Using calamity for her politics

A reader named Romy e-mailed this sensible suggestion: “One way to fund the relief-rehab effort is to compel all executive agencies, especially Malaca-ñang, to surrender five percent of their respective budgets for 2009. After all, they always declare savings, usually five percent, every yearend (for pocketing as bonuses).”

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 Malacañang resented even more being criticized in the wake of Storm Ondoy. Executive Sec. Ed Ermita reproved senators seeking abolition of the slowpoke National Disaster Coordinating Council. Trade Sec. Peter Favila bewailed media’s damn-if-you-do-or-don’t reporting of his toothless price controls. Natural Resources Sec. Lito Atienza deflected blame for the floods by urging indictment of neglectful mayors. And everyday for two weeks now Palace spokesmen have been chiding opposition men to help in admin relief efforts instead of separate operations.

 But it’s Gloria Arroyo and aides who invite scorn upon themselves. Like, the President just had to aimlessly direct traffic near Malacañang as Ondoy began inundating four-fifths of Metro Manila two Saturdays back. Still, she would have been forgiven for at least trying to be useful — had she not done sillier things. But she just had to resettle at the Palace ceremonial hall, instead of the nearby evacuation center, half-a-dozen families whose homes were submerged. She then threw a fit upon seeing hundreds more oglers in the rain at the Palace gates wanting to get in. Merrily she motored to her Pampanga voting district, the 33rd time this year, to hand out food, eliciting wonder if she knew that other areas were worse hit.

And as if her politicking among cabalen went unnoticed, she then declared a yearlong, nationwide state of calamity. It was the height of malice. She capitalized on natural disaster and suffering to further endear herself with local politicos.

Declaring a state of calamity usually is for public good. It allows provincial, city, municipal and barangay officials to spend five percent of their calamity reserve funds for emergency items. Canvassing and bidding rules are suspended, so that stricken folk are rescued, fed and treated with no red tape. Authorities may also crack down on profiteers and hoarders by ordering price controls and emptying of warehouses. It’s all to save lives.

But Arroyo’s “yearlong, nationwide” scope is clearly dubious. Ondoy severely damaged only 25 cities and provinces, all in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog. Spared were hundreds of other jurisdictions in Visayas, Mindanao and elsewhere in Luzon. While subsequent Typhoon Pepeng flooded four villages in Camarines Norte and Cagayan provinces in eastern Luzon, the magnitude still does not merit universal calamity status. What more a 12-month duration? Price controls that long would dissuade manufacturers of basic commodities from producing any more. And it’s an election year. Suspension of public biddings that long would only line the pockets of local politicos. It’s like giving them license to steal for reelection bids that, on the side, will support Arroyo’s national candidates.

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 Reader Manolito Paraiso complains: “The BIR taxes the smallest wage earners like janitors and ditch diggers, but not a company worth millions of pesos. I had filed information on a tax fraud. The company in question does not have a Taxpayers Identification Number, but has for clients of (name of two of the country’s biggest food processors). Sales to the two alone amount to a billion pesos a year. The BIR’s national investigation division verified it during ten months of sleuthing, then requested higher-ups for authority to audit. To this day, more than a year later, the bosses have yet to act on the request.

“The Tax Code of 1997 requires an authority to audit from the BIR brass to protect taxpayers from harassment by lower officers. But higher-ups can use the same rule illegally to coddle tax cheats. In this case, lower investigating officers are demoralized because a political-appointee deputy commissioner is blocking the audit of the tax-evading firm. This high official was a classmate of (a former Malacañang bigwig).

“I wrote to the BIR, but got no reply. I talked to the internal ombudsman, but got no action because stymied by Section 70 of the Tax Code, which requires confidentiality of all tax investigations. Perhaps a subpoena of all documents and mandatory testimony at the Senate will expose the culprits. I am enclosing my contact numbers, in case they’re interested.”

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 “If you want to live a truly impoverished life, live only for what will cost you nothing.” Shafts of Life, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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