Code NGO Scam: PhilDHRRA is part of it!

By Erick San Juan

I can’t help noticing a news report by Jonathan Mayuga ” Why Punish Legitimate NGO’s” authored by PhilDHRRA at BusinessMirror dated August 27 and by Tina Arceo-Dumlao entitled “NGO group says pork barrel scam gives them a bad name” (PDI 8/22/2013) and this said NGO group is the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) of the infamous PEACE Bonds (PEACe Bonds are Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates Bonds) of 2001. philDHRRA is part of the Code NGO.

Of all NGOs why in the world that this CODE-NGO be the first to say that the recent pork barrel scam gives them a bad name? What bad name? Was the so-called PEACe Bonds scandal, more than a decade ago, involving their coalition of NGOs did not create a bad reputation for them already? Or is this move of coming out with a position paper given to the DBM and to both Houses of Congress is to preempt the possibility of losing their share in the now stinking ‘pork’ barrel?

Actually there are several honest to goodness NGOs and other so-called civil society groups who are really working to help the poor. But in the case of the CODE-NGO with its PEACe Bonds scandal then, was there any improvement for ten years, in the lives of the poor Filipinos? The ‘bonds’ was supposed to go to poverty eradication and alleviation programs by their group through government partnership, right? Or the mincing of words only covers the real intention of the ‘deal’. What made this transaction anomalous by the CODE-NGO back in 2001 was the composition of the people that made the operation went swiftly, through their connection with the Secretary of the Department of Finance then, all other steps in granting the bonds to CODE-NGO went smoothly as planned. Some of the shady cast of characters that made the deal with the Arroyo government then are still present in the current PNoy administration. SO we can say, what else is new in the midst of this pork barrel scam, again shady NGOs are involved with the blessing of politicians in all levels of the government hierarchy, from top to bottom.

Sadly, with the cohorts conniving with the corrupt politicians, we will never ever eradicate nor alleviate the lives of the poor of this country. So, please, shut the f$@k up with this charade of putting your name in a bad light, the fact is you did not have the good name to start with. Why not give back what your group stole from the country’s coffers so you can restore your good name.

Why not use the funds to livelihood programs like the Kibbutz in Israel to help the government make all the people self reliant and not mendicants? The worst this funds including the CCT are borrowed funds with interests which definitely will drain our government coffers. Wake up!

Napoles as state witness?

By Edu Punay 
The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) is not ruling out the possibility of using Janet Lim-Napoles, the fugitive businesswoman at the center of the pork barrel controversy, as a witness in running after the major players in the scam.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the DOJ would decide whether Napoles can qualify to become state witness only after she surrenders and faces the charges.

“We’re not yet considering that at this point. She should surface first and surrender before we can go into that,” she said.

De Lima said the probe of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is still in the fact-finding stage and is focused on allegations against Napoles and several lawmakers made by whistle-blowers led by Benhur Luy and Merlina Suñas.

“The focus now is to file a case against Napoles and her cohorts implicated by the whistle-blowers. We are not yet in a stage where we need to decide on whether she can be state witness or not,” she said.

De Lima, however, did not immediately turn down the possibility, considering that Napoles has been pinpointed as the brains of the scam while the law requires a state witness to be among the least guilty of the crime charged.

The Rules of Court provide that “any person who has knowledge of or information on the commission of a crime and has testified or is testifying or is willing to testify” may become state witness upon approval of the court hearing the case.

De Lima earlier said the recent Commission on Audit (COA) report on the alleged misuse of pork barrel of lawmakers – officially known as Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) – had shown a “wider web of anomalies.”

In the COA report, only 10 of 82 non-government organizations (NGOs) used to siphon billions in PDAF were linked to Napoles, making her a relatively minor player in the anomaly.

The Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council led by the Office of the Ombudsman and DOJ has convened to investigate the “bigger picture” of the pork barrel scam based on the COA report.

De Lima has also hinted the NBI was readying criminal charges against Napoles and several lawmakers supposedly involved in the racket.

