The Philippine Economy

[jpdm]

She is the President. She has all the powers vested in her to rid corruption in government. So the buck stops right at her doorstep. If she is serious enough and successful in cleaning the government of graft and corruption...

The Filipino nation will benefit immensely. And I will be the first one to applaud her.

Prelates to PGMA: Trash EO 464, Stop ‘Culture of Corruption’

BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA
Contributed to Bulatlat
February 26, 2008 - 11:51pm

The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines or CBCP has called on Malacañang to trash the controversial Executive Order No. 464, which prevents government and military officials from testifying in congressional investigations; and to stop the culture of corruption, from “top to bottom.”

In the statement read over radio station dzMM, Abp.Angel N. Lagdameo, D.D. of Jaro, Iloilo, CBCP president, said the President must not hinder her Cabinet officials from speaking in the Senate’s investigation about the national broadband network (NBN) project. He said EO 464 should be scrapped.

According to the prelate, different sectors of the society have the right to know the truth about the controversial NBN deal, signed by the Chief Executive and China’s ZTE Corp.

He also reiterated the intensive campaign for the restoration of moral values among Filipinos and the stoppage of the rampant corruption in the government.

Prior to this, Tuguegarao Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan, Bishops Ramon Villena of Bayombong and Rodolfo Beltran of Bontoc-Lagawe urged the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Ombudsman to honestly investigate the controversial deal.

In a news item published at the official website of the CBCP (http://www.cbcpnews.com/) last Feb. 17, they said the investigation must be conducted by persons who are honestly in search of the truth and not in pursuit of their own political ambitions.

The DoJ investigation on the NBN deal has been criticized as having been initiated with the intent of doing a whitewash on the issue.

Last Feb. 16, the Ombudsman summoned five officials involved in the deal, including presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said her office has summoned NBN star witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada to answer some questions about his knowledge of the deal. Contributed to Bulatlat

[jpdm]

An old article, a reference on the idea that there is a need to fight corruption starting from PGMA....

Philippine Bishops Slam Corruption
Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:04 AM EST
Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer


MANILA — Influential Philippine Roman Catholic bishops slammed endemic government corruption Tuesday but stopped short of urging President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign.

The statement by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, issued after a 10-hour emergency meeting, was a small victory for Arroyo's efforts to serve out the last two years of her term amid widespread calls for her to step down.

The bishops' group has played a key role in nonviolent revolts that ousted two leaders in the last two decades, and a strong statement against Arroyo could have bolstered protests against her.

"We strongly condemn the continuing culture of corruption from the top to the bottom of our social and political ladder," the bishops said in a pastoral statement.

"We must seek the truth and we must restore integrity. We are convinced that the search for truth in the midst of charges and allegations must be determined and relentless."

The statement urged Arroyo and her government to fight graft "wherever it is found" and for the president to rescind restrictions on officials testifying without her permission.

[barrera_marquez]

Originally Posted by barukdok

are you a member of KM?

Galing pong Imus, Cavite si Kuya jpdm...

Ewan ko lang po kung may mga militante roon...

[venntro]

Originally Posted by jpdm

That's it, it cut both ways.

Pare, at least, i'm holding back myself from doing the same thing by just posting emoticons...

PTI, yung iba rito direktang pang-iinsulto!!F#@$!!!!


Tsaka tingnan mo muna pare ang lahat ng posts ko bago ka magsalita ng ganyan.

Ikaw ba pare, ininsulto kita sa kabila ng magkasalungat ang paniniwala natin?

Tingnan mo mga posts ko kung sino unang nang-insulto. Across the forums here, lalo kung mainit ang talakayan dahil hindi gusto yung paninindigan....babanatan talaga ng insulto.

Hirap kasi, akala ko dito sa mga forums na ganito nabibigyan laya ang mga taong makipagpalitan ng opinyon kahit na taliwas ito sa nakararami...e hindi pala.....

Yup I saw your posts before and some of them may be viewed by others as below the belt such as your vomitting emoticon. You may think of it as plain but as I said, whether a statement is insulting varies from person to person. It appears that a lot of forumers are pissed with your statements and perhaps may have felt insulted. You cannot control how they react and while their languange may sometimes be harsh, you just have to take it with a grain of salt. It seems you have this penchant of trying to reply on each and every post, thread and forum against a comment on your post or on your view. That is within your right. However, it often annoys forumers and expect to get some flak for that. That perhaps is the necessary evil of posting in a public forum.

