Government loses P600 million in Kraft problem

Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella said last week that the government lost P600 million in revenues when the Tariff Commission and the Bureau of Customs implemented the lower tariff on Kraft’s "Tang" products.

This is money the government can hardly afford to lose, especially at a time when the government is in fiscal crisis and asking for more taxes from the public, Puentevella said in his privilege speech on the Kraft imbroglio.

He also called for the ouster of Tariff Commission OIC Edgardo Maralit and a certain Atty. Bartolome of the Customs valuation and collection committee which upheld the Kraft ruling.

Puentevella pointed out that Maralit penned his memorandum to the Bureau of Customs just one month after President Arroyo had issued Executive Order No. 295, which reclassified premixes that contained 65 percent sugar from heading 1701 to 21.06.

The major difference between the two headings is that those classified under 1701 are levied a tariff of 48 percent while those under heading 21.06 are levied only three percent.

Puentevella pointed out that the EO was issued by the President only after the Tariff Commission had recommended the reclassification, which the Philippine Sugar Alliance had brought to the attention of the government.

In 2003, about 65,000 metric tons of premixes entered the country which almost caused the collapse of the local sugar industry and triggered a howl of protest among sugar producers.

The findings and recommendations of the Tariff Commission were submitted to the Cabinet which endorsed and approved the crafting of an EO to correct the mistake. It was only then that the President signed the EO 295.

Kraft, Puentevella said, has a production plant in the country but it was closed down a few years back and transferred to Thailand. But it is the same plant which supplies the Tang imports.

In short, while the ruling prompted Kraft to transfer its manufacturing plant to Thailand, it deprived hundreds of Filipino workers of the source of their livelihood. And its present imports serves the interest of Thai workers as against the interest of thousands of Filipino sugar workers who may be displaced from work because of the entry of premixes into the country.

Reynaldo Bantug, president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc. (CONFED), and Bernardo Trebol, national trustee, said Customs Commissioner Bert Lina had assured a meticulous and thorough study of the Tariff Commission’s opinion which his subordinate, Atty. Bartolome, had approved.

"Strange, that Atty. Bartolome approved the reclassification in violation of an executive order without the consent or even the knowledge of his superior officer. In short, he seems to be above Commissioner Lina," Puentevella said.

What further riled the politician was that Filipino-owned corporations such as San Miguel Corp. and Universal Robina Corp. import sugar-containing products under the 1701 classification. This, he said, makes the field lopsidedly in favor of Kraft, a multinational company.

Rumors circulated in Negros Occidental how Mrs. Arroyo had gone ballistic upon learning about the reversal of her order by Maralit. She had reportedly instructed Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to make the Kraft issue a priority item in the next Cabinet meeting agenda.

Sugar producers, including members of the Philippine Sugar Alliance, are reportedly crossing their fingers for an immediate solution to the problem. The ruling did not only establish a precedent which other firms can take advantage of, but can also imperil the entire sugar industry.

COA thumbs down‘food tripping’

Cluster IV of the Commission on Audit in Western Visayas recently scored the Iloilo provincial government for "food tripping," which means wasting public funds on excess food budget for guests during conferences and consultative meetings.

This was after a post-audit of expenditures for food of guests and catering services during consultative meetings and conferences under the auspices of the Iloilo provincial government were done.

Dailylyn Tavarro, COA regional cluster director, disclosed that the "provincial government has spent extravagantly on the food for guests and the catering service."

From July 2004 to July 2005, total expenditures for food reached P3,546,01.

She pointed out that events and activities requiring catering, were not adequately planned as to provide sufficient lead time to conduct public bidding.

COA urged the provincial government to observe austerity measures, especially on its food expenditures for entertainment of guests. It likewise suggested adequate planning for events to provide enough time for the provincial government to conduct bidding and conduct eligibility assessment on interested caterers.

And this was the most telling of all. The COA has recommended that the provincial government provide adequate supporting documents for all claims for reimbursement of meals as well as the monitoring of guests attending these seminars or consultative meetings to ensure that expenditures are based on the actual attendance of guests and participants.

The COA report, however, did not recommend further investigation into these incidents by the Ombudsman.

Post Office anomaly

Even jaded newsmen were taken by surprise with the story. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Friday filed a criminal complaint against the postmaster of Silay City and two subordinates for the unauthorized encashment of PhilHealth checks sent through the post office.

For PhilHealth, this is another blow to its sagging prestige, following the discovery of huge losses due to anomalies. This one, though, takes the case. The victims are the patients who needed the reimbursements for expenses incurred for hospitalization and medical services.

The charges were filed against Francis Espinosa, the Silay City postmaster; Charito Toleno, an employee of Philpost; and a former Philpost employee assigned at the Silay Post Office.

A certain Primitovo Najera, who initiated the filing of the case against the Philpost trio, said these personnel opened registered mail containing Philhealth checks and encashed them by falsifying the signatures of the payees.

That, however, may just be the tip of the iceberg. The NBI and PhilHealth authorities in Western Visayas are now appealing to payees to come forward and confirm whether they had already received their checks. This was because there is suspicion that there are may more, especially in far-flung areas who may have not received or encashed their checks.

Several Silay City payees reportedly were just given cash when they asked for their checks from the Silay Post Office.

NCCA summit

I am here in Manila to attend the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA) summit on the role of culture and the arts in the campaign against widespread corruption.

What was striking was that NCCOM chair Ambeth Ocampo was the first one to point out that the bulk of the grants by the agency had been chaneled to the Luzon and Metro Manila area.

Ocampo, however, did not pin the blame on anybody, especially his predecessor. But he said the present summit may solve the lopsided distribution of funds by funding more projects from the various regions of the country.

Presidential Culture and Arts Adviser Cecile Guidote Alvarez, executive director, discussed extensively the role of culture and arts in realigning the focus of the average tao to honesty, integrity and the fight against corruption.

But there was something which aroused the curiosity of many of the participants, especially the members of the sub-committee on communications. This was the fact that NCCOM, which Ocampo admits, is often misinterpreted as the National College Athletic Association (NCAA). This was also the reason why a group, headed by Ely Dejaresco, had submitted to the NCCOM a program to popularize the NCCA and distinguish it from its more famous competitor – the NCAA.

Ocampo’s decentralization proposal also created a stir. The first thing that happened was the determination of members of various sectors to organize themselves into regional clusters to be able to come up with regional plans instead of just translating locally what the NCCOM had approved.

For example, the Visayas group, which I belong to, discussed last night the creation of a Visayas NCCOM chapter group. And it would have three subdivisions – Eastern, Central and Western Visayas.

Ironically, though, it also enabled the communications group to find out what the other sectors were doing in their respective areas of concern. Thus, I was not surprised to learn that Remon Hofilena, head of the Western Visayas Museum Association, was asked to also head the same group in Central Visayas. It was Hofilena, a no mean artist and historian, who stopped the proposed rehabilitation of the St. Joseph the worker murals in the Victorias Milling Company chapel that could have destroyed what was a famed international work of art.

Then I was also surprised to learn that Escalante City Mayor Santiago Barcelona had sought the services of a museum expert from the NCCOM to look into the possibility of converting a local landmark into a museum for the northern Negros Occidental City.

And while discussing the mummies of Sagada, I also learned from a Cotabato City delegate (actually representing Northern Cotabato) that there are still mummies on trees in Sultan Kudarat.

"These are things we have to study and look into. They may prove very interesting for us," he commented.