Earlier, a group of priests had offered Napoles protection on condition that she bares all she knows about the scam.

Napoles and her brother Reynald Lim are both still at large two weeks after a Makati City regional trial court ordered their arrest over a separate case of serious illegal detention filed by Luy.

On the lookout

Immigration officials said they have been ordered to be on the lookout for the siblings and have alerted their counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) officer-in-charge Siegfred Mison said they have coordinated with their counterparts from Indonesia and Malaysia and requested that they be on the lookout for Napoles and her brother.

The BI was able to directly coordinate with the Indonesian immigration officials since they have an office in Davao.

They were provided with copies of pictures of the siblings with the information that their passports have been cancelled.

As for Malaysia, Mison said the BI is leaving it up to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to coordinate.

Mison added he would also bring his request for assistance before the immigration departments of countries included in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during their upcoming directors-general meeting in Vietnam.

“We would be giving information to countries of possible destination if she is able to flee the country,” he added.

Mison said the possibility the siblings would escape to Vietnam was remote.

He also doubted that Napoles would be able to travel to another country north of the Philippines because of the prevailing inclement weather.

Despite the heightened alert against Napoles and her brother, Mison still strongly believes that they are still in the country trying to cool things down before making their escape.

Mison said they are monitoring all possible exit points after receiving information that sometime last week, the three yachts that were often used by Napoles were no longer docked at the Manila Yacht Club.

Mison said they have yet to confirm if Napoles owns the vessels.

“We have alerted the possible exit points for her to leave the country such as via Balut Island. It is three hours away from Marore Island which is the closest island of Indonesia to the Philippines. While Bongao, Tawi-Tawi leads to Malaysia,” Mison said.

Mison said they have also coordinated with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to track down the three missing yachts.

The PCG said they have been tasked by De Lima to search for the yachts.

“Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has given instructions that we intensify the search of yachts along the border crossing areas at the southern backdoor, specifically in Balut Island that leads to Indonesia and Bongao that leads to Malaysia. We are on the lookout for them at the ports,” PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said.

The BI has also coordinated with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to check out the hangars of private airplanes.

“CAAP might want to consider giving us access or they could be vigilant and try to find out who are using those private planes that have the capability to fly out of the country,” Mison said.

The BI has also asked the DFA to be on the lookout for look-alikes of Napoles and her brother.

Considering the reported vast financial resources and connections of Napoles, she could afford surgery to change her appearance and secure a bogus passport.

Mison said the new passports would still contain the passport holders’ fingerprints and even if they change their appearance, they would be caught through their fingerprints if they attempt to leave the country.

The NBI said they would formally request the Interpol, through Philippine Center for Transnational Crime (PCTC), to put Napoles and her brother Reynald on its red notice list.

Another immigration official, on the other hand, said there were no indications of Napoles and her brother attempting to leave the country through Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

The official said a “lookout order” was issued on the siblings earlier this month.

But the official, who asked not to be named, could not say whether records of departures were checked before the issuance of the lookout order.

“All I can say is that we are on alert in compliance with that lookout order,” the immigration official said.

Unlike a hold departure order, a lookout order only directs immigration officers to alert or inform the justice department if the subject tries to leave the country. -Evelyn Macairan, Aie Balagtas See, Ding Cervantes

 http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/08/28/1142001/napoles-state-witness

U.S. may use Tomahawks against Syria

By Gary Robbins 
U-T San Diego

The San Diego-based destroyer Sterett launches a Tomahawk cruise missile during a successful test fire off Southern California in June 2010. The San Diego-based destroyer Sterett launches a Tomahawk cruise missile during a successful test fire off Southern California in June 2010. US Navy

President Barack Obama is considering a military strike against Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for allegedly allowing his military to use chemical weapons against civilians during that country’s civil war, which reportedly has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

Such a strike would likely involve the use of Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, one of the most technologically advanced weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Tomahawks are widely stocked on American warships, including the type of cruisers, destroyers and Los Angeles-class submarines that are homeported in San Diego Bay. Tomahawks also are stocked by Britain’s Royal Navy.

