Take your pick. It can be that the squeeze is on. Or, when it rains, it pours. Or both. Either way, you can be right on target.

No, we are not talking here of the Church-sponsored “Oration” for more rains at the height of the feared dry spell a month ago, although that invitation was so powerful that no less than Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has called for a halt to the prayers and urged the faithful to set their sights elsewhere.

Rather, we are talking of a squeeze (and a real one this time around) on the scammers, here and abroad, who have literally bilked millions of people of billions of dollars in various kinds of financial skullduggery, which threaten not only the markets but the very stability of nations worldwide.

Yes, sir, we are asking the faithful and, if they are so minded, the Church leaders as well, to pray that the latest bunch of scammers get their just due. The sooner, the better.

We are especially praying that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales and his crew at the NBI, headed by Director Nestor Mantaring, stand firm and face up to the expected pressures which will surely come their way as they investigate the multibillion-peso investment scams perpetrated by Performance Investment Products Corp. (PIPC), PIPC Corp. and FrancSwiss Investments, to name the more prominent and brazen operators locally of what has turned out to be the latest version of the Ponzi schemes of yore.     

Reports have it that NBI deputy director Victor Bessat and NCR chief Ruel Lasala have filed cases of syndicated estafa against 32 officers and employees of PIPC and PIPC Corp. and at least 27 others from FrancSwiss Investments.

The charge against PIPC and PIPC Corp. was based on the complaints of 21 investors who were allegedly duped of US$1.5 million (P75 million) by these companies.

On the other hand, the agency took FrancSwiss to task for the same offense of syndicated estafa, a nonbailable offense, this time involving more than 30 people investing $500,000 (P25 million).

In both instances, the schemes used were eerily similar, except that in the case of FrancSwiss, most of the investors were lured into parting with smaller amounts through an IT-based “virtual office,” while that of PIPC and PIPC Corp. involved bigger chunks being siphoned off on a face-to-face basis using glitzy offices and the “wine-and-dine” sessions beloved by the rich and famous.

We will soon see how these cases will proceed, even as we note that already rumors are circulating that the DOJ and NBI are being besieged by calls from all quarters to go slow, and a coterie of law firms are lining up to defend the accused, here and abroad, all of whom, we are told, have moved notches up on the list of “favored clients” of the credit-card companies.

Indeed, the list reads like a combination who’s who of the old de buena families and the newly minted. Aside from the PIPC’s Singaporean originators, Michael H. K. Lewis and Albert Chua (Chua Pwey Chan), the NBI named PIPC Corp. GM and treasurer Cristina Gonzales-Tuazon, corporate secretaries Ma. Cristina Jurado and Manuel Gonzales, and incorporators Ernest Sy, Gabriel Dee, Mario Lorenzo, Jonas Karl-Perez and Peter Donnely Barot and 20 or so employees, many of whom are known high-value customers of glitzy Ayala, Taguig and Ortigas outlets, and even high-end Quezon City pubs.

Those from FrancSwiss may be lesser mortals, so to speak, but just as deadly in terms of their wily ways and spending habits. They include FrancSwiss “virtual-office” honchos Michael Mansfield (CFO) and directors Kurt Sundelman, Rupert Benedict Do Vinci and Julia Rodriguez, and Singapore- and Manila-based operators Roger Smith, Singaporeans (again!) Benny Fong and Raymond Chan, Eleazar Castillo and Jose Narciso Torrado III, among others.             

We are hoping, of course, that besides filing the charges, the NBI has already taken the necessary steps to put these guys on the “travel ban” list and identified their assets.

Experience tells us that schemes such as these best succeed in a morally challenged environment of loose controls, creaky legal processes and anemic, if not long-winded, retribution. The DOJ and the NBI will have to enjoin no less than Chief Justice Reynato Puno himself to take a closer look, if not an active part, in the prosecution of the guilty in these seemingly unending bilking schemes. 

And now the countrywide stigma

Speaking of squeezes, the deeper and deadlier squeeze, whose fate has negatively impacted on the global financial market, is that which is about to wipe out the multibillion capital of the largest US mortgage lender by loan volume, Countrywide Financial Corp.

Reports show that the lender, whose shares are traded at the New York Stock Exchange, lost 25 percent of its stock value and drew down an entire $11.5-billion line of credit in just a day last week. Whew! That is a squeeze like no other in recent memory.

This came after three mortgage hedge funds put up by top US financial service institutions, Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs and KKR, and another mortgage company, Thornburg Mortgage, reported similar liquidity problems that led to an even wider and deeper squeeze in almost all markets.

The squeeze was particularly traumatic for the country, which has been enjoying months of financial robustness exemplified by a high-flying stock market and continued peso appreciation.

Well, we will now have to brace for a slowdown. We will just have to pray that the same will not be as problematic as the 1997 financial meltdown, or even the 1983 crisis.

We are being reassured that such will not be the case, but we have concerns. We are concerned, for example, that Finance Secretary Gary Teves continues to hitch his budget stabilization plan on the “fire sale” of our highly prized, profitable assets.

That is a scheme which will surely bring us closer to the brink, as we get lesser bucks for our assets and let go of moneymakers which can provide more dividends in the short term if only Teves says so and, of course, bigger bucks in the longer term when the markets will not be as volatile, if not as stiff, as we are now experiencing.

We are concerned, too, about the fiddling some of our officials seem to be doing with the government’s financial position, be this with the 2007 and even the proposed 2008 budgets, the state of our GOCCs, including the lending schemes of the housing agencies, and the nonremittance of government contributions to the BSP, GSIS and PhilHealth, among others.

These financial hocus-pocus may spare some officials from public censure, but will surely come back to haunt us before we can even say: “tama na, sobra na.”

How is the Philippines faring when it comes to meeting global development goals? 

Not too well, if we’re to believe civil-society groups.

Here’s a contrarian question concerning the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Who cares?

Sure, it’s a big deal—the media are telling us so. One year out, we’re being bombarded by countdown articles about how grand and historic the event will be: massive construction projects, an army of foreign journalists, Steven Spielberg-directed pageantry and, oh yeah, some sporting events.

Take your pick. It can be that the squeeze is on. Or, when it rains, it pours. Or both. Either way, you can be right on target.

GOOD news! Thai educators laud Filipino English teachers as the best and as more efficient than their counterparts in Thailand.

Ben Bernanke is a self-described Great Depression buff, which is a good prerequisite for his current line of work as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

If external local and foreign auditors were to conduct an unscheduled audit of specific government agencies, they may just discover either mismatches of fund usage, or worse, funds on furlough, either unaccounted for or outrightly absent from both books and coffers.