PHOTO BY ROY DOMINGO

The view from Mark Jimenez’s penthouse is one of a kind: neat rows of the white crosses in the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Bonifacio Global City. Inside, crystal vases with fresh flowers are everywhere. There is an old Austrian piano that nobody knows how to play in the living room. There are photos of his family.

The No. 1 rule in Jimenez’s household is that no shoes are allowed. Visitors leave their shoes in a closet near the elevator. Thus, Jimenez returns home from a legal appointment dressed in a barong Tagalog and socks. He quickly changes into his house wear, a kamiso chino or sleeved vest and loose pants.

Up close, Jimenez is charming and occasionally combative and condescending. The interview lasted more than an hour.

Excerpts:

You are one of the richest men in the Philippines. How much are you worth right now?

My worth is irrelevant. For me, wealth is what you share. Wealth is never an income, but is always a grace. Wealth, for me, is something that is given by God. I don’t even call it wealth; I call it the graces of God that are given to you because you thank Him, because you know it belongs to Him.  

Your expertise is telecommunications.

No. My employees and my executives have very good backgrounds in telecommunications. What I am, maybe, is a good leader who just happens to understand how to run a business. Look at Manny Pangilinan. He’s not a telecommunications expert; he’s an investment banker. But look where he is right now. All you need is honesty, governance and the truth.

My expertise is creating values, which is not the same thing as creating wealth. Wealth is the wrong word. Wealth is made in hell; values of sacraments, values of grace are made in heaven. All my investments are investments in heaven.  

Tell us how you made your first million.

My first million was made when I was 20 years old. (laughs) 

Twenty? That’s impressive!

The thing is, making money is not hard. The harder part is really enjoying what you’ve made. I’ve seen people with lots of wealth and lots of businesses but without a glow in their faces. I see that they want more.  

What do you enjoy?

Discussing issues that are relevant. The relevant issue now is: Why is my country the most corrupt country in the world? Why is my country one of the dirtiest? Why does my country have an airport that cannot open for business? Why is my country polluting its crown jewel of a river? I am a populist. What’s that? Sovereignty of God or the delivery of social and spiritual services to the children of God. It’s a covenant and a testament of governance of a nation built by God. What’s wrong with that?

But we already know that Filipinos are not into populist presidents. We can’t handle the concept. So I don’t want to be president, even though everybody thinks I’m going to run for president [in 2010]. I just want to remain a simple man.

If you ask me, you don’t have an ideology. Business ideology. Political ideology. What does a company stand for? What do you stand for? You tell me.

Look at Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, the Yugoslav Republic. You know, their per capita income now is $6,000 to $7,000 compared to no income  when they were under the communists.

What about you? A hundred years of democracy (The Philippines was the first country in Asia to declare its independence in 1898—ed.) and you still do not have democracy. What you have is looting of what is up there and looting of what is down there. You see, you are expanding poverty. This is the only country that creates more poverty. This is the only country where people are not only getting poorer, but are also more abused and brutalized than before. 

That’s a rather sweeping statement, don’t you think?

Your problem is you think I am bad. I am the one wronged. The Philippine government is the one that’s bad. I don’t owe it anything. I pay my taxes. Last year, I paid P250 million and I was investigated for that. What’s my sin? That’s what I want to ask you, Ms. Grey. Can you tell me what is my sin? What did I do wrong to this country? Or to other persons?

That’s why your country is poor. You permit such things.  

How would you describe yourself?

This is Mark Jimenez. I know who I am, and I know everybody in the Philippines because I am an information czar. That’s my business. Politics is a big part of business. I am a very rich man.  

You came back January of this year. With all your money and connections, you didn’t have to. Why did you?

Because I wanted to. Because when I was in the isolation room [in a United States-based prison for illegal political contribution], I saw everything. I’ve baptized the children of God. I’ve fixed public markets. I’ve capitalized small market vendors. All I ask is they sell their milkfish at the right price. I’ve been all over the Philippines, helping people. These are gifts, not loans. After all, God gave the money, not me.

Yesterday, I bought stocks, and their value went up again. Look at my ABS-CBN stocks. I bought it at P12 and it’s now doing P33.

Since my return, the stock market has been very bullish. When I returned during Erap’s [former President Joseph Estrada’s] time, the market was up. The peso also reversed. It was P44 [to the dollar] during Erap’s time, and it went up to P37 when I handled it. During Gloria’s time, it was P55 to P54, now it’s P45. It’s simple, really. It’s all about foreign equity coming in. You know, the peso could go as high as P25 if foreign investors really believe in this country.  

Let’s go back to your earlier statement that “politics is business.” Could you explain that?

I had several discussions with the President before Mike [Arroyo] got sick about taxation. The latest one was before the May election. I told her we could meet every day, we could meet in the Senate or in Congress, we could have Tuesday or Wednesday meetings, and nothing would happen because, when she closes her eyes, the budgetary problem would still be there.

What are we talking about? P500 billion is set aside to pay for salaries, utilities, office space, operations. With P500 billion, that means teachers’ salaries will have to stay at P11,000 and the salaries of soldiers and policemen will have to stay at P14,000. There’s not enough money for food and medicines, for schools, for firemen, for everything. And then, there’s the external debt servicing of P400 billion. The budget for infrastructure is a measly P100 billion.

In effect, you have legislated poverty; you have legislated graft and corruption.  

Obviously, we have to increase our revenues.

No! You just have to be honest. (laughs). Honest like other countries. They’re honest. 

So, we have enough revenues?