The Nimitz carrier strike group is in the northern Persian Gulf region. It has been operating with the destroyer Preble and cruiser Princeton, both which are homeported in San Diego. The Truman carrier strike group is in the Mediterranean, operating with ships from Norfolk, Virginia.

Here’s a snapshot of the missile:

BGM-109 model Tomahawk cruise missile (Raytheon)

TOMAHAWK CRUISE MISSILE

Manufacturer: Raytheon

Cost per missile: $1.45 million

Length: 20′ 6” (with booster)

Diameter: 20′ 4”

Wingspan: 8′ 9”

Speed: Subsonic (roughly 550 mph)

Operational range: A Tomahawk is an all-weather missile that can travel from 810 miles to 1,550 miles, depending on the variation of the missile used.

Conventional weapons payload: 1,000-pound bomb. Navy surface ships no longer carry a version of the Tomahawk that featured a nuclear warhead.

Flexibility: A “Tactical Tomahawk” locates its target by drawing data from everything from ships and unmanned aerial vehicles to foot soldiers and tank crews. A Tomahawk also can “loiter” in the air for tactical reasons, and it can be redirected during flight to alternative targets.

Stockpile: The U.S. has around 3,500 Tomahawk missiles of all variants, including hundreds that are collectively carried at any one time by San Diego-based submarines and surface ships. San Diego ships typically get their Tomahawks at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station in Orange County.
photo The San Diego-based destroyer Milius fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. US Navy

Service history: Tomahawk cruise missiles were first used during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. American ships and submarines launched 288 Tomahawks during the first phase of combat. The missiles have been used at least a dozen times since then. The largest assault occurred during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when more than 725 Tomahawk were launched at Iraqi targets.

The most recent assault occurred in 2011 when U.S. and British vessels collectively launched 221 Tomahawks at 20 or more targets in and around Tripoli and Misrata, Libya. The assault was part of an eventually successful campaign to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Sources: US Navy, Defense Department, Raytheon, Wikipedia

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/27/tomahawk-navy-sandiego/

‘India’s indigenous aircraft carrier a threat to China’

By PTI 
The Economic Times

An aerial view of the first indigenously-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.An aerial view of the first indigenously-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

BEIJING: Describing the launch of India’s indigenous aircraft carrier and Japan’s biggest warship since World War II as a threat to China, a report in the state-run media today alleged some countries are backing New Delhi to balance Beijing’s power.

The launch of India’s INS Vikrant and Japan’s helicopter carrier serve as a warning for China, said an article on the state-run Global Times’ website.

“Some Chinese scholars emphasise that India has yet to grasp the key technologies of the carrier and that it will rely on other countries to maintain and upgrade the carrier.

“But it is also a fact that many countries are supporting India in developing advanced weaponry, not only for profit but also to balance China’s power,” said Liu Zongyi, an assistant research fellow with the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, in the article.

“India is well aware of the intention of the Western countries. Some politicians and media outlets in Indian deliberately stress the role of India’s military buildup in containing China so as to please those traditional powers,” it claimed.

But at the same time it said the launch of India’s home- built aircraft carrier is indeed worth celebrating, because it marks a firm stride toward the indigenization of arms.

The triumphant launch of the hull demonstrated India’s progress in building giant surface carriers, it said.

“The launch also shows that the Indian government has had preliminary success in localising arms production. The government has invested billions of dollars in the construction, research and development of domestic shipbuilding,” it said.

Together with the launch of domestically built nuclear submarine INS Arihant, it will help boost the ruling Congress Party’s election chances next year.

“They do mark India’s achievements in localising arms production,” it said.

While China’s rise is mainly an economic one, India’s emergence is more prominent in the military sphere, it said quoting Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report stating that India has been the largest weapons importer ever since 2011.

