The United States of America has long been associated with POWER, both political and economic. More than a month away from its Presidental Election, a major financial crisis gripped this country whom many regarded as the "land of milk and honey". The unexpected bankcruptcy of Lehman Brothers, one of the biggest banks of the United States and the American Insurance Group AIG), a multi-national insurance firm started stock markets to crash. Despite efforts by the US government to bailout these firms, the downtrend of stocks has begun to be felt worldwide. Panic selling of stocks and bloodbath are all over Asia and Europe. The United States' economic crisis now becomes a global financial disaster.
The American Dream has became a nightmare and US global leadership took a dive. Why did this thing happen? The ready answer is greed. Bureaucrat Capitalism has taken its toll. Wall Street, New York's financial center took a mighty fall and brought markets around the world with it. America's credit culture, reckless borrowings and lendings led to brankcruptcy of major US financial institutions. Fearless confidence overcame the conservative approach in financial management. Due to eagerness to earn more, american investments are everywhere. Instead of creating more job opportunities for its people, reliance was made on cheap labor abroad in countries like Vietnam and China. Hence, the ordinary Americans' purchasing power was adversely affected leading to a financial crisis.
Is it the end of the American Era? Will there be a new economic power in this world? Bailout, which is too burdensome for the American taxpayers might not solve the problem. Reaching out to its affluent allies as an attempt to restore trust and confidence on the American financial system is not enough. The United States of America should consider re-inventing itelf.
13 comments:
Re: Will there be a new economic power in this world?
China and India are emerging economic power in Asia-Pacific region. Corporate greed can be partly blamed on Wall Street’s financial meltdown and some Americans are living beyond their means. There are some similarities in the Philippines. Big corporations and Chinese taipans are not paying their proper taxes thru dummy companies. It’s a combination of bureaucrat and corporate greed’s that makes the Philippine situation worst than the United States. GOD SAVES THE PHILIPPINES!
Re: Corporate greed
Are they declaring and paying proper taxes to government?
Forbes Asia’s the top 10 richest in the Philippines are:
1. Henry Sy & family; US$3.1 billion
2. Lucio Tan & family; $1.5 billion
3. Jaime Zobel de Ayala & family; $1.2 billion
4. Andrew Tan; $700 million
5. Tony Tan Caktiong & family; $690 million
6. John Gokongwei Jr. & family; $680 million
7. Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.; $610 million
8. Enrique Razon Jr.; $525 million
9. George Ty & family; $435 million
10. Inigo & Mercedes Zobel; $430 million
IF not, economic sabotage is being tolerated.
The Vigan City Government should follow his leads on Lucio Tan’s dummy companies. He is the second richest man in the Philippines and probably well-connected to the Jose Pidal Mafia. What are you waiting for? Aksyon na!
Excerpts from Elpidio “Boy” Que’s Letter to Vigan City Council dated
October 8, 2008
The person in point is Mr. Lucio Tan (Tan), who is still facing varied multi-billion economic crime indictments, including the civil aspect of his P26 billion tax evasion case and the government’s forfeiture proceedings against his nine major companies, in the courts of our Motherland.
Let me recap the things I stated before you: 1 - Asia Brewery, Incorporated (ABI), through its dummy marketing arm, Wellform Trading Corporation (WTC), has been under-declaring its sales revenues to grossly short-change the city government on taxes. To illustrate, let us take the years 1999 to 2005 when they declared a total sales of P19, 400,000.00, paying P81,231.00 as business tax (attachment 1). But the volume report of WTC’s branch accountant concurred by the manager for said period was P253, 452,449.00! The city government was cheated of more than P1 million in taxes! It is about the same degree of taxes lost by the municipality of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte where WTC’s Laoag Sales office is located brought about by the same mode of stealing government’s money. 2 – Metrolux Trading Corporation (MTC) the dummy marketing arm of Fortune Tobacco Corporation (FTC), declared sales revenues of P7 million for 2005, and lesser at P5 million and P4 million for the preceding years of 2004 and 2003 (attachment 2). But Mr. Romeo Tan, a former branch manager of FTC, who served from 1980 to 1990 as such for Vigan Branch (in different successive dummy marketing companies) which covers the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Abra and Ilocos Norte, intimated that the average monthly sales of Vigan Branch in those periods was no less than P40 million a month. That brings a whopping P480 million a year! But that is just a fraction of the whole actual volume of MTC for that year! It is a fact that MTC handles FTC’s Hope Division in the National Capital Region. My indirect calculation based from accepted facts (Prof. Solita Monsod’s July 12, 2008 PDI Get Real column), reflects more than P81 billion national sales for FTC in 2005. It can be easily granted without question that 10% of that, or P8.1 billion, was MTC’s sales volume for NCR. Since MTC’s central office is in Vigan per its SEC article of incorporation, and all its sales are from Vigan, as indicated in its sales invoices issued to trade outlets anywhere, by law, all the sales it made should be declared here in Vigan. Total sales for 2005 then should be P8.6 billion, not that dust of P7 million as declared which could not even be a “pa-konsuelo de bobo.” According to its article of incorporation, its paid up capital was P50 million, yet it only sells P5 million or P7 million per annum? Even idiots would not accept that! You can compute the taxes that were robbed from the people of Vigan, and think of the services that could have been given to the needy, like health, roads, education etc. but was instead pocketed by this leech who would not stop sucking the blood of the Filipino People.
