Category: politics

HUWAG IBOTO

sa susunod nilang pagtakbo – ke for president, ke for senator, ke for barangay tanod – HUWAG IBOTO

ang mga senador na ito: LOREN LEGARDA, CHIZ ESCUDERO, PING LACSON, MAR ROXAS, MANNY VILLAR, PIA CAYETANO, KIKO PANGILINAN, DICK GORDON, BONG REVILLA, at ang bise-presidenteng ito: NOLI DE CASTRO, who cannot see, who refuse to see, that by endorsing commercial products for television, or by advertising their so-called achievements long before campaign season, or by making movies, they stoop to the level of entertainers hungry for public adulation and reveal themselves to be ruled by narrow self-interests not befitting the high offices they hold.

evat & the national debt

totoo yata ang tsismis na pabalik-cabinet si dating senador ralph “vilmasantos” recto, also known as the author of the evat law. why else would he be on anc talking about the evat on fuel and electricity and saying na hindi ito dapat i-lift dahil kailangan ni gma ang napakalaking datung na ito (some P90 billion) panggastos sa “development projects”.

yan na yan din ang say ni gary teves (na matagal nang natsitsismis na pa-exit na at papalitan mismo ni vilmasantos recto).

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is bent on keeping the 12-percent Value-Added Tax (VAT) on oil products and power citing the need for government to collect revenues.

Teves, who spoke to reporters after a press briefing by the World Bank, said that the high oil and power costs as well as rising food prices is just a temporary situation. Tweaking a law, he said however, would be a more permanent measure.

“Well legally, it’s their (Congress’) prerogative,” Teves said, “But let’s remember that we have to have the revenues to be able to spend for various projects.

The finance chief instead proposed two things: first, for all power utilities, including Manila Electric co. (MERALCO) and National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR), not to pass on System Loss charges to consumers.

“If there’s no System Loss, there will be no VAT on this to pay,” said Teves.
The second is for all collections from VAT on oil and power to be used for “targeted spending” to help vulnerable sectors cope with the high costs.

Government estimates VAT collections from petroleum products to reach P73 billion this year, while VAT from power is projected to hit P12.6 billion.’

interesting the proposal that evat collections be used this time for “targeted spending to help vulnerable sectors cope with the high costs.” i suppose ito yung “development projects” ni vilmasantos recto.

question is, where did evat collections of 2005, 2006, and 2007 go? saan ginamit ang datung?

sa kaka-google ko i found the answer in a january 2008 manila times article by the freedom from debt coalition:

The reason why the government is hell-bent in defending an aggressive consumption tax measure (R-VAT) is in order to beef-up revenues. The Department of Finance (DOF) itself admitted that 70 percent of the revenues generated from R-VAT would go to debt service in the first six months of implementation, with only 30 percent going to social services and infrastructure programs.”

ah, so the rvat/evat collected in 2005, 2006, and 2007 went pala mostly to debt payments. but this time daw it will be going to teves’ “targeted spending” on vilmasantosrecto’s “development projects”? ganoon?

take note. the national budget for 2008 is a whopping php 1.23 TRILLION bucks!

how much of that is going to debt payments? according to the website of the department of budget and management:

php 269, 847, 000, 000.00 for interest payments
php 328, 341, 000, 000.00 for principal amortizations
php 598,188, 000, 000.00 total

that’s almost php 600 BILLION bucks! practically half of the budget! OMG. OF COURSE gma needs that php 90 billion from the evat on fuel and electricity. OF COURSE it’s going to debt payments as usual, ‘wag na tayong bolahin about “targeted spending” and “development projects”.

in fact, the total national debt has been growing and growing and growing under gma, but what does she care. hindi naman siya ang magbabayad. say ng fdc:

As of end-August 2007, the National Government (NG) Outstanding debt was pegged at P3.871 trillion, or US$81.91 billion. The bigger part of this debt was acquired domestically (55.98 percent), with Treasury Bonds debt pegged at P1.55 trillion. This is worse when Mrs. Arroyo acknowledged that the country was suffering from a fiscal crisis. In 2004, National Government debt was P3.81 trillion.

Our situation is rendered even more precarious with National Government contingent liabilities reported as having reached P537 billion by 2007, much of it foreign currency denominated. Contingent liabilities are commitments by the national government, expressed or implied, to directly assume the liability of another entity should it be unable to honor its obligations. Thus, contingent liabilities are potential debts. . . .