“The so-called external threats may serve as an excuse for engaging in military expansion as well as corruption, which has been endemic in India’s scandal-ridden weaponry development in recent years,” it said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indias-indigenous-aircraft-carrier-a-threat-to-china/articleshow/21939911.cms

Threats and Psy ops

By Erick San juan

After the meeting of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and China’s Defense Minister General Chang Wanquan at Pentagon, Secretary Hagel will tour Southeast Asia to bolster US military ties with regional partners who face increasing concerns over maritime disputes with China.

Hagel announced on Tuesday he will fly to Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines in a week-long visit, with a meeting of ASEAN defense ministers on August 28-29 serving as an anchor for the trip. (Source: AFP News 8/22/2013)

Some observers will take these actions by the US Defense Secretary as something positive when it comes to US-China military-to-military relationship but somewhat ironic when it comes to its military agenda in the Asia-Pacific through its regional partners like the Philippines and Japan.

Both defense chiefs acknowledged that there are a series of disputes around the Asian Pacific region that are likely to continue to be troublesome. Gen. Chang was even quoted saying,”No one should fantasize that China would barter away our core interests and no one should underestimate our will and determination in defending our territory, sovereignty and maritime rights.” (Wall street Journal Aug.21,’13)

In the midst of the country’s brewing discontent on the pork barrel issue, talks on the new “access agreement” has started and will be finalized with the arrival of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on August 29 and 30.

We have to remember that the US budget cut on military spending has somehow affected its so-called ‘pivot’ to Asia-Pacific and they had to employ another strategy. And this strategy which they adopted from then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is very much in tune with their plans especially in the country. This is called the ‘lily-pad’ basing strategy. it is premised on the idea of reducing US permanent overseas presence in favor of moving small numbers of troops for short-term exercises and Special Operations-type raids. Early last year, Leon Panetta has revived this kind of operation and which. much concentration was in the expansion of Special Operations Forces and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones). Both SOF and UAVs are important capabilities, although they should be seen as supplements to, rather than replacements for, conventional forces.

In my past articles, I have already mentioned the use of the SOFs especially in the south and how the drones had similar operations in combating the insurgents there. So what else is new? It is a fact that when it comes to Uncle Sam’s operations, our country is always the testing ground. Sometimes, our own people as guinea pigs when testing vaccines like what I have discussed in my past writings.

By the way, according to the palace spokesman Sec. Edwin Lacierda, this agreement does not need a congressional approval because “the context for the temporary presence of the US forces in the country will be done within the framework of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). There is no need for Senate ratification. However, for purposes of transparency, the panel will be briefing congressional leaders on the status of the negotiations.”

The mere fact that Beijing and Washington are talking ‘regularly’ on how to find peaceful solutions to their problems in many aspects like cyber espionage, freedom in navigation in the South China Sea, trade and finance and the Taiwan issue, US is also playing its cards with its regional partners here, especially the Philippines, for what purpose?

Uncle Sam’s agenda in the region, specifically in our country, has double meaning- reclaiming its place as a military power in Asia-Pacific and at the same time rebalancing the power of China vis-à-vis with the US.

We have to be wary at all times because once the access agreement is in place, it is more than the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that we used to have, it is their ‘lily-pad base’ here. Translation- full access again to their former military bases. And this time around, they will not spend much because as usual, our leaders will always kowtow to what the master will tell them and will forget altogether what is due us. When are we going to learn?

Pentagon chief to stress US ‘pivot’ in SE Asia tour

Source: Malay Mail Online

Hagel is due to meet Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as well as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, before delivering a speech later. – AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel kicks off a Southeast Asian tour today meant to stress Washington’s so-called “pivot” back towards the Asia-Pacific but with attention diverted by trouble in the Middle East.

The Pentagon chief’s week-long trip is part of a concerted effort by Washington to rebalance America’s strategic priorities towards the Asia-Pacific.

But crises in the Middle East continued to demand Hagel’s attention, particularly accusations that the Syrian regime had carried out a chemical weapons attack that left hundreds dead.

He told reporters aboard his plane that the US military had provided President Barack Obama with a range of options for possible intervention and forces had been redeployed as required.