[3cr]

House to protect consumers from ‘tongpats’ -- Speaker
By: Ryan Ponce Pacpaco
The Journal
http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?...ec=1&aid=61537

SPEAKER Prospero “Boy” Nograles yesterday assured the public that the House committee on energy will recommend drastic measures that would champion protection of consumers’ rights against onerous practice of billing billions of pesos worth of electricity not delivered to households.

This was the immediate reaction of Nograles, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), after First Gas chief operating officer Richard Tantoco virtually confirmed during Thursday’s hearing by the House committee on energy on high power rates that it billed Meralco P13 billion from 2000 to 2002 for the electricity that the Lopez-owned independent power producer (IPP) did not deliver.

“That’s up to the authorities (Energy Regulatory Commission) what to do. The House of Representatives will just make committee report and recommend legislation,” said Nograles.

Despite this, Tantoco insisted that the undelivered electricity, which was also being passed on to consumers, was not “tongpats” or “ghost delieveries,” saying the generation firms are allowed to charge it through the take-or-pay contract.

Asked on his reaction to various reports of alleged overcharging by Meralco to consumers, Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing reiterated his call to concerned authorities to act with dispatch in running after the responsible officials of the country’s top power distribution firm.

In particular, Bagatsing asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to speed up the preliminary investigation on the large-scale estafa complaint filed against Meralco chair Manolo Lopez and president Jesus Francisco as well as several other officials of the power distribution company.

“Enough is enough. Meralco officials should be stopped from looting people’s hard-earned money. The looting has been exposed. The DOJ should at least stop these Meralco officials from enjoying the fruits of their loot,” said Bagatsing.

He branded the suit as “broad daylight robbery,” as he stressed that Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez must heed public outcry to make the Lopezes and other Meralco officials accountable for questionable conversion into outright income of some P900 million in interests earned from the outlawed meter and bill collection from residential customers.

The National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (NASECORE) filed the complaint Wednesday against members of the 2006 Meralco board.

In a related development, Marikina City Rep. Marcelino Teodoro called to an end to what he described as various alleged abuses of Meralco against its customers.

“Tigilan na dapat ang mga paglabag ng karapatan ng mamamayan at gawing mas maayos ang serbisyo at ibaba ang presyo ng kuryente,” said Teodoro.

[wheel of steel]

Sa totoo lang, sobra tlaga binabyran natin sa electric bill. almost twice ng sa Thailand at malaysia...tssskkk... talagang madiscourage and investor ito and besides imbes na ibayad sa sobra sobrang electric bills, iumento na lang ng sahod ng manggagawa. simple lang but mapapakinabangan....

[crappypants]

parang pareho lang sa USA ang electic rate naten.

[3cr]

Weak Q1 GDP growth weighing on sentiment
Citigroup expects peso to slip to 44.5:$1
By Doris Dumlao
05/31/2008
Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://business.inquirer.net/money/t...o-slip-to-4451

MANILA, Philippines—American banking giant Citigroup expects the peso to slip to 44.50 to the dollar in June before rebounding to 42 at the end of the year on the strength of foreign exchange remittances from overseas Filipinos and increased government revenue collection.

Citigroup also said the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), would likely keep its benchmark overnight borrowing rate unchanged at 5.00 percent for the rest of the year.

“But the risk of a limited and shallow rate tightening cycle late in the year cannot be ignored,” said a May 26 commentary written by Citigroup economist for the Philippines, Jun Trinidad.

It said the lackluster first-quarter economic growth would not boost market sentiment, especially since the regional currency market was being threatened by jitters over the Indonesian rupiah.

The gross domestic product grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, compared with 7.0 percent a year earlier and the market consensus of 6.0 percent.

“Political risk due to violent protests against the Indonesian government’s decision to hike fuel prices cannot be ignored, as the peso’s recent weakness has been highly correlated with the Indonesian rupiah,” the Citigroup report said.

It said Indonesia’s oil price subsidies and the Philippines’ rice price subsidies should be addressed soon. It added that the market’s premium on government financial risk had probably contributed to the negative investor perception for the peso and rupiah.