Is there any update? You claimed that the investigation has been referred to the committee on revenues chaired by Councilor George Villanueva.
Forget about American greed. U.S.A. will survive the current financial crisis. Lucio Tan’s gluttonous greed is happening in your own backyard (Paoa-Ayusan) where monstrous tobacco re-drying plant is located. Toxic waste may have found its way to nearby creek and into the river. Environmental disaster is around the corner if not checked or controlled.
Billionaire Lucio Tan’s re-drying plant in Vigan covers a large area. It’s a huge building as seen on Google Earth map. There’s a small creek, it’s about 600 meters away from the building. Are they dumping toxic waste into the creek?
A school house is located near the creek. Are the school children safe from toxic and other hazardous waste? This creek is connected to Govantes River and goes out to South China Sea. There are fishponds built along the river starting from Barangay Ayusan and ends at Barangay San Pedro-Mindoro. During high tides, reverse flow interconnects Govantes River and Mestizo River.
If the United States has toxic debt, then, Vigan has Toxic River and fish. We must act now before it’s too late.
Greed plus greed =Lucio Tan. Is this true? Where there’s smoke there’s fire in some cases. Who’s responsible for environmental damage?
Part of Elpidio Boy Que's letter to Vigan City Council
Let us look into, and resolve, the many problems caused by NTRCI, both in the environment and health of the employees working there. Improper disposal of its toxic wastes poison the surroundings, like water, ground and air. There are continuous reports of fish kills among the fishermen in the surrounding barangays, causing disruption and destruction of their livelihood. This endangers all the people in Metro Vigan and as far as where these fish can be sold. A reliable informant, an ex-insider, related to me and Councilor Henry Formoso in a friend’s wake in Barangay Cabalangegan early last month that many workers in NTRCI have contracted deadly diseases like lung cancer, heart ailments and limb atrophies, with “many” died from which already, because of the absence of health safety measures in their workplace. Later, a vegetable vendor I chanced upon at Sanitary Restaurant one evening confirmed this, that her brother-in-law, who was healthy when he just got into NTRCI’s employment, contracted lung cancer and died as a consequence.
I agree with luningning that US can survive their global crisis. Their government is doing everything and has a plan.
Why don't we just focus on the crisis our country is facing. This is the time where leaders like you to think of ways on how our country will face also these crisis.
Kleptocracy is well-entrenched in the Philippines due to greed. This is no longer a crisis, but, a way of life. Filipino leaders and its citizens should lead the way to change course of future generations. We are talking about change-reform for decades and until now nothing happens. WHY? In fact, the situation is getting worse because we allowed it to happen. Some big time violators are protected by the government. They circumvent or manipulate the law in their favor. The criminal justice system of the Philippines is rotten. The problems are at their most basic problems of criminal justice and the institutions that should function to implement laws: the police, prosecutors and courts. The police, prosecutors and judges can be bought. The Ombudsman and the Justice Department appeared to be practicing selective justice in high profile cases. Big fishes are roaming freely. They are above the law. The Philippines should re-invent itself. It’s now or never!
Can U.S. President-elect Obama really fix Wall Street’s financial crisis? Who is to blame?
Re: Corporate greed
Nobody is listening. The big fish is untouchable. The government sees no evil. Selective justice is the trademark of the Arroyo corrupt regime.
Get Real
The Que stories: who’s listening?
By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:48:00 12/06/2008
Opinion
Elpidio Que. The name may not be a household word, as is Joc-joc (Bolante) or (Rodolfo) Lozada. But if he perseveres in what he is doing, and his stories prove to be correct, it surely will be. Who is Elpidio Que? Well, for one, he is one of the few individuals who have publicly taken on the multibillionaire Lucio Tan. And for another, like Lozada and Joc-joc, he should know where the bodies are; and like Lozada, but unlike Joc-joc, he has been spilling the beans. In other words, Que is a whistleblower.