With Egypt in turmoil after the ouster of president Mohamed Mursi and a subsequent crackdown, Hagel also spoke last night to Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the volatile situation, US officials said.

Today, Hagel is due to meet his Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as well as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, before delivering a speech later.

US officials said Washington wanted to cultivate military ties with Malaysia and other governments in Southeast Asia to ensure stability in the region and to encourage a peaceful resolution of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

China’s assertive stance over the waterway has raised concerns in Washington.

Beijing claims virtually all of the South China Sea and has stoked rising concern among rival claimants, particularly the Philippines, of a gradual takeover of disputed islets.

The Pentagon is offering help to Southeast Asian countries with ships, aerial reconnaissance, joint training and other initiatives as they try to better monitor their coastal waters.

A senior defence official, briefing reporters travelling with Hagel, rejected speculation that budget cuts hitting the Pentagon’s military spending would spell an end to the “pivot”.

“There’s a myth out there,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But he said “reports of the end of the rebalance, that we can’t fund the rebalance, are greatly exaggerated”.

“We have adequate means to support this strategy and to do so for the foreseeable future,” the official added.

The United States was increasing the number of ships based in the Asia-Pacific and pursuing agreements with a number of countries to allow ships, aircraft and troops to rotate through key ports and airfields, while avoiding permanent American bases, the official said.

US defence officials are negotiating an accord with the Philippines to allow for the rotation of more US forces and military assets through the country on temporary deployments.

After his two-day stop in Malaysia, Hagel heads to Indonesia and then Brunei for a gathering of defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The discord in the South China Sea is expected to feature high on the agenda of the Asean discussions in Brunei on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.

Hagel is due to meet his Chinese counterpart, General Chang Wanquan, on the sidelines of the Asean session, after having hosted the general in Washington earlier this month. – AFP

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/pentagon-chief-to-stress-us-pivot-in-se-asia-tour#sthash.f7h8B7jU.dpuf

PNoy seems uninformed of new anticorruption weapons

Frankly Speaking
By Frank Wenceslao

Since I’m emailing President Aquino or furnishing him copy of my emails regarding the OMB-PCGG-PAMUSA, now PCGG-PAMUSA Cooperative Framework (“coop”), I was taken aback when he said, reported in the Inquirer.net, that he’s asked the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IAAGCC) to convict Janet Lim Napoles hopefully before his term ends. The question that crossed my mind was who could’ve ever resurrected that dinosaur and gave it a new name? Inter-agency councils, committees or task forces against
corruption failed before and the IAAGCC will be the same.

The coop can do what the President wishes, or convince Napoles to opt for plea bargain. The coop is narrowed between PCGG and Pamusa to simplify their interaction, more so in funding its operation knowing full well the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) is short of funds with the number of corruption cases brought to it and those it must act on motu proprio. Besides, the Ombudsman is doing quite well on its own, e.g. nailing ex-CJ Renato Corona and indicting Roberto Ongpin both of whom when sued by the coop in the US would probably be convicted based on owning assets the US Department of Justice defines as coming from “a process or series of actions through which income of illegal origin is concealed, disguised or made to appear legitimate (main objective); and to evade detection, seizure and taxation.” So, what’s the need for the IAAGCC which isn’t different from the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission and others like it in the past that invariably failed to convict anybody guilty of corruption, let alone a big-fish like Napoles.

I firmly believe Napoles and other “big fishes” will be convicted if the President would see to it that the PCGG-PAMUSA coop is activated and put into operation soon. This only requires PCGG’s corporate act that can be done any day of the week. At the risk of repeating myself several more times, the recovery of Marcos’ and cronies’ remaining ill-gotten wealth and the retribution of perpetrators of acquiring illicit assets from corruption after the Marcos regime can be hastened, some perhaps concluded before the President leaves office by resorting to the “US National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy” (“US strategy” in short) that gives “teeth” to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and other international cooperation agreements against corruption (ICAACs).