“And while Indonesia has taken steps to cut fuel subsidies, the Philippine government has not yet taken measures to slash its hefty rice subsidy costs,” the report said.

Absent developments that could improve market sentiment, Citigroup had expected that the peso would overshoot 43.50 this week given end-month corporate demand.

But it said the BSP was likely to intervene to restrain the peso’s drop.

The peso closed Friday at 43.75 to the dollar, versus Thursday’s close at 43.925.

Citigroup said the BSP-forecast surplus in the balance of payments this year, at $3.4 billion, would likely have no effect on inflation.

“This implies a lower current account surplus that’s likely to be guaranteed by overseas remittances,” it said. “According to BSP, the peso’s external competitiveness remains broadly unchanged.”

“We think further peso weakness with favorable external accounts as measured by the BoP surplus and rising GIR [gross international reserves] could start to mirror peso undervaluation. Without active intervention, this represents a growth bias in BSP’s exchange rate policy,” it said.

Citigroup said a buoyant tax growth and privatization proceeds would likely support a favorable fiscal picture this year.

“Privatization could provide an upside surprise in the second half of 2008, as there is potential to earn P90 billion from the sale of the government’s holdings” of shares in the beverage and food group San Miguel Corp. or oil refiner and retailer Petron Corp., it said.

Citigroup said upbeat revenues arising from nominal price shocks also confirmed the government’s sensitivity tests on the following:

• For every one-percentage-point rise in interest rates, the government estimates a net revenue increase of P1 billion;

• A one-percentage-point increase in inflation could result in a potential P10 billion in revenues; and

• A $1 increase in the price of oil per barrel could result in P1 billion of net revenues.

[3cr]

WB urges gov’t to direct more funds to the poor
By Iris C. Gonzales
Saturday, May 31, 2008
PhilStar
http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Bu...aid=2008053023

The government should ensure that its planned additional economic spending would be geared towards the poor, the World Bank (WB) said.

This as the government had already scrapped its plan to balance the budget this year.

“We consider important that (increased) spending be better directed to social programs and programs that actually target the poor,” WB country director Bert Hofman said.

He said the World Bank has been working with the government to improve and expand social spending.

“Meanwhile we continue to support the government’s reform program in the revenue agencies so as to guarantee sustainable financing for higher social spending,” Hofman said.

The government has decided to postpone its balanced budget goal to 2010, saying that the current environment has become very difficult amid skyrocketing oil and food prices.

It also decided to cut its economic growth target for this year to a range of 5.7 percent to 6.5 percent from 6.3 percent to seven percent due to skyrocketing oil and food prices.

“We are prepared to postpone the fiscal consolidation to 2010,” Finance Secretary Margarito Teves earlier said.

He said it was possible that the budget deficit would be not more than one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or a deficit of not more than P75 billion.

Given the very difficult situation and the need to spend further for social services, infrastructure and for the poor, the prospects are more difficult to arrive at a balanced-budget, Teves also said.

The National Government posted a budget surplus of P25.8 billion in April, the highest monthly surplus recorded since 1986.

From January to April, however, the fiscal position was at a deficit of P25.8 billion.

[amigo32]

Originally Posted by crappypants

parang pareho lang sa USA ang electic rate naten.

dapat talaga maging 52nd US state na tayo

[wheel of steel]

eto mas matindi 3cr, the inflation might get worst this may to 8+ % this May to a 9 year all time high.. Oh shocks... Sna naman makarecover... We'll 5.2% GDP is still good, and we hope we can achieve balance budget this year. Achieving it, we will be able to hover the economic crunch. We will have money to conpensate it.

RP among least vulnerable to inflation shocks — Fitch
London-based Fitch Ratings has ranked the Philippines as one of the least vulnerable, among 73 rated emerging markets, to macroeconomic volatility arising from rising inflationary pressures.

The Philippines clinched the 59th spot in an index that ranked 73 Fitch-rated countries according to their vulnerability to inflation shocks, which the global debt watcher said could erode creditworthiness.

Fitch said rising inflation, rather than slowing economic growth, is the "principle challenge" facing policymakers in these emerging economies.

"Failure to contain inflationary pressures risks undermining macroeconomic stability and medium-term growth prospects," Fitch said in a report released yesterday.

