Salary standardization: A total failure!

Our topic tonight is very relevant especially to our viewers who deposit their savings accounts in rural banks. Some 11 rural banks all over the Philippines have declared a “Bank Holiday,” shutting down operations without warning to their depositors, leaving depositors helpless. This makes them an easy prey to loan sharks and there are many out there.

Of the 11 rural banks that failed all within a month’s time, 9 rural banks are based in Cebu; 8 of them belong to the Legacy Group. That all these rural banks shut down operations all within a month’s time is a very dangerous precedent. That the majority came from the Legacy Group is something that needs to be investigated. More so that the Legacy Group filed an injunction against the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 8 and was granted a temporary restraining order upheld by the Court of Appeals. Thankfully, the Supreme Court issued an injunction against the Court of Appeals not to implement the order.

When banks refuse to be examined by Bank Regulators and use the courts to issue a TRO in their behalf is something that should be investigated by the Senate. This is akin to someone issuing a restraining order to a doctor to stop him from examining a patient! What we are facing here is corruption within the Judiciary; a court order becomes detrimental to the interest of the small depositors. I call this economic sabotage!

We know that the Philippine Deposit Insurance, Inc. (PDIC) is on standby to “rescue” these beleaguered depositors P250,000 per depositor. That means, after due diligence, depositors with P250,000 or less can get their money back but I have no idea how long that would take. But the PDIC is there only to ensure depositors that they can get their money back in case a bank collapses. But from my standpoint, some unscrupulous bankers seem to be using the presence of the PDIC to dupe its depositors into some kind get-rich-quick schemes.

So, how good or how bad are things with rural banks these days? With us tonight is Mr. Daniel R. Arcenas, President of the Cebu Federation of Rural Bankers, Inc. (CFRBI) who will give us a background on what has been happening with the rural banks in the past month. This will be a very interesting show. Please watch it on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm tonight, with replays on Wednesday and Saturdays on the same time slot.

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The Philippines Star editorial last Saturday is more than enough proof that the so-called “Salary Standardization Program” of the Philippine government has all but failed. That editorial reported that Sen. Francis Pangilinan is urging Malacañang to immediately increase the pay of prosecutors or fiscals in order to reduce their vulnerability to bribes. Please don’t tell me that it is only now that they have realized this problem?

You can say that this report was an offshoot to the Congressional hearings on Dangerous Drugs last week. I may concur with Sen. Pangilinan on the need to raise the salaries of our fiscals and prosecutors, but let me be the first to warn you that increasing the salaries of a corrupt prosecutor or fiscal will not suddenly change the person or that he will no longer be a corrupt official. On the contrary, it will only increase his status and get bigger bribes! What is needed in the Department of Justice (DoJ) is for our prosecutors and fiscals to take immersion seminars so they would realize the impact that illegal drugs have on our society.

The Philippines is not alone in the fight against illegal drugs. A couple of years ago, I got an email complete with photos of Mexico’s effort to fight illegal drugs. In a raid conducted against the residence of a suspected drug lord, a whole basement full of US dollars amounting to some $2 billion cash was found. The money was waist high and filled the entire room. Clearly there’s a lot of money in the drug trade and the Mexican drug lords could no longer use the regular banks to “hide” this money. Also, it was easy enough to bribe unscrupulous officials with any amount they asked because the money was just sitting in the basement.

What I found disturbing from that editorial was that the National Prosecution Service had an estimated 30% vacancy of over 400 prosecutors that need to be filled up. Equally disturbing is the report that the janitor at the GSIS is paid more than a first level prosecutor at DoJ. A prosecutor ispaid less than a GSIS janitor? Now didn’t we say that the problem with this country is that, we don’t solve our problems?