Napoles et al. like Imelda Marcos, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and others are hoping to be free after the President leaves office but would be greatly disappointed. Under the said US strategy they could be sued in the US like former Ukrainian PM Pavlo Lazarenko who fled to the US to escape the ire of his people but was arrested in San Francisco, tried for violation of US laws, e.g. embezzlement of public funds and money laundering, and now serving a 9-year jail sentence in a federal prison. Former Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori who escaped to Japan but made a mistake to visit Chile that agreed to extradite him back to Peru. Fujimori was tried for human rights violation, corruption, embezzlement of public funds, etc. and sentenced to over 30 years in jail despite the fact that his daughter is a leading member of Peru’s Congress and the losing candidate for president in the last Peruvian elections.

Alfonso Portillo, ex-Guatamala’s president, escaped to Mexico and fought his extradition to the US for several years until finally extradited last June to face charges in New York for corruption and money laundering and may follow the footsteps of Ukraine’s Lazarenko to a federal prison. There’re several other examples including multinational banks and corporations that opted to be fined billions of dollars to stop US investigation of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and related laws such as anti-money laundering, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, etc. Only Filipino kleptocrats are able to run for office and be accepted by
Philippine society as though they were only cited for traffic violation.

The FCPA punishes a foreigner whose illicit income from the proceeds of corruption in the Philippines is used to acquire US real estate and other properties. FG Mike Arroyo’s and GMA’s acquisition of the now famous 5-story San Francisco commercial building when there’s no way they could afford it with legitimate income; Mr. and Mrs. Mikey Arroyo’s Foster City, CA mansion; Mr. and Mrs. Dado Arroyo’s upscale condo at Gramercy Towers are incontrovertible evidence of violating the FCPA and related laws. Regardless of having been sold to other parties the fact that US crimes have been committed depends on whether or not the statutes of limitation apply; however, under RA 1379 the properties that were unlawfully acquired are
subject to forfeiture to the state which is not subject to any statute of limitation.

The Arroyos must first pay the taxes due on the funds they used to acquire the properties and then return to the Philippine Treasury the proceeds from the sale of the properties which are forfeitable under RA 1379. This is the most difficult problem Napoles and others like her face from the properties they acquired from unlawful proceeds of corruption in the Philippines, USA and other countries, which the DOJ and Ombudsman should turn over to Pamusa to pursue by virtue of the PCGG-PAMUSA coop.

Sen. Lito Lapid’a wife, Marissa, found out nothing can be hidden from US investigators. In this regard, the same in other countries where the US is assisted by their counterparts. If Marissa, for instance, lied about her
personal account that actually was a joint account with Sen. Lapid with a balance of over $159,600 and Pamusa asks the FBI to access the account in the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) databases, the depository of all financial transactions in the US, Marissa most probably would’ve been fined more than the $159,600 found in her personal bank account with “restructured” deposits for each not to exceed $10,000 or the bank would advise FinCEN about it in a “suspicious account report” (SAR) and Marissa would’ve been in a watch list. She’s fined $40,000 for admitting to smuggle this amount and $159,600 her total deposit when her plea bargain was approved.

But the best news to President Aquino that potentially could be his greatest legacy is the probable eradication of big-time public corruption before he leaves office. I had the privilege to be referred by a US Senator’s staff
member to a senior justice department official who agreed to be interviewed by me. The official’s concern is the interface of the US strategy to bring the fight against public corruption across national borders mandated by the UNCAC and other ICAACs particularly the one in last June G8 Summit in Northern Ireland against tax evasion and safe havens where multinationals’ profits are diverted to evade taxes due the country where the company has established its legal domicile.

Consequently, enormous amount of funds on which taxes should have been paid are locked in with equally enormous amounts of money of drug traffickers and kleptocrats like Marcos et al. denying many countries of needed revenue which has caused serious fiscal problems to Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, etc. Unable to sustain their welfare programs these countries have resorted to very tight austerity programs resulting in violent street demonstrations destabilizing governments.