In truth, the total debt service is higher, not lower, contrary to the Arroyo administration’s claim. A close look at the proposed 2008 budget will reveal that payments for the principal amortization of debts actually went up by 6 percent, or P18.842 billion. Combined with the total of interest payments and principal amortization, debt expenditure actually went up by P11.296 billion, belying any claim of less expenditure for the debt. . . .

The Arroyo administration broke two major fiscal records-first, for being the most aggressive if not the most addictive borrower, and second, for being the largest payer of debts. From 2001 to 2006, Mrs. Arroyo borrowed a total of P2.83 trillion shaming the total P1.51 trillion combined borrowings of the Aquino, Ramos and Estrada administrations spanning 14 years.”

hay naku. definitely, absolutely, we the people must make the debt problem a central issue in the 2010 elections. for the sake of our children and apos, we want national leaders who will free us from debt by following these recommendations of the fdc:

  • audit all our debts so we have an accurate comprehensive picture of our humongous debt problem
  • promote critical study, analysis, and consensus
  • repeal the automatic debt service provision of the Revised Administrative Code of 1987

tama na. sobra na. palitan na.

koryente (updated)

so why is gloria so viciously picking on meralco these days?

can it be that out of the goodness of her heart she just wants to give us relief from high electricity prices, kawawa naman kasi tayo?

or is it just another diversionary tactic to keep jun lozada irrelevant now that she’s had to chill kuno on the rice shortage or else send rice prices skyhigh?

or she could just be doing it to initimidate the lopezes whose broadcasting network is not only critical of her administration but also poised to back a noli de castro presidency in 2010?

i’d say all of the above except the first, the one about the goodness of her heart wishing us cheaper electric bills.

correct me if i’m wrong, but according to my last bill only 25% goes to meralco (for distribution and subsidies). the bulk of it, the 75%, goes to government: 47% to napocor (for generation), 9.6% to transco (for transmission) and 10.3% to taxes for gma’s coffers.

hindi lang meralco ang puwedeng magbaba ng presyo, ang gobyerno rin, unang una na si gloria, by lifting the vat and other taxes. she should set the example and shame napocor and meralco into doing the same, doing the right thing, give us all a break.

otherwise tila tuloy ang senate investigation. for a clearer sense of what they’ll be talking about, here’s katrina’s quickie primer ripped off her personal blog:

Our Meralco bill is made up of the following: 1. Generation Charges, 2. Distribution Charges, 3. Subsidies, 4. Government Charges, and 5. Universal Charges. Under each of these five sections fall various other fees that are broken down at the back of our bills (their technical term for that is “unbundling”) as per the order of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) after the PPA-brouhaha of 2004. Of these 5 things we pay for, Generation, Distribution and Government Taxes are the largest in any bill.

Meralco says it’s the Napocor’s and Independent Power Producers’ fault, for pricing electricity too high producing bloated Generation Charges; they also blame government for the Government Taxes. Government meanwhile blames Meralco for their high Distribution fees. But also there’s much on the bill that are glossed over given the fact that all they’ve talked about – the politicians, media, the capitalists – are the big(ger) fees. In fact, our money also goes to those smaller fees, and when you imagine how many of us pay it, then you know that much money’s collected from these as well.

1. Generation Charge – is the cost of power from Napocor and the Independent Power Producers. Meralco says this is a “pass on” or “pass-through” charge and none of it goes back to them as distributors; all of this goes straight to Napocor raw. Under this section falls the following:
1a. Prev Mos Adj on Gen Cost, an explanation for which I have yet to find.
1b. Transmission Charge – cost of bringing power from Napocor and IPP generators to distribution utilities like Meralco. This charge, according to Meralco, goes straight to Transco or the National Transmission Corporation.
1c. System Loss Charge – this is the cost of power losses that are due to technical or non-technical reasons. So everything from dissipated power by transformers to pilferage – as in pagnanakaw ng kuryente – we are being charged for. This is a scheme approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, put into law by Republic Act 7832.

The basis for all these charges that fall under the Generation Charge, is your kwh consumed for the month. So let’s say, as with us, you consume 543 kwh for the past month, then that will be the basis of the amount you will have to pay even for the System Loss Charge. Which is really something that we shouldn’t be paying dahil hindi naman natin ginamit ang electricity na yon; actually, nagbabayad tayo para sa electricity na hindi nagamit ninuman.

Now this set-up has been blamed on the onerous contracts between Napocor and IPPs and distributors like Meralco. These contracts have a take-or-pay provision: which means consumers pay for electricity regardless of whether it is produced or delivered to them. Who to blame for this? Fidel Ramos himself, who approved – even railroaded – many of these contracts in 1991, as he freaked out about the power shortage then. (The PCIJ has an excellent piece on these contracts at http://www.pcij.org/stories/2002/ramos.html).

