It’s all a game of poker

A game of poker is how a top honcho of a local auto-manufacturing firm describes the brouhaha that was brought about by the very controversial BIR RR 4-2003. This is the "instant" revenue regulation that re-defined seat measurement standards for 10-seater vehicles to qualify for excise tax exemption making all AUVs (Asian utility vehicles) and most SUVs (sports utility vehicles) liable to pay 35-percent to 50-percent taxes upon its implementation – a sure "pass on" to buyers of these vehicles.

According to this top car company executive, the motive behind the "surprise" revenue regulation is to make sure that the new "Excise Tax Bill" presently being forged in Congress would not hit any possible snag, which could be caused by some congressman or senator introducing further "refinements" to the bill in order to favor some particular manufacturer or manufacturers.

He adds that with this new revenue regulation in place, all the automotive manufacturers would certainly work hard for the speedy passage of the new excise tax bill into law, lest they suffer severe market distortions that the revenue regulation can bring forth.

With the proposed new excise tax system, it is believed that the industry would be more transparent and less prone to manipulation as against the automotive industry’s present layers of rules that can be subjected to different interpretations. However, with the deadline for its passage coming very near, our source said that the DOF just wanted to be sure that no jockeying for added provisions to meet individual agenda would further delay the legislation. The new revenue regulation leaves all car manufacturers no choice but to even insist that the bill be immediately approved into law.

However, some quarters within the industry still maintain that the new revenue regulation was deliberately made in order to smokescreen the foisted Senate hearings to look into some government officials who allegedly favored some manufacturer in the interpretation of some existing industry rules causing loss of revenues to the government.

Whatever, it’s said that it's all a game of poker, and if it’s true, sadly all at the expense of the industry and ultimately the buying public.

Teachers would surely howl in protest

We got quite a response from many affected teachers when I wrote about the reported present disturbing developments in the Department of Education in this column the other week (B&L, Philippine STAR, Feb. 8, 2003 – "Department of Education – new leaders, new rules?"). I gathered that Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, with the approval of Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus, is spearheading a new re-accreditation system among private lending institutions extending small loans to public school teachers. In the process the extending of these loans was suspended pending the announcement of which among the present lending firms would be accredited and allowed to extend the lending services.

One of the provisions of the General Appropriations Act supposedly allows these private lending institutions to help out public school teachers with small loans, which normally would not be serviced by big financial institutions, or would take eternity and heaps and heaps of paper work and at times some form of security to be approved, if at all. The small private lending institutions cut all these red tape and facilitate these small loans to teachers to tide them over during emergencies and even for their subsistence and collect monthly payments through the Automatic Payroll Deduction Scheme.

It now appears that the new leadership in the DECS is "rocking the boat" or disrupting the long established system (for how many millions of reasons, we don’t know) to the detriment of the lowly paid teachers. The "re-accreditation system" is coupled with many new requirements, which the small lending companies find very difficult to adjust to and so impractical to implement. The new system literally placed on indefinite hold this invaluable financial service to the teachers, making many of our children’s mentors run to immorally usurious "5/6" lenders just to see them through these hard times.

The latest word we got was that the DECS issued a memorandum to department heads allowing the burrowing to continue. However, the memo also reportedly stated that "this is without prejudice to the re-accreditation process", meaning the lending institutions may continue to extend the loans but at their own risk should they not be accredited.

"Who would take the risk in such a dictatorial environment?"

That appears to be the common stand of the lenders, a reaction they cannot be faulted for, but to the disadvantage of the thousands of teachers who find themselves now with no choice but to run to where there’s available money, at whatever costs.

Being very aware of this "matter-of-fact" plight of the teachers, the association of these private lending institutions (Salary Deduction Assistance Association, Inc.), in its desperate attempt to help out, has reportedly filed with the Ombudsman charges of graft and corruption and violation of the constitution against the duo allegedly responsible for this fiasco – Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus and Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz.

This ongoing saga in the DECS involving its newly appointed leaders can be a very "interesting" case to follow for many business observers and for those who keenly watch how President Arroyo’s vow of better governance is being made good but can be a "life threatening" one for our poor, lowly paid public school teachers, majority of whom are in a desperate "hand-to-mouth" existence.

The Century Park Hotel Buzzes

I bumped into Mr. Paul Gill, the new general manager of Century Park Hotel early this week while I was taping for tonight’s edition of our TV show Business & Leisure and in our short chat I could feel his contagious enthusiasm in all his efforts to keep the habitués and draw new clients into the hotel.

Paul was all excited about his plans of having regular wine and coffee tasting sessions at the CPH’s Deli, located by the side of the hotel fronting Harrison Plaza. He envisions turning on more people to learning the many aspects of wine and coffee, two of the most popular beverages of leisure. He hopes to involve the country’s top wine distributors as well as those who promote the different kinds of coffee brews and coffee brands around town.

As we were having our chat at the hotel’s Atrium’s Lobby Lounge, the soft-spoken gentleman also pointed out to me just where the buffet table for the "Afternoon Tea Buffet" would be situated when it starts serving weekend merienda, Saturdays and Sundays beginning March, another novel idea in the hotel’s "drawing and keeping them in" efforts.

But what this gung-ho new CPH general manager is really excited about is his "baby", the up and coming "A Taste of Sarawak", Century Park Hotel’s Malaysian Food Festival. Paul is flying in courtesy of Malaysia Airlines two of Malaysia’s finest chefs from Kuching Hilton bringing with them a wide array of specially blended spices to the dishes to be served during the food festival to ensure the authentic Malaysian taste.

On the opening night of this fiesta of bona fide Malaysian culinary delights, which is set for March 17, Malaysian cultural dancers will also be on hand to lend grace and more genuineness of the affair. The metro’s crème-de-la-crème to be led by the Malaysia Ambassador to the Philippines is expected to grace the occasion.

The 10-day A Taste of Sarawak, Century Park Hotel’s Malaysian Food Festival shall run up to March 27 at the Café in the Park.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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