The G8 nations agreed the remedy is when individual countries adopt a unified tax system enabling automatic exchange of tax information that will expose discrepancies between where multinationals earn their profits and pay their taxes. Naturally needed to make the remedy succeed is close cooperation between the BIR and anti-money laundering mechanism (AMLC) to track unusual movement of large amount of funds for instant reporting to the anticorruption agency (OMB) and exchange of tax information between the BIR and other national tax authorities.

Interfaced with the updated guidelines for the US strategy to internationalize efforts against kleptocracy (see: Policy and Legal Frameworks of our attached Proposal for Service Contract) my interviewee said without fear of contraction that big-time public corruption like smallpox is on its way to eradication because perpetrators will soon have no place to hide illicit gains. Let it be emphasized that an important part of the agreement is for the eight (G8) richest and most powerful nations on earth to close down safe havens used to evade taxes and hide proceeds from big-time corruption.

At this juncture, let me clarify it will be futile to defy the international agreement to stop tax evasion and close down safe havens used to evade taxes and hide proceeds from corruption when interfaced with the US strategy to internationalize efforts against kleptocracy whose first of six guidelines six under the proposal’s “Policy and Legal Frameworks” reads, as follows:

“First, the US Government (USG in short) will enhance its work of launching a coalition of international financial partners, the public and private sectors, to pinpoint best practices for identifying, tracing, freezing, and recovering assets illicitly acquired through kleptocracy. The US will also work bilaterally and multilaterally to immobilize kleptocratic foreign public officials using financial and economic sanctions against them and their network of cronies.”

Referring to Marcos’ funded foundations which are safe havens, so they thought, for a good part of his ill-gotten wealth the PCGG couldn’t touch, my interviewee said being a US corporation Pamusa may petition on behalf of the PCGG the USDOJ to help recover Marcos’ wealth hidden in his funded foundations. The USDOJ will ask its counterpart in the country where a foundation is domiciled which will be investigated if its organizers had the resources and standing to fund the foundation’s purposes and objectives.

While making the final touches of this column, I read in the Wall Street Journal (Aug. 24) that last Aug. 16, Edgar Paltzer, 57 years old, a Swiss lawyer formerly with the Zurich firm of Niederer, Kraft & Frey, pleaded
guilty in federal court in New York to a single count of conspiracy. He faces up to five years in prison plus fines, but experts said, because of his cooperation, he’s likely to receive a far shorter prison sentence, or
none at all. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2014. With the Paltzer indictment and plea deal, says Bryan Skarlatos, a criminal tax lawyer with Kostelanetz & Fink in New York, “the government is showing how
determined it is in its pursuit of undeclared offshore accounts.”

The WSJ added that US crackdown on undeclared offshore accounts greatly intensified after the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) admitted in 2009 that it helped U.S. taxpayers hide money abroad and paid $780 million to settle criminal charges. Since then, more than 38,000 taxpayers have entered an IRS limited-amnesty program for people who concealed offshore accounts. The government has collected more than $5.5 billion from them, with an estimated $5 billion still to come, and Switzerland’s oldest bank, Wegelin & Co.,
closed down after pleading guilty to helping U.S. taxpayers hide more than $1.2 billion.

Finally, with regards to Marcos funded foundations abroad that the PCGG couldn’t touch, Pamusa can petition on behalf of the Philippine Government the USDOJ and its counterpart where a foundation is domiciled to investigate if it’s really a safe haven used by the Marcos family for their ill-gotten wealth and if donations it has received were not from fictitious persons and corporations without a taint of illegitimacy. My interviewee also said that US properties whose registration is in the names of children, relatives, associates, surrogates, dummies, and other than the true owner are not accepted per se anymore. Registered owners are required to prove they had the resources to afford buying the property at the time of acquisition, or else it’s frozen, seized and confiscated to be returned to the country of the rightful claimant.

Mrs. Imelda Marcos and children should start thinking how to negotiate settlement of the different Marcos foundations’ assets which are bound to be frozen, seized and returned to the Philippine Government especially if the foundations are in Switzerland, Lichtenstein, or other safe havens of ill-gotten wealth the G8 nations want to close.

Norwalk, CA 82413