Unfortunately, while Lozada’s stories have been eaten up by the public, and resulted in the resignation of a high government official and the cancellation of a multibillion-peso, corruption-tainted project, the Que stories have not been picked up. One can only speculate that perhaps, with regard to the Lozada stories, both the political opposition and the media picked them up. No such luck yet for Que.
But Que deserves as much attention, if not from the public, at least from government, particularly the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which have been pursuing tax evasion cases against Tan for about 20 years, and so far have failed miserably at it. Whether government has sufficient evidence or not is a matter of perspective: Per Liway Chato, former BIR head, the government had “truckloads” of evidence, and as per the investigative report of Raul Locsin’s Business Day newspaper (now BusinessWorld), it was an open and shut case. But per Chato’s successor, Beethoven Rualo, and his administrative superior, Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu (during the Joseph Estrada administration), there was insufficient evidence.
What Que adds to the equation is that he claims to have a smoking gun, so to speak. His bio-data says that he was with Tan’s Asia Brewery Inc. for eight years as sales manager, at various times, for North Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Bicol, and North Region and Central Region. And he has not hesitated to share this experience in writing—as when he protested Tan’s being made an adopted son of Ilocos Sur province (where Que is from), and more recently, when he testified during a session of the city council of the Ilocos Sur capital Vigan, which invited him to elaborate on such experiences.
You would think that the government, at all levels, would be all ears—the BIR, for example, and its Large Taxpayers Unit; the Department of Justice; the Department of Finance; the City of Vigan, etc., etc. The letters that that they received detailing the operations of the “dummy” companies of Tan were signed by Que. And there is no question that the letters were received because Que sent them by registered mail, and he has the registered mail numbers. In fact, I devoted two columns last July, yes, five months ago, on Que’s allegations.
But so far, nothing. On the national level, no announcements about an investigation by the BIR, or by the Department of Finance; and, according to Que, no reply acknowledging receipt of his letters. On the local level, the provincial board of Ilocos Sur has not replied to Que’s letter of protest (sent over six months ago). The Vigan City council , as adverted to above, did ask Que to attend their “Question Hour” four months ago (August), and Que not only testified, but followed it up two months later, and even sent them a letter recapping what he said. But that’s it.
Excuse me. Not quite it. Que claims that a closed-door meeting was held last Oct. 21 between Vigan City Mayor Eva Singson Molina and Vice Mayor Franz Ranches on one side, and one Alvin Go (allegedly a lawyer for Tan’s Fortune Tobacco Corp. and Allied Banking Corp.) and one Angelo Ang (general manager of Tan’s Northern Tobacco Redrying Co. Inc.) on the other. What they discussed is anybody’s guess because, according to Que, the city council was not briefed on the minutes.
I am also in receipt of a copy of a letter on a City of Vigan letterhead, signed by one Milagros Contreras as city treasurer, informing a company (supposedly one of Tan’s) that its books were to be examined. It was undated but was allegedly delivered to the company in the second week of October.
But Que says that he will not be deterred in his campaign. (I have yet to meet him, although we have talked on the phone.) And he continues to send me papers.
The Philippines has the dubious distinction of having one of the lowest tax effort ratios in the region, if not the world. Que, a former Tan executive, is willing to testify in court on what he says he knows of the alleged tax evasion practices of the Tan group of companies and its dummies. Que says that another former associate, one Romeo Tan, is also willing to tell his story—Romeo Tan being an incorporator of one of eight companies in the original government case against Lucio Tan.
That case, which the government lost, involved P26 billion in unpaid taxes (including penalties and interest). Former secretary of finance Lito Camacho and former undersecretary of finance Nene Guevara have given estimates of what the government loses in taxes from Tan—something like P20 billion a year. Que says that last year, Philip Morris (a Fortune Tobacco competitor), which is supposed to have about 25 percent of the market, reported sales revenue of P30.3 billion, while Fortune Tobacco, with about 70 percent of the market, reported sales revenue of P30 billion for the same period.
Que’s witness presents a golden opportunity for the government. Missing it, would raise many questions about the government’s campaign against tax evasion.
AnnakTiBatac said...
Dam’s rehab meant to protect Fortune
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:41:00 10/07/2008
This is a reaction to the article titled, “Citizen Lucio Tan focuses on irrigation.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8/19/08)
On the surface, the efforts of Lucio Tan appear to be laudable: P4 million for the rehabilitation of the Silag-Pacang diversion dam, which can irrigate tobacco fields in Ilocos Sur province. But when one looks past the rosy picture, things start to smell fishy.
