‘Manong’ Joe, you’re the MAN
Sway
Marvin A. Tort

Manong Joe, I say, you’re the MAN. With your recent “success” in Japan, you can count yourself ahead in the race for prime minister in your proposed parliamentary government. For who else among our lawmakers can negotiate with other sovereign states for the restoration of over P4 billion in grants and loans for the country? I dare other lawmakers to match your recent feat.
       I mean, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it wasn’t your job to fly with your wife and a few other congressmen to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and discuss the freeze on yen loans and grants to the Philippines since 2001. It was a six-day official visit for lawmakers, yet you gamely assumed Executive prerogative to negotiate on behalf of the state and gain concessions for the country after what you described as a “highly successful” meeting with the Japanese premier on Monday.
       I bet it was a hectic visit, with your entourage visiting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Nara, and then meeting with Mr. Koizumi, Japanese lawmakers, and finance and central bank officials. But the effort was worthwhile, I believe, with you and your fellow lawmakers paving the way for the restoration of much-needed development aid from Japan.
       It’s just unfortunate that an issue back home appears to tarnish the success of your Japanese visit. The issue involves your administrative work at the House of Representatives, in relation to the effective collection of taxes—the Executive’s main preoccupation to date. (And rightly so, for more than overseas development assistance, even P4 billion worth from Japan, nothing can be more important to the government now than effective tax collection.)
       Anyway, if you recall, Mr. Speaker, early this year there was a standoff at your House over the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, the body tasked to take the lead in tax legislation. Two competent and honorable lawmakers were then vying for the chairmanship: Tarlac Rep. Jesli “Jing” Aquino Lapus, a member of Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition political party, or NPC; and the country’s most senior lawmaker, 86-year-old Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio G. Teves, a member of the ruling party Lakas, and father to Finance Secretary Margarito “Gary” Teves.
       That standoff would not have happened had Jing Lapus kept his word and relinquished the committee chairmanship to Meniong Teves, per the gentlemen’s agreement that you reportedly brokered in 2004 to allow both Jing and Meniong, both on their final three-year term at the House, to share the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, with Jing serving the first one and a half years, and Meniong serving the next one and a half years. That way, both competent and honorable lawmakers could work on their respective tax legislation agenda.
       But the agreement, reportedly proposed by the President herself, was scuttled and Jing, at your behest (for as Speaker of the House you ultimately decide on committee chairmanships), the Tarlac lawmaker kept his hold on the Ways and Means Committee. As for Meniong, well, he had to content himself with retaining his position as the committee’s senior vice chairman and with the chairmanship of the Ways and Means’ oversight subcommittee.
       However, despite his setback, as chairman of the oversight subcommittee, Meniong Teves continued his work on taxation, holding hearings with the Bureau of Internal Revenue to look into ways for the government to improve tax collection.
       And then came the call from the Senate, from the Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Ralph Recto, I believe, for the joint House-Senate oversight committee to convene. This I find odd considering that under the Constitution, the House takes the lead on tax matters. Why then should it take the Senate to convene the joint Ways and Means oversight subcommittee? Anyway, that’s another story.
       But going back, as Mr. Recto convened the joint oversight body, Manong Joe, as Speaker, you designated the House members who would be joining the oversight committee. And for obvious reasons, one would reasonably expect that the chairman of the House’s very own oversight subcommittee, in this case Meniong Teves, would be tasked to be part of the House contingent to the joint oversight body. But guess what? He’s not.
       This is something I cannot understand, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps legislative work is simply beyond my comprehension. But what’s the logic behind preventing the very chairman of your own House’s oversight subcommittee on Ways and Means from taking part in the joint discussions of the same subcommittee with its Senate counterpart?
       I understand that the joint oversight committee is the only legislative body allowed by the Constitution the power to look into tax records. In fact, even the Finance secretary himself, despite his supervision over the Bureau of Internal Revenue, cannot look into tax records. The joint oversight committee can. But besides this “power,” I don’t know of any other significant authority accorded the subcommittee, thus it escapes me why membership in that joint oversight subcommittee should be so important.
But as a matter of course and procedure, the chairman of the House oversight subcommittee should be part of the joint House-Senate subcommittee. In this case, however, Meniong Teves is explicitly excluded. Jing Lapus, as chairman of the Ways and Means committee, is obviously a member of the House contingent to the joint body. And so is his fellow NPC partymate, Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, whose father, incidentally, chairs one of the country’s biggest corporate taxpayers.
       If I may ask, Mr. Speaker, what’s so difficult with giving Meniong Teves his due as member of the joint oversight subcommittee? Is it that hard to allow the Negros Oriental lawmaker, father to the Finance secretary, access to tax records? But what can a sole reformer like him do with such tax records? How far can he go with them? Or is there more to this than meets the eye?
       Comments to matort@yahoo.com