Two of the most feared agencies of the government, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), were given up to the end of September to list down the most notorious among its personnel to dismiss them from the service.

Firing the misfits and the corrupt will not be an easy job for Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.

As they say, the wheels of justice grind so painfully slow that before you know it, the accused could be back at no time at all, looting us dry.

Sadly, so many people want Teves out so that the thieves could go on with their merry ways. Recently, he asked the leadership of the BIR and the BOC to speed up their evaluation of cases against people believed to be performing below par.

Teves heads the Revenue Evaluation Performance Board (RPEB), an interagency body tasked with enforcing penalties and giving rewards under the lateral attrition law.

The evaluation process itself is at snail-pace, as if there are people who are deliberately delaying it in the hope that Teves would either forget about it or get booted out. 

Under the Lateral Attrition Act of 2005, BIR and BOC personnel who fall short of their goals by at least 7.5 percent are to be either dismissed from service or face reassignment.

For sure, there are BIR and BOC people who are honest and efficient, but they may be few. It is hoped that Teves could weed out the corrupt at the Department of Finance and its agencies, but that would be asking for a miracle. Their lawyers and padrino would see to it that Teves would fail in his endeavor, probably his last in the term of President Arroyo. 

Sometime ago, Customs alleged it missed its target last year as a result of unrealized macroeconomic assumptions. The peso was much stronger than assumed when its goal for 2007 was set, it claimed.

For its part, the BIR blamed low inflation that adversely affected the collection of value-added tax, among other taxes. Now that the inflation rate is at a record high, the BIR should look for other excuses, it seems.

Meralco case far from over The Court of Appeals decision that the Securities and Exchange Commission has no jurisdiction over corporate disputes and, definitely, over the recent stockholders’ annual meeting of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) could have ended the management row between Meralco and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). But it did not.

The CA decision gave birth to more disputes and to more questions of law.

Justices were pitted against justices, and brothers against brothers, as in the case of one justice against the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, and one friend against another, the briber and the bribe taker.

Now, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is also in the thick of a new controversy that sprang from the filing of syndicated estafa by a group called the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) against Manuel Lopez, chairman and chief executive officer of Meralco.

Since the DOJ is directly under the Executive branch, it could not be helped if some people think the Meralco-GSIS row is directly related to the feud between President Arroyo and the Lopez family.

In a resolution filed by State Prosecutor Jose de Castro, he alleged that Meralco failed to submit a counteraffidavit to the complaint of Nasecore that Meralco misappropriated P889 million in consumers’ money.

Estafa is a nonbailable offense. It’s a serious crime, so serious that plaintiff Nasecore should have been, as required by law, ordered to pay the corresponding docket fee before the fiscals could even act on the complaint.

Memorandum Circular 4 provides that no preliminary investigation of a criminal complaint shall be initiated without the payment of a filing fee in accordance with Department Circular 42.

Further, a criminal case cannot be docketed unless there is proof of payment of legal fees. 

Nasecore said Meralco declared as income P889 million in consumers’ money, which represented part of the interest earned by meter and bill deposits of the firm’s subscribers.

It further alleged that the P889-million income supposed to be reimbursed to its customers has now accrued to P21 billion. Meralco said that even at a maximum 12-percent per annum interest, the questioned amount could not have reached that high.

The filing fee for estafa is P1,000 if the amount involved is P500,000, and an additional P10 for every P1,000 thereafter. Were the docket fees paid? 

E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph

Editorial: Chaff from the grain

A LOT of arguments have been made in recent weeks against the administration’s program for using cold cash as doles to the poorest of the poor, on the justification that they need help right now, when the twin tsunamis of high energy and high food prices are lashing the most marginalized everywhere.

Outside the Box: Short-term market predictions

By the time you read this, all of the following may have been proved true or completely wrong. However, one thing is for certain: the capital markets, including the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), gave short-term traders a wonderful and potentially profitable ride last week.

On Firm Ground: Advantages of international commercial arbitration

The effects of globalization and the efforts of the government and the private sector to attract more foreign investments into the country have caused an influx of international commercial transactions. This heightened interest of foreign investors in the country certainly benefits the economy and can be sustained by making our business climate more conducive.

Omerta: Lilian Hefti—‘attritable’

Under the Attrition Act of 2005 (Republic Act 9335), the two major revenue-raising agencies of the national government are effectively governed by a system of reward and punishment based on their collection performance.

Mirror on the wall: Raising money for government

Two of the most feared agencies of the government, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), were given up to the end of September to list down the most notorious among its personnel to dismiss them from the service.

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara: Mobilizing domestic savings for development

Last week the Personal Equity and Retirement Act (Pera) was finally signed into law, after pending for several sessions of Congress.

William Pesek: Hoping Nouriel Roubini is proven wrong

It’s hard to forget your first Nouriel Roubini experience.

Fifteen months ago, I watched an Asian Development Bank audience in Kyoto squirm and fidget as the chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC gave his bleak, contrarian opinion that the global financial system was about to hit a wall.