Stop Paying Nuke Plant Debt, SC Justice Urges Gov't

Posted 11:46pm (Mla time) April 20, 2005
By Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer News Service
Published on page A1 of the Apr. 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines -- Supreme Court Associate Justice Reynato Puno has urged the government to consider stopping payments for loans that the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos borrowed to build the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

Speaking at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines' 10th national convention here Tuesday night, Puno said international experts had taken the position that foreign bankers, who knowingly lent to corrupt governments, were liable for graft.

"[Several foreign creditors] knew or had no reason not to know that the loans will be used for some illegitimate purpose like supporting notoriously brazen and kleptocratic military regimes," Puno said at the convention whose theme is "Alleviating Poverty and Resolving the Fiscal Crisis."

Puno said these creditors need not be paid because they were parties to the crime. Citing Noreen Hertz, an economist at the University of Cambridge,

Puno said "there are debts which should be considered illegitimate and therefore should not be paid."
"Nearer home, the finger points to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which was built in 1976 and which cost us $1.9 billion in loans," he said. [Some reports placed the total cost of the plant at $2.3 billion.]

Puno noted that the Philippines was shelling out $170,000 daily (P9.35 million a day or P3.4 billion a year) for the BNPP loans and that the payments would continue until 2018.

Servicing the country's debts now accounts for the largest government expenditure, overtaking salaries of government workers in the national budget of P907.56 billion for 2005, according to Puno.

The tragedy is that Filipinos have not benefited from a single watt of electricity from the nuclear plant, which was constructed on a known earthquake fault, according to former National Treasurer Leonor Briones.

Debt repudiation

Puno said debt repudiation was nothing new. The United States repudiated Cuba's debts to Spain in 1898 at about the time it acquired the Philippines from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, according to the justice.

Today, he said South Africa, which is under black majority rule, had started questioning its obligation to repay loans acquired during the apartheid government.

He also said activists in the Iraqi government were questioning their foreign debts, which were secured by Saddam Hussein "to buy the knives that slaughtered them."

Making accountable businessmen, who were parties to a crime, also has a precedent, according to Puno.

Nuremberg Trials

He said the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II, which tried Nazi leaders for war crimes, also convicted businessmen who knowingly collaborated with the Nazis and were therefore as guilty as the people who brutalized the Jews in gas chambers.

Puno suggested that the government seek either a payment scheme similar to the