No Merry Christmas for embattled peso

There was no smile on BSP Governor Paeng Buenaventura’s face when I caught up with him last Thursday at the Christmas party at Myther’s. Noticing his worried and pensive demeanor, I decided to ask him the ultimate question early on. How come the peso isn’t getting any better, a week before Christmas? Are the OFWs holding on to their dollars in the hope of getting even more pesos with every day of delay?

Don’t blame the OFWs, Tio Paeng said emphatically. The remittances of OFWs are up 25 percent, the Gov said. But the spate of bad news about the Philippines and its government is keeping the peso down. There is no inflow of foreign direct or portfolio investments to speak of, the Gov explained. And he didn’t sound hopeful of the immediate future.

I almost lost my appetite for Myther’s sumptuous lunch offerings. If the BSP Governor can’t even make a bid for a FAMAS best actor award by trying to put on a happy and hopeful face for this nosey columnist, we must be in real bad. In fact, it turns out we are. There will be no Merry Christmas nor will there be a Happy New Year for our embattled peso.

I asked about the revisions in the money laundering bill. That got the Gov in an even more depressed mood. It seems that despite his warnings of really dire consequences, Congress has chosen to ignore the demand of an international task force to amend our money laundering law to make it comply with international standards.

Because of this failure to among others, lower the threshold level and allow the lifting of account secrecy even without a court order, we are going to get blacklisted. The practical consequence of this is that it would be difficult if not near impossible for our OFWs to send money to their families here. Can you imagine what political nightmare is upon us if OFW families starve or fall into the clutches of loan sharks while waiting for remittances to arrive?

Tio Paeng said that the international task force could really screw us next year unless Congress passes the amendments they want. I guess the reluctance of members of Congress to make our money laundering law tough is simply a matter of self preservation.

The recent revelations of Rep. Willie Villarama on how millions of pesos were given by Rep. Mark Jimenez to supposedly charitable foundations of the first couple should make that more difficult to pass the reform amendments sought by the international money laundering task force. All of us are eager to have a look at the bank records of those GMA foundations and thanks to our inutile law, we can’t.

But can you imagine the colossal mess that would be upon us if the OFWs can’t send money home? Even more urgent than giving the OFWs the right to vote in 2004 is complying with the guidelines of the international task force on money laundering. We simply cannot defy their demands to make our law tougher, no matter what our congressmen and senators might think about their sovereign right to pass or not pass proposals brought before them.

Once we get blacklisted, our OFWs will have to resort to the underground channels to send their forex in, creating a lucrative black market and threatening the official peso to the dollar exchange rate. Is that what our beloved legislators want to happen? If it does happen, OFWs and their families and in fact, every right thinking Filipino should punish our officials by working to vote every one of them out of office. But even then, the damage would have been done.

Investment bankers

I received this e-mail from reader Em O. Palileo.

It is interesting to read your comments and some readers’ reaction on your piece about our Ivy League Economic Managers. In my opinion, their having gone to the Ivy League School is only the other half or even the minor cause of the problem.

The more critical aspect is their work experience. For me, the problem of GMA is that three key members of her economic team are all investment bankers. Let me dissect why I think this is a problem:

Investment bankers are deal makers. Their training and experience is to do a deal then get out – of course after getting their fat fee. These are all short term transactions. They don’t really get to experience how the deal eventually affected their client. This is not their concern.

Compare this exposure to people whose experience are with say, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate and Nestle. Even Ivy League graduates go through the process of training where they "dirty" their hands. And they are trained to see the growth of their respective brands. Their vision is of a much longer time frame compared to investment bankers.

Secondly, they all came from multinational companies. Coming from a multinational company is not bad per se. In fact the training one gets from these companies should have been an asset. Except that in investment banking, you only have a small staff. In effect one does not get to really experience managing people.

Thirdly, being with well organized companies, execution of policy is no big deal. Compare that with the government setting. Our Investment Banking Economic Managers might have been in quandary why their directives are not being followed.

It is time GMA terminate these investment bankers. Her economic team should be composed of people who have proven themselves in companies like P&G, Unilever, Colgate, Nestle or entrepreneurs who want to be a part of the team to save the country.

The appointment of Mr. Cito Lorenzo is a blessing. I am not that optimistic with Mr. Neri of NEDA, mainly because NEDA is really a coordinating agency. We need effective people to head our line agencies.

More power to you.

Christmas gift

A bureaucrat badgered a store owner for a substantial Christmas gift year after year. One year, the businessman decided to give the bureaucrat a memorial plan. The bureaucrat thought it was quite strange but he figured it was a practical gift that would come in handy when the time comes.

So the next year, Christmas came around and the bureaucrat wondered why he didn’t get a gift from the businessman. So he badgered the businessman again and asked why he didn’t get any gift from him this year.

The businessman matter of factly replied, "But you still haven’t used the gift I gave you last year!"

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])