One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

The more I listen to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigations on the “Pork Barrel Scam” the more I am reminded of the Jack Nicholson movie “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” especially after Ruby Tuason, an endangered specie of the stool pigeon type, flew the coop. Why she did so has now become a game where you guess the reasons why.

Did she wake up one day and realized that the DOJ was using her as cannon fodder and would replace her once they found a more credible witness? After offering to pay back the P40 million she took in kickbacks, did someone demand an overriding commission believing she has more? Is she actually an undercover investment banker who needed to raise P40 million in direct foreign investments from the US? Or did everybody forgot their lines from a badly written script constantly undergoing revision and forgot that no one was suppose to know about Tuason leaving the country.

If in fact Ruby Tuason has P40 million lying around somewhere in the United States or Europe, I would like to know how she managed to transfer that much cash without alerting US or EU Customs and bank authorities. Did Ruby ask the help of some money lending business executive to arrange the facility? Did Tuason sell her house to someone who arranged for payment to be made in America so the government can’t grab it all?

When we all marched to Luneta against the pork barrel, all I wanted was for Congress as a whole to voluntarily give up any and all pork barrel funds. Yes, it would be nice if we can crucify or make lechon of one or two solons found guilty of graft and corruption. But I also knew enough from experience that sending politicians to jail in the Philippines is never done through the legal system. The last 2 Presidents who ended up in jail landed there because of political intent and political will. Politics imprisons politicians — Justice keeps them out of jail.

From what I’ve seen during the Senate investigations, it has turned into a waiting game where the DOJ/government prosecutors are clearly hoping for a stronger suit while playing out an obvious bluff. Is this the reason why Janet Napoles is being kept incommunicado in Fort Santo Domingo and being denied her preferred medical choices? Is this why a number of people are now pointing out that if Napoles won’t squeal like a pig she might as well be sent to the Makati City jail? Is this also the reason why the government has not yet pushed through with the complaint?

On the other hand, the rest of the players are busy making their own rules on how the game is suppose to be played, particularly Mr. Cunanan whose testimony gives me the impression that he did not read his lines or play according to the rules the dealer called out. While everybody expected Cunanan to confess his guilt, the guy was apparently dead set on declaring his innocence and citing his gallant efforts to stem the tide of corruption between the Senate and his office.

I suspect that when the court asks the DOJ and whistleblowers to lay down their cards as well as the charges, what looks and sounds like a fantastic set of cards in front of the lights, cameras and microphones, will suddenly look dull, poor and uninteresting, the cold, monochrome reality of the law.

If there is one question that all the so-called legal experts should be asking is not “what he said / she said.” What needs to be determined and made public is whether or not the government has a solid case?

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A regular reader expressed serious concerns about the tax system in the Philippines and how it has increasingly become discouraging in terms of amounts and enforcement. I pointed out to him that it would be unrealistic to expect the government to reduce taxes or go on a “Tax Diet.” It’s only logical for government to want to grow, and as it grows it will need to “feed” itself with tax money.  So whatever business you may be in, you can only expect tax rates to go higher UNLESS… Yes, unless you and the rest of the people wise up and learn to use our political system to work for us.

There are two goals that the public must set their minds to in order to insure their future peace of mind and prosperity relative to taxation and government. One is to initiate a program of fiscal efficiency and responsibility in government and the other is to achieve tax reductions through legislation and anti corruption measures. Both of these can only be achieved by the private sector and any dreams of government voluntarily submitting to fiscal “conditioning and diet” would be futile and absurd. It is also a mistake to “attack” the BIR because in the end they are only an implementing agency that has no choice in the matter except perhaps in the manner by which they do their job, even there, nothing in the rule book says they have to be “nice.”

The move of Senator Sonny Angara to reduce levels of personal income tax is consistent with the powers of Congress to legislate tax measures and it is something that the business sector should seriously study. It is constitutional, legal and legitimate to lobby with your Representative or member of Senate for reduction of taxes. But before you do this, each industry or sector needs to invest on real and serious studies not just lip service that would substantiate and justify tax reductions.

I have always taught my “students” in government and private sector that in order to “communicate” properly, you need to have a product and a message that your audience can relate to. It can never be only about your business interests and concerns, thus the need for formal studies and papers. With that in hand it would be a lot easier for members of Congress to represent the interest of both the public and the business sector through legislation. They used to think this was impossible in the US until lobbyists and Congress told the US government to get out of business and stop competing against business. That eventually led to fiscal rationalization and balanced budgets. It can be done but the people need to show the government we mean it.

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