Is it just a recession, or do the stock market falls signal a depression? - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

TOKYO, Japan – On top of our political missteps and a resurgence of kidnapping and violent crime, the Philippines now has to brace itself for the tsunami or economic tidal wave engendered by the free fall of the US Nasdaq index, which plummeted to below 2,000 for the first time in 27 months. The US Dow and stock market is plunging, too. The US disaster has pushed Asian and European stock markets into panic, too. Here in Tokyo, the Nikkei index closed beneath the 12,000 level for the first time since February 1985.

Is this a "mere" recession, or is it the beginning of a great depression? Let’s keep our cool. Of course, we’ll suffer – but we’re used to suffering. In the United States, the losses on paper seem horrendous, about $4 trillion, yet the US economy remains strong. Employment is still steady, although huge firms like Motorola, Inc., plagued by falling profits and bleak sales, are axing 7,000 jobs, and other Nasdaq shaken companies may follow. However, more than 135,000 workers were added to the labor force in February. The auto industry, a bellwether of the US economy, accounted for 13,000 more jobs last month, with sales going up rather than down. In short, let’s wait and see. Things may not be as dismal as we think.

On the other hand, it’s time for us to get our act together. A little austerity and belt-tightening are indicated. Remember that corny old slogan – which nonetheless is true – "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."

It’s time for the GMA administration to get tough, as well. Let’s stop giving away "goodies" to everyone who shouts out that "he or she" contributed to the victory of Edsa Dos. If "spoils" continue to be handed out to the self-proclaimed "victors", then the new administration, launched with such high hopes less than two months ago, will lose public confidence and support – and ultimately go bust.

Then there are the coming May 14 elections. They will be a referendum of sorts on whether the regime of La Gloria is doing well, or is proving a disappointment. The results, unless the government joy-riders wise up, may be shocking as they are unexpected. This is a wake-up call: Make no mistake about it.

* * *

In Japan, they’re being rocked with scandals, too.

A ranking foreign ministry bureaucrat is under arrest for having swindled the government of ¥500 million since 1993 and used part of his embezzled fortune to buy an expensive condominium for his mistress, buy and maintain racehorses, golf club memberships and other goodies.

MOFA official Katsutoshi Matsuo, 55, actually received ¥965 million in the discretionary funds from the Cabinet Secretariat during the six years he headed the defunct Overseas Visit Support Division of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, according to probers. The police allege that he accumulated his millions by overcharging on actual costs or turning in counterfeit receipts, bills, and other false documents to "substantiate" his padding of the accounts involving some of the 46 overseas expeditions his office supervised.

Some of the trips came under closer scrutiny. For instance, when former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Saudi Arabia in 1997, Matsuo is believed to have tapped the secret Cabinet budget for some ¥7 million to cover "accommodation expenses." It was learned, though, that the prime minister and his official party had stayed in a Saudi royal guest house and had paid virtually nothing. Matsuo again "invented" documents to entitle him for a reimbursement of some ¥26 million when the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi visited Vietnam in December 1998.

* * *

It was uncovered only the other day that Matsuo utilized money from the secret Cabinet fund to buy himself six designer-label suits worth more than ¥1 million! Four of the custom-tailored suits were procured in 1999, and two other expensive suits were purchased from a fashionable men’s haberdashery in Tokyo’s Toranomon district in the same year. Would you believe? Each suit, made of British or Italian fabrics, cost between ¥260,000 and ¥290,000. (Even at today’s exchange rate of ¥120 to $1 dollar, those suits are extravagant, indeed.)

The Metropolitan Police are uncovering more and more fraudulent purchases by perusing his credit card bills and the records of his Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank account. He even tapped the Cabinet fund to underwrite the monthly utilities and management fees (about ¥65,000 per month) for the luxury apartment he acquired in posh Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo.

Growled the Japan Times in last Wednesday’s editorial: "No More Secret Funds."

The daily pointed out that expenses for a prime minister’s trips (it didn’t use our favorite term "junket") have for years been paid out of secretariat funds, which include a Foreign Ministry "confidential fund" which is "by far the largest of its kind among government offices."

The editorial underscored: "The basic lessons of the Matsuo case is that public money beyond the reach of public scrutiny is temptation for irregularities or corruption. All confidential funds in the government should be reexamined as to their purposes and uses."

The scandal, of course, was exposed by Japan’s biggest daily newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun (circulation about nine million daily in 11 cities) last January. This was a landmark exposé by the increasingly aggressive national media. In the past, there used to be a kind of concordat of secrecy, a kind of seal of omerta, by which the big publications hushed up "scandals" in the government. Not so any longer.

In short, the Japanese are demonstrating that it is a free press which must be guardian of the public’s welfare, and the foremost curb on the shenanigans of the powerful in government who are tempted to plunder the public purse.