2. Distribution Charges – is the cost of having Meralco distribute electricity to us. This goes to what they say is the building, operations and maintenance of Meralco and their grids. This also fluctuates with the peso-dollar exchange rate. If we are to believe Meralco, that all they get is about 20% off the total amount of our electric bills (this is what they say on their website), then this distribution fee is all they get. Along with this fee (which changes every month), you also pay for the following:
2a. Metering Charge – This is the cost of reading, operations, and maintenance of our electricity and electric meters.
2b. Supply Charge – This is for the services that Meralco provides its customers: billing, collection, customer assistance, among others.

Again, all of these charged by Meralco are dependent on the amount of kwh we consume for the month. Which in itself is problematic. Kapag nagdagdag tayo ng appliance sa bahay, ibig sabihin ba non ay mas nagagamit natin ang customer o billing o collection services nila? Gaano rin ba kahirap mag-maintain ng metro? Gaano kadalas nila itong palitan, if at all? E kapag nanakawan nga tayo ng metro, magbabayad pa rin tayo para palitan ito diba? Dibale sana kung tumataas ang suweldo ng empleyado ng Meralco kapag tumataas ang konsumo natin ng kuryente, at therefore tumataas ang Metering at Supply Charges. E kumusta naman ang contractualization natin ng manggagawa diyan?

3. Subsidies – under this falls only one thing: the Lifeline Rate Subsidy, which is defined by the EPIRA as “the subsidized rate given to low-income captive market end-users who cannot afford to pay at full cost”. Ano daw? Apparently this is based on the idea of socialized pricing. Section 73 says that the Lifeline Rate “a socialized pricing mechanism <…> for the marginalized end-users shall be set by the ERC, which shall be exempted from the cross subsidy phase-out under this Act for a period often (10) years, unless extended by law. The level of consumption and the rate shall be determined by the ERC after due notice and hearing.”

Ano daw ulit yon? We are apparently subsidizing the electricity of consumers who use 100kwh or less every month. What happens is because we pay this fee, Lifeline Rate Users (the marginalized end-users as the law calls them) get 20 to 50 percent discounts every month off their Meralco bills. As of January 2008, Lifeline Rate Users number 1.55 million consumers, or 36.5 percent of Meralco customers.

This is, in effect, a (forced) donation from those of us who consume more than 100kwh of electricity every month, to those who consume less than that every month. Eto ang maganda: Meralco ang nagmamaganda in the end. Because they’re the ones who seem to be generous, giving all these discounts to those who consume the least electricity. Meanwhile we are left with no choice but to do this, even when we’re not sure where our money goes, and whether or not our subsidies really do affect those of us who can’t afford to pay for electricity. It’s so easy after all to just give out discounts – isn’t that the nature of capitalist enterprises if only to seem like they’re being kinder to consumers?

Who’s to blame for this one? GMA and her EPIRA which put it on our bills, to Meralco’s joy.

4. Universal Charges which is really only made up of the Missionary or Missionary Electrification and Environmental Charges.
4a. This is collected from all end-users with the goal of making electricity available to unprofitable parts of the country. So, based on our kwh consumption of electricity every month, we are being made to pay for the “total electrification of the country” according to the EPIRA or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. This we can blame on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who rushed it soon after she came into office.
4b. This goes straight to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) which is owned and controlled by government and created by RA 9136. This means that this is also a pass-on or pass-through charge. None of it goes to Meralco raw.

This may seem negligible, yes? Parang ang liit-liit ng P20.25 kumpara sa dalawang libo mahigit na singil para sa Distribution Charges na napupunta sa Napocor. But other than the fact na, uh, dapat yata hindi natin ‘to binabayaran buwan-buwan (kailan ito matatapos? kailan matutupad ang pangarap na “total electrification” ng Pilipinas? or better yet, alam ba nating doon napupunta ang pera natin?), take a look at how much they collected of the Universal Charges alone for March 2007: P138,264,690.45. Ano daw ‘yon? P138 million pesos? E bakit parati pa rin tayong nakakapanood ng dokyu sa i-witness tungkol sa mga lugar na hindi inaabot ng kuryente, at kung saan kailangang magbasa sa kandila ng mga pobreng estudyante?