Tan put money into the dam’s rehabilitation not because he sympathized with the plight of hundreds of tobacco farmers in the area but because he was protecting the interest of his Fortune Tobacco Corp., Ilocos Sur being a source of raw material for his cigarette manufacturing business.
If Tan’s heart is pure, why would his company — as reported by former Ilocos Sur Provincial Board member Elpidio Que — buy Virginia tobacco leaves from farmers in Ilocos for only P40 a kilo but pay the equivalent of P200 per kilo to growers in Yunnan, China for the same type of tobacco?
If Tan is truly benevolent to the tobacco farmers, and considering his massive wealth, has he done anything to eliminate, if not address, the various health problems that tobacco farmers — some of whom are children — suffer? A study in 2002 revealed that several children working in tobacco farms in the Ilocos area suffered various diseases—among them, dermatitis, melanoma, nicotine poisoning, asthma, rhinitis, acute pulmonary responses and burns (from contact with fertilizers and pesticides) — from exposure to too much sunlight and chemical fertilizers.
If he is truly compassionate, Tan should use his riches to help tobacco farmers find better alternative livelihood and income-generating activities that do not put them at risk. (Frustrated by the oppressive pricing and trading practices of buyers, many tobacco farmers have converted to other cash crops.)
The World Health Organization pinpointed tobacco smoking as the leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with about five million people dying each year, or an average of one death every six seconds.
In the Philippines, 87,600 Filipinos — about 8 to 10 every hour — die every year due to just four of tobacco-related diseases: lung cancer, stroke, heart disease and chronic obstructive lung disease. A 2005-2006 study showed that public health spending on the four diseases alone amount to P276 billion. In the same period, the Bureau of Internal Revenue had P92 billion in revenues from the tobacco industry. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out whether or not the country is benefiting from Tan’s tobacco business.
Tan may have shelled out P4 million to rehabilitate a dam, but he knows very well that his company can recover the same amount from the millions of smokers.
Tobacco farmers cannot — and should not — be deprived of livelihood, but this is one situation where we cannot afford to have trade-offs, where there shouldn’t be any losers because the consequences are a matter of life and death.
ANDREA TRINIDAD-ECHAVEZ, program manager, media advocacy, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), www.tobaccocontrol.ph
kamagong (posted on Dec 07, 2008 04:21 AM)
Member since Dec 03, 2008
gloriaechibay wrote:
The Way I see It
In a broadsheet column of Mareng Winnie that I belatedly read last night titled “The Que Stories: Who’s listening?”, is that subject, Elpidio Que of Ilocos Sur, the same as our Inbox World’s Elpidio Que of Vigan? It must be so since Vigan is in Ilocos Sur, hindi ba? Elpidio-san, even if your name is not a household word as Lozada’s or Bolante’s, it is a known word in our Inbox World. You must be a rare breed of a man, worthy to be a shogun of Japan, or at least Vigan, neh? Keep it up! We pray for you in your crusade, or whistleblowing if that is what you really are irregardless of your motive. Our country needs someone like you with that kind of guts. Fear not what evil men can do unto you. God protects those whom He uses for goodness of our in-pain nation. How I wish I can meet you in person, handsome or not, Shogun.
Gloria Echibay, Makati
“ gloriaechibay:
You are not alone, Elpidio Que. It appears that Vigan City Council and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are not doing enough to dig deeper into the alleged Lucio Tan’s tax evasion. They become impotent when influential big businessmen are involved in tax manipulation. Tax collection drive under morally bankrupt Arroyo government is just for propaganda.
Marc Avisado
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur 2700
Pakibasam pay daytoy manen. Pareho manen nga haan taga ili tayo. Nabasa na kano diay kolum ni Ms. Monsod. Nakababain tayon!
mikesy (posted on Dec 11, 2008 02:21 AM)
Member since Jul 13, 2008
"I seldom read other broadsheets besides our Star beloved. I was ignited by a lady InBoxer to find that broadsheet where Mareng Winnie’s column last Saturday titled “The Que stories: Who’s listening?” appeared. Verily, Mareng Winnie is witty for citing then Finance Secretary Camacho’s estimate that the government is losing P20 billion no less annually by the tax evasion practices of the China-born Marcos-made economic monster in her topic. It meant that GMA’s “Run After Tax Evaders” loud talking is not for her walking, just for pa-effect, nothing else, and that she is corrupt and a corrupted herself. Can one wonder yet why we are tagged as a topnotch corrupt nation on earth? We know some Tsinoys who also worked for this ugly businessman subject. They say angrily the same about him like Elpidio Que. It must be God’s will about Que. He must be using Que as the spear of St. Michael the Archangel to kill Lucifer.
Mike Sy, Cebu.
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