Business optimism up despite GMA tension

Business confidence is up, despite claims of international backlash from indicting Gloria Arroyo.

The buoyancy of businessmen rose to 38.7 percent in the 4th quarter of 2011, from 34.1 percent in the previous three months. It was the second straight quarter of increased optimism, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas says. Before that the index dropped two consecutive quarters — 47.5 percent in the 1st, then 31.8 percent in the 2nd — from the record 50.6 percent in the 4th quarter of 2010. The release of the ratings coincides with unproven cries of a kill-Arroyo plot by the Aquino administration.

The BSP polled 1,617 companies nationwide from Oct. 3 to Nov. 11. Its Business Expectation Survey is the difference between the positive and negative responses. A positive result, as in the 38.7 percent in Q4 of 2011, means optimism; negative equals pessimism.

The BSP attributes the bright outlook mainly to monetary trends. Consumer Christmas spending, remittances from overseas workers, and typhoon-free harvests spike in the last quarter of any year. The BSP also broadly mentions “sound macroeconomic fundamentals.”

There are other reasons for the optimism. Like, the public works and transportation departments have started major projects, thus increasing purchases and employment. Before that, both agencies were criticized for under-spending, being overly cautious in implementing long planned infrastructures. Buoying as well are prospective domestic and foreign investments, and business diversifications.

Even political events can have assuring effects. President Noynoy Aquino is perceived to be consistently moving to punish plunderers and election saboteurs. He has replaced a do-nothing Ombudsman who was the law school classmate of Arroyo’s husband, and backed the exposure of the chopper scam. Last week he twitted the hastiness of the Supreme Court’s order restraining lawmen from barring Arroyo’s escape abroad.

The Philippine business sentiment is better than in developed lands like the US, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. They were dulled by the sovereign debt crises in Europe and economic sluggishness in the US. The latter sickness could infect the Philippines, the BSP says. Business confidence in Q1 of 2012 retreated to 36.1 percent. Other contributing factors: residual effects of recent typhoons and the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand, and tensions in the Middle East.

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To augment the meager budget of the Ombudsman, part of the assets it is able to forfeit from grafters should be given to it. That is the sensible proposal of Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara in a bill to amend the Ombudsman Act and the Forfeiture Law.

The Ombudsman not only must investigate and prosecute grafters but also initiate programs to prevent and expose corruption. But lack of funds hinders it work. By giving it a fixed percentage of the stolen wealth it is able to recover from thieving officials, Angara hopes to fill the funding gap.

Angara refrains from mentioning it, but his bill can also stop Ombudsman prosecutors from entering into secret plea bargains with plunderers. With a portion of forfeited assets redounding to their benefit, the prosecutors would build and argue strong cases, and shun sleazy transactions.

Ombudsman special prosecutors came under fire early this year for striking a plea deal with former military comptroller-general Carlos Garcia. Supposedly they were foreseeing the loss of their P302-million plunder case against Garcia, and so settled for return of less than half of the amount. Garcia’s predecessor, retired general Jacinto Ligot, is facing a separate P185-million forfeiture suit.

Angara’s bill would have 30 percent of the cash and liquidated real property of rafters turned over to the anti-graft agency.

The success of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption was due in large part to hefty funding. Before that, the island economy was notorious for kickbacks in public contracts and bribery of bureaucrats, even of weak anti-graft investigators.

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Carmen Guerrero Nakpil’s press release, about a “playful, naughty Rizal,” says it all:

“The announcement from the Paciano Rizal Family Heritage Inc. and Cruz Publishing of a new, undisclosed existence of a last book written by Jose Rizal has excited young and old admirers, famous collectors, scholars and student fans. The book Haec Est Sibylla Cumana is actually a game of chance, to be played by any number of gamesters, with a wooden top to point to the answers to questions asked by the players. The questions and answers were written by Rizal. The answers are down-to-earth, irreverent and humorous, denoting the manners and culture of the period. It is like talking to the National Hero himself.

“The other thrill is in owning a relic like the Sibylla, an exact replica of Rizal’s very own creation. The wonderful sensation of owning one of Rizal’s toys, invented at a crucial point in his life while in exile in Dapitan, a year before he died. What was he trying to tell us?

“Haec Est Sibylla Cumana is a set of three books: a replica of the original written by Jose Rizal in Spanish; a Tagalog translation by Virgilio Almario, National Artist for Literature, and Diwa ng Sining (Araw ng Maynila, 2011); and an English version by Gemma Cruz Araneta, great grandniece of Rizal. A copy of Rizal’s wooden top comes with it.”

The launch will take place on 8 December, 6 p.m., at the Ateneo Professional Schools (Auditorium 1), Rockwell Drive, Makati City. The book will be available there and at Cruz Publishing, (02) 8911045.”

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

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