"In the worst case scenario, investors will lose confidence in local currency assets, leading to volatile financial and currency markets," Fitch added.

The top 10 most vulnerable emerging markets, according to the index, are Jamaica, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Suriname, Latvia, Lithuania, Ghana, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

"In Asia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka stand out as the only countries in the region in the top ten, while Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines demonstrate low risk," Fitch said.

Fitch currently rates Philippine sovereign debt papers ‘BB’, or below investment grade. — Maria Eloisa I. Calderon


Infrastructure spending is pegged at 2.5% pa lang, hmmm akala ko 5% na of GDP because they'd been announcing it many months ago na. Ano ba to?... Action speaks louder than voice Madam.

[wheel of steel]

Originally Posted by 3cr

WB urges gov’t to direct more funds to the poor
By Iris C. Gonzales
Saturday, May 31, 2008
PhilStar
http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Bu...aid=2008053023

The government should ensure that its planned additional economic spending would be geared towards the poor, the World Bank (WB) said.

This as the government had already scrapped its plan to balance the budget this year.

“We consider important that (increased) spending be better directed to social programs and programs that actually target the poor,” WB country director Bert Hofman said.

He said the World Bank has been working with the government to improve and expand social spending.

“Meanwhile we continue to support the government’s reform program in the revenue agencies so as to guarantee sustainable financing for higher social spending,” Hofman said.

The government has decided to postpone its balanced budget goal to 2010, saying that the current environment has become very difficult amid skyrocketing oil and food prices.

It also decided to cut its economic growth target for this year to a range of 5.7 percent to 6.5 percent from 6.3 percent to seven percent due to skyrocketing oil and food prices.

“We are prepared to postpone the fiscal consolidation to 2010,” Finance Secretary Margarito Teves earlier said.

He said it was possible that the budget deficit would be not more than one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or a deficit of not more than P75 billion.

Given the very difficult situation and the need to spend further for social services, infrastructure and for the poor, the prospects are more difficult to arrive at a balanced-budget, Teves also said.

The National Government posted a budget surplus of P25.8 billion in April, the highest monthly surplus recorded since 1986.

From January to April, however, the fiscal position was at a deficit of P25.8 billion.

This is what supposedly the Governtment should do now. I hope the Lawmakes has passed this bill now.

[3cr]

Lopez urges gov’t to do share in lowering electricity prices
Business World
http://www.bworld.com.ph/BW053108/content.php?id=042

Lopez-led First Gas Power Corp. wants the government to scrap royalty taxes on natural gas as a way to reduce electricity costs of consumer now reeling from rising food prices.

In a statement, First Gas said it sells cheap power to sister firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) at P4.35 per kilowatt-hour. But this could still be cut to P2.57 per kilowatt-hour if the royalty tax of P1.79 per kilowatt hour is removed.

"We have been saying for the longest time that if the government wants to rationally reduce power rates, it can readily do this through the removal of the sizeable royalties on natural gas," First Gas President and Chief Executive Officer Federico R. Lopez said.

"We are the only country left that penalizes its own consumers for using its own indigenous natural gas," he added.

First Gas buys much of the Philippines’ Malampaya natural gas off Palawan.

Mr. Lopez issued the statement in reaction to Winston Garcia, who said he would seek to cancel the more than P1-trillion contract between Meralco and another Lopez company, independent power producer First Gen.

Mr. Garcia heads the state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), a major shareholder of Meralco. He has blamed the Meralco management for high electricity costs, saying the company is inefficient and not transparent.

The government tried but failed to take over Meralco management at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday. The election of six Meralco directors to the company board is now being disputed at both the Securities and Exchange Commission and Court of Appeals.

Mr. Garcia has accused Meralco of padding electricity charges and favoring First Gen by buying 55% of its power requirements from the latter’s Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo plants.

He noted that if Meralco buys 60% to 70% of its electricity requirements from Napocor, Meralco consumers will see a 10% to 20% cut in their electric bills.

But Mr. Lopez said royalties and other taxes account for about half of the gas price. Reducing these will transfer the benefits of developing natural gas directly from the government to consumers through lower electricity prices, he said.

"If Mr. Garcia is sincere in his wanting to lower power prices for Meralco consumers, we would like to invite him to join us in this advocacy of removing the government royalties on our natural gas," he added.