No! There are a lot of revenues that are not reported, and examples are everywhere. C’mon! Let me give you an example:  Instead of paying sales tax, I’d tax companies based on their production. That’s what you call measured capacity, and I told the President about this. Now it’s measured. And I have the technology. I can use radio-frequency identification on the inventories [of factories]. That’s what’s being used right now in Latin America. I can talk to Manny Pangilinan tomorrow and broadband [the computation of taxes] so all the factories will be monitored. Easily, we can increase tax collection by P1.2 trillion.

Here’s another example: the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT). All I have to do is vertically integrate through a backbone all the data that can be accessed with the press of a button. You eat a pizza and you pay a 12-percent VAT. That 12 percent is entirely paid to the government, no more, no less. That’s another P1 trillion collected. With the additional collection, we can easily quadruple the salaries of policemen, nurses and everybody else!

That’s why when the President said last Christmas, “I have a new way of increasing the revenues through technology,” I was so happy. I said to myself, “It’s going to happen!” 

What kind of investment is needed for such a technology to be put in place?

None on your part. You can have this financed through the World Bank. In fact, the World Bank would give you all the money needed just to increase or enhance tax collection. They want a country to be successful so that the dynamics of the economy is spread. There should not be “haves” and “have-nots.” I don’t want that. I want everyone in this country to be “haves.”  

Given that technology plays a big role in such a strategy, does this mean the government will need less people to collect the same amount or even higher amount of taxes?

No, no. Don’t worry about having less people. I’m more worried about what would be the benefit to the 90 million children of God in this country. You are all parochial and selective in this country. Me? I want to do something. Don’t select anything. Everybody is equal. 

Would such a formula go down to the grassroots level? Right now, the money doesn’t seem to be reaching the poor.

That’s because what we need is a trickle-down economy. That’s what I have been saying again and again. What we have right now is trickle-up. Here, the money of the poor goes to the rich. The money of the rich stays with the rich. All the countries in the world which have become rich have expanded their middle class, and have reduced the number of their poor. That’s the only secret of their success. Consumer spending will go higher, and your per capita income will be higher. 

How do we, therefore, expand the middle class?

Simple. For example, all the countries in the world which collected the right amount of revenues and spent these properly showed increased investments. Look at Vietnam. Everybody’s investing in Vietnam. Look at Hong Kong. Look at China. Investors have trust; they have faith [in the political and economic policies of these countries]. Our problem is rhetoric. That’s why, for me, it goes back to one and the same thing: Are we an honest country? Do we have faith in God? The answer is no. 

In one sentence, what is the formula of Mark Jimenez for economic development? One sentence.

The truth (laughs). The truth.  

You mean transparency?

No. Transparency has long been used. It’s overused. 

Accountability?

It’s overused. Fear of God. Love of God. Look at other nations which believe in God, which have faith. We are the only Catholic country and Christian country in Asia, and yet, we are the most corrupt country. What else do you want me to tell you? Go ahead and make your own conclusions. Do we have the wrong God? Maybe we have the wrong followers. Do they have the right God? Maybe. And the right followers? Maybe. Now, it depends on what you believe in. You see, you’ve forgotten something. You’ve cheated your own people. You’ve destroyed the environment.  And you ask what is my formula? Don’t destroy. Build. All you have to do is reverse this country.

Everything that is wrong is right in this country, and everything that is right is wrong. That’s why [throwing] garbage [everywhere] is acceptable, but I don’t think it is. For you, a woman standing and a man sitting [inside a public bus or train] is acceptable, but I don’t think it is. For you, poverty is acceptable, but I don’t believe it is. If you can accept dirt, then maybe you are doing something dirty, too.

In the end, this country will become a country of God. I can already smell it. I can feel it. I can see it. I have faith in God that it will happen in my lifetime. You have no other choice.  

Let’s change gears. What’s the real story behind the PLDT deal [when Hong Kong-based First Pacific Group bought government shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.]?

PLDT is right now worth P500 billion. Thank you, Mark Jimenez. That’s the real story. Now it’s a P500-billion company. If we were in America, you would have asked me how I knew that it was the right solution. How did I know that government shares should be unraveled and sold to real investors? PLDT is now listed in the US Nasdaq and is doing well. 

What about Equitable [when the Go family of Equitable Bank and the two government pension funds bought majority control of PCI Bank]?

It’s now doing P130. That’s a P40 profit per share. I should be given a medal. At the very least, I should have had a commission. In 1998, its market capitalization was P40 billion. Now it has multiplied by 10. Imagine that, your P1 investment is now worth P10.

That’s the secret. Unravel. Look at Meralco. It’s now P97 per share.

Now here’s the problem: Who is getting richer? The investor. What about the government? Look at Petron. I don’t know why Petron’s share is still valued at P4 when all the listed gasoline companies all over the world have seen their shares go up by five times. It’s either Aramco is cheating us or PNOC [Philippine National Oil Corp.] is cheating us, or both of them are cheating us. It’s just a question of valuation.  

How was your record as a congressman? You pushed for a lower amount that would constitute money laundering. That certainly didn’t make you very popular among the other members of Congress.

I was the only one who pushed for a minimum of $10,000. All the congressmen fought me. That’s why it took three years for the law to pass. They wanted $50,000. They also took out my predicate for tax evasion. I also authored the laws on special-purpose vehicles and securitization.

And I didn’t steal anything while I was a congressman. I gave everything to PGH [Philippine General Hospital]. That’s why I was named “PGH Congressman of the Year” every year.

Regarding Mark Jimenez

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