There weren’t many details, much more amounts. Earlier, Abad’s office announced that P10 billion of the DAP went to Moro and Cordillera ex-rebels in the hinterlands.
How the DAP in remote areas spurred the economy is debatable. More so, the foreign travels and new SUVs on which the COA spent part of its DAP share. Or, the P97 million given to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, and P50 million each to Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, whom P-Noy calls “pork” thieves.
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To deter criticism of singling out People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao the government had better go after alleged tax evader Mighty Corp. The BIR and Customs know the cigarette maker’s modus operandi, as sworn in a Congress hearing last month. BIR chief Kim Henares said Mighty’s dubious business practices deprived the government of P4.9 billion in excise and value-added taxes in the first half of 2013 alone. So why not collect the arrears? More so since she’s racing against time. Three American states are fining Mighty a staggering $21 million (P920 million) for acts of unfair competition.
Mighty claims it is being bullied by tobacco industry biggies. That’s for sure, but beside the point. A third party audit analyzes odd figures reported by Mighty. Like, its tobacco leaf imports in 2011-2012 were at $0.68 per kilo, regardless of country of origin. Data from the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) show that the cheapest imported leaf at the time cost $3.39 a kilo.
Mighty imported acetate tow at $0.30 per kilo, again regardless of origin. NTA 2011-2012 records show the cheapest price of the ingredient at $5.26 a kilo. Mighty’s warehousing entries and re-export figures for acetate tow also did not tally. Too, its volume of imported tobacco for warehousing mismatched its re-exports, leaving unaccounted 8.37 million kilos in 2011, and 6.68 million in 2012.
The Customs’ post-entry audit group gave Mighty 15 days from last Oct. 21 to show proof of correct tax and duty payments. The team should render a report by now. Anti-tobacco lobbies, mostly medical associations that lauded the BIR-Customs investigations, are asking for results. They had worked hard for higher “sin taxes” on both big and small cigarette makers. Mighty has been forbidden from operating in California, Oklahoma and Oregon.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
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