[wheel of steel]

The article above is highly appreciated. I hope my dream come true for this. As an Electrical Engineer, we use to study how we can avoid this power losses in a way that looks exactly whats the causes. The cost of loosing power should not be charged to the public. It's wrong, the utility company should file charges to cheaters, find them and put necessary actions.

Voltage drops and other current spikes puts very minimal effect to power losses and should not always be taken into consideration.

[3cr]

Originally Posted by wheel of steel

eto mas matindi 3cr, the inflation might get worst this may to 8+ % this May to a 9 year all time high.. Oh shocks... Sna naman makarecover...

OO nga eh baka nga magdouble digit inflation pa. Hay buhay...

Double-digit inflation within striking distance, says BSP
By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
Manila Times
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/...80531bus1.html

CONSUMER price increases this month may have averaged higher near the double-digit mark, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned Friday.

It blamed the likely up tick on higher oil prices and a transport fare hike.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said May inflation is likely to have fallen within a range of 8.8 percent to 9.6 percent on the back of the surge in international oil prices, climbing domestic pump prices as well as the provisional increase in transport fares.

“These supply shocks are also expected to affect food prices particularly those of rice, meat, fruits and vegetables and other miscellaneous food items. These continue to be the most important factors behind the expected higher inflation this month,” Tetangco told reporters in a text message.

He said the rapid depreciation of the peso may also have added pressure on consumer prices.

The peso has suffered a second week of decline against the dollar due to concerns over rising oil prices.

“As I have said before, we will remain vigilant and act preemptively once we see signs that our inflation outlook for 2009 is at risk and inflation expectations are being disanchored,” Tetangco said.

Inflation last month accelerated to a three-year high of 8.3 percent.

The BSP had been caught in a dilemma in recent months, as higher inflation forced it to halt an earlier monetary loosening tack it had pursued to cushion any adverse impact from the contraction in the Philippines’ largest export market, the US.

Some quarters had said that rising inflation caught off-guard the central bank, which previously had been cutting interest rates in lock-step with its US counterpart, the Federal Reserve.

The domestic economy’s weaker-than-expected expansion in the first quarter however gave the BSP some relief.

The National Statistical Coordination Board announced Thursday that the country’s economy, as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP), grew at a slower pace of 5.2 percent, its weakest since 2006 due to rising food and oil prices.

Tetangco said the slowdown will lessen the inflationary pressures, as the headline rate is seen to remain high until September.

The country’s economic managers earlier slashed their full-year GDP growth forecast to between 5.2 percent and 6.2 percent, lower than an earlier target range of 6.3 percent to 7 percent. Last year, the economy grew by a revised 7.2 percent.

Despite the new-found relief from the Philippine economy’s first-quarter upset, Tetangco said there are other factors that monetary authorities have to consider in setting policy, including second round price pressures associated with volatile oil and non oil commodity prices.

The Monetary Board is scheduled to meet next week to decide whether to raise, cut or maintain the current overnight borrowing and lending rates at 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

[3cr]

Despite crisis, globalization’s impact, East Asia keeps rising
By Rommer M. Balaba
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/060...adlines07.html

THE East Asian countries are experiencing an unfolding economic renaissance, defying expectations after some of the region’s emerging economies were each hit by a major financial storm almost a decade ago, a new World Bank report revealed.

The World Bank asked: “An economic renaissance is unfolding in the region in a world where development seems so ephemeral; how is it that a dozen countries in East Asia have all been successful?”

The Bank’s report, “An East Asian Renaissance: Ideas for Economic Growth” written by its own economists Homi Kharas and Indermit Gill analyzes new forces and challenges at play in the region.

The authors provided several answers, emphasizing that some East Asian economies were willing to experiment and adapt policies to changing circumstances, especially after the 1997 financial crisis in the region.

The report refers to East Asia as the Asean countries plus Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Emerging East Asia refers to all except Japan. Developing East Asia refers to emerging East Asia minus Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.

“Regionalism—formal economic trade agreements between two or more countries within East Asia—has risen sharply, with 24 new agreements concluded in the last 10 years and 34 more under negotiation,” said Kharas and Gill, and said this is partially prompted by policymakers’ newfound view of the flipside of globalization.