5. Government Taxes – is self explanatory. What is not is everything that falls under it. And you will be surprised at what it is we’re being taxed for: it’s everything!
5a. Local Franchise Tax – any private utility company is required to pay this back to government. 2% of gross revenues goes to the national government as national franchise tax, and 0.05% to 0.75% goes to the local government in the form of the local franchise tax.
5b. Value Added Tax – which should be in the plural given the various other things that are taxed:
1. Generation Charge – 10.4% tax
2. Prev Mos Adj on Gen Cost – 9.32% tax
3. Transmission Charge – 10.69% tax
4. System Loss Charge – 10.49% tax
5. Distribution Rev and Subs – 12% tax

In effect, we are being taxed for most of our bill: the Generation Charge that goes to Napocor/IPPs, the Transmission Charge that goes to Transco, and the Distribution Charge that goes to Meralco. We also pay for the electricity that is unused, undelivered, or unproduced by the IPPs (as per those terrible Ramos era contracts). Eto and pinaka-punchline: we also pay taxes for the Lifeline Rate Subsidy AND the Local Franchise Tax. Both of these fall under “Subs” beside Distribution Rev. So nag-donate na nga tayo para sa electricity ng mahihirap, pinapagbayad pa tayo ng taxes; at taxed ulit ang Franchise Tax na binabayaran natin.

Pero eto na talaga ang pinaka, pinaka punchline sa lahat. Minus the Universal Charges (kase siguro nakakahiya namang i-tax pa tayo para sa page-electrify ng buong bayan through the Missionary fee), we are taxed by government again. Isa pang 10% tax ang pinapataw sa buong bill natin, over and above the individual taxes we paid under Government Taxes.

This is a pass-through charge, which means none of it goes to Meralco. Winner lang ang gobyerno. “

cha-cha in the senate – chika lang?

what’s with senator chiz escudero?!?

I may be one of the 12 authors but I will withdraw my signature when voting comes. . . . Let us debate and gather facts and that’s it. I prefer to fight for the retention of the presidential system.”

so bakit bakit bakit siya pumirma? nakikisama kay senator nene pimentel?

Senator Francis Joseph Escudero said he signed the document with reservations, because Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had assured him it would only be used to open a debate and gather facts.”

ganoon. so hindi pala serious, nakoryente ako for nothing, joke only, the senate is just having some fun, nanggugulo lang, to distract us from the food and oil crisis, and i suppose, nang-iinis lang, dahil wala silang magawa, dahil hindi sila makaeksena sa rice drama, dahil sila rin, tulad ni gma at ng lower house, walang foresight, walang vision for the country, magaling lang sa pulitika, magaling lang kumita.

but wait. sey ni mon casiple:

The Pimentel move is supported by 10 senators, including Senate President Manny Villar. What gives? The logical suspicion–given the consistent anti-cha-cha position of most senators is that it is a gambit essentially to preempt a reportedly serious Palace decision to launch a charter change initiative in the few months remaining before the 2010 election fever sets it. It is a political thrust designed to control the tempo on the issue and prevent it from endangering the 2010 elections.”

iyan din ang suspicion sa New Philippine Revolution:

Notice that the ones who co-signed the resolution were also strong oppositors to cha-cha, especially Senate President Manuel Villar and Senators Pia Cayetano, Juan Ponce Enrile, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Francis Pangilinan and Ramon Revilla Jr. The voting crossed partylines, showing the urgency of the resolution.

“What prompted them to file a resolution such as this one? Are they anticipating some moves from Malacanang? Is this a move to finally solve the impasse in peace talks with the Bangsamoro people? . . . . Is the Senate pre-empting a similar undertaking from Congress? Do they have prior information that Congress will be initiating cha-cha moves this May?”

aha. so. that’s why malamig ang palasyo at ang lower house sa proposal, dahil inunahan sila. ibig sabihin kasi, malabo nang ma-echapuwera ang senado sa cha-cha.

does this mean we can forgive the senate for toying with us about cha-cha, which is no joking, toying, matter?

sey ni ninez cacho-olivares:

Pimentel and 11 other senators may not realize it as yet, but they just showered Gloria with the proverbial manna from heaven.

“If it was the House that proposed amendments or even a revision of the Constitution, Malacañang would easily be the prime suspect as its mover. But with the opposition taking the lead in pushing constitutional amendments, it cannot be said Malacañang has been pressing the right buttons to get these changes going.

“But what the opposition members in the Senate fail to realize is that Gloria is always two steps ahead of them and can, at will, manipulate things to favor her and her personal and political interests.

“The Senate has created a political trap and will fall into its own trap.”

susmaryosep. from the frying pan into the fire! sana hindi.