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PERHAPS
calling it as something infused with “so much politics”
may sound a wee bit dismissive, but it’s not hard to
understand the reaction of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. to the demand of Camarines
Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte for the seven-man Monetary
Board to appear before the House and explain the
supposed deliberate understating of the BSP’s annual
dividends declaration to the national government by an
estimated P7 billion to P10 billion.
According to Villafuerte, “the BSP for calendar years
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 had illegally deducted
unauthorized ‘reserves’ in violation of law from its
income before net profits distribution through dividend
declaration and payment to NG.” The alleged violation
pertains to a particular section of the charter, RA
7656, on government-owned or -controlled corporations,
or GOCCs, which specifies how deductions for reserve
purposes may be computed.
Tetangco
had countered earlier that the BSP is governed by its
own charter, RA 7653, or the New Central Bank Act, and
not RA 7656.
The
timing of Villafuerte’s demand—and his deeply partisan
role in recent events, as one of the new, swaggering
kingpins of Kampi basking in the glow of their singular
triumph over Joe de Venecia—invite concern; and it’s
easy to see where Governor Tetangco, a usually
circumspect man, is coming from.
For one
thing, BSP officials have just emerged from a series of
House hearings over two weeks where they had to explain
to occasionally inattentive congressmen—some asking
repetitive questions either because they were late or
absent from previous hearings—a whole range of issues
revolving around the central bank’s key mandate to
maintain stability in the economy and tame inflation.
That
Representative Villafuerte is deeply linked to a
government that has been scrounging for every resource
it can get its hands on—disposing of the government’s
“crown jewels” even on top of a huge pile of revenue
collections from E-VAT—while miserably failing to prove
it has the will and capacity to prevent the people’s
money going to waste either because of graft or
incompetence—lends a rather disturbing edge to the
congressman’s demand.
Worst of
all, the bullying of the BSP comes at a most crucial
point when the US subprime crisis has morphed into a
global crisis, roiling markets everywhere and putting
the US Fed in a dilemma where it has had to use one tool
after another in its arsenal to stanch the hemorrhage,
not just of resources, but of trust. Sure, the
Philippine economy is a small one and, as with the 1997
Asian crisis, may not be seen as falling from a very
high level, but the truth remains that it is deeply
affected by current global events, not least because the
United States is its top trading partner, the dollar’s
weakening affects a good segment of Philippine economic
players and the country still has to buy oil at
record-price levels, as well as commodities also trading
at dizzyingly high prices. In short, the ingredients for
an inflationary risk are there, and the BSP is expected
to have more than the usual headaches these days.
Therefore, Mr. Villafuerte’s ill-timed fishing
expedition can do nothing more than distract the BSP
from its strategic role in such a crucial, sensitive
period. |