“East Asian countries that successfully integrated into the global economy are now integrating regionally. Remarkably, this regional integration is happening in addition to, not at the expense of, global integration,” the authors said.

The lessons from the 1997 crisis appear to have taught East Asian countries to fortify themselves for a continued international integration, but the World Bank study said East Asia’s economic renaissance is still fraught with risks.

It said the regional financial system may still not be fully developed to absorb shocks, growing inequality and increasing corruption.

“When economies are linked by trade in final goods, a problem in one country does not necessarily have a big impact on its trading partners. But when economies are linked by trade in intermediate goods, the spillovers between countries are more real. . . This is the vulnerability to which East Asian economies are exposed today.”

“The financial system, if well structured, can help allocate these risks and reduce the likelihood of contagion. Financial structures in the region need to support growth in regional production networks and the supporting trade flows as well as funding innovation,” it added.

The study commented that while East Asian growth had been linked with rapid poverty reduction and growing equity, there is still a huge incidence of in-country inequality so that despite successful global integration and increasing regional integration, many East Asian countries are failing with domestic integration probably weighed down by the rural-urban divide as well as an eschewed labor force structure.

Corruption is also becoming an increasing concern even as some argue this is payback for the rapid economic growth countries are experiencing.

“Political scientists hypothesize that if corruption is organized and centralized, then economic rent can be extracted from firms while also ensuring that not so much is extracted that firms move elsewhere or go bankrupt. In essence, a centralized corrupt organization has an incentive to promote economic growth, even while extorting benefits from firms,” the report said.

[Christendom]

the key to the whole scenario is loans, conditions, reforms, privatising, sell out sovereignty, and trap...destroy the economies of its countries by creating large wolrd government lending establishments funded by multi-billionaire private groups (or in short goodbye government {public} hello business)...this will affect employment opportunities (or lack of them) for the middle class people, along with the new (over) taxation or rates...bcoz they are releases its funds in periodic amounts, it has a lever to keep countries in line...applying to the fund means lost economic sovereignty w/c is no small matter...the funds recommendations also mean pain for the poor and working classes...higher taxes and lower social spending an end to subsidies on things like food and fuel and privatisation of inefficient state-owned industries with the inevitable worker lay offs

[jpdm]

Originally Posted by venntro

Yup I saw your posts before and some of them may be viewed by others as below the belt such as your vomitting emoticon. You may think of it as plain but as I said, whether a statement is insulting varies from person to person. It appears that a lot of forumers are pissed with your statements and perhaps may have felt insulted. You cannot control how they react and while their languange may sometimes be harsh, you just have to take it with a grain of salt. It seems you have this penchant of trying to reply on each and every post, thread and forum against a comment on your post or on your view. That is within your right. However, it often annoys forumers and expect to get some flak for that. That perhaps is the necessary evil of posting in a public forum.

Sige na.

[red_jasper]

Arroyo fails COA audit

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | June 1, 2008 at 12:05 am
Filed under: i Report Features, Governance

AS the country faces numerous crises, the Arroyo government has repeatedly called for belt-tightening, on both the private and public sector.



But the latest Commission on Audit (COA) report on the Office of the President (OP) reveals the seat of power itself has not been judicious in its use of taxpayers’ money. The COA report outlines how Malacañang repeated most of its errors in spending last year.

State auditors also noted that the Palace failed to liquidate over P632 million of cash advances and receivables from officers, employees and other persons, including P594 million given to persons who are not employees of the Office of the President.

Expected to create furor as well are questions about Arroyo’s spending for travels abroad. In one instance, COA noted that a cashier who handled P222 million for foreign travels was not even part of the trip. Arroyo has been criticized repeatedly for traveling with a huge delegation.

Donations amounting to P37 million were also found to have been used “outside of intended purposes.”

This special report by PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas shows how the Arroyo administration disregards long-standing rules on government spending, despite the scandal caused by the handing out of P1 million to governors in the Palace in October last year, followed by a similar activity involving mayors.

Read on at pcij.org.

[Deus Ex]

Originally Posted by barukdok

stop whining. and don't pretend to be naive. you've been asking for it the whole time. if you play the provocateur, panindigan mo. anyway, i have this nagging suspicion that your posts are driven by ideology that's deader than disco.

ha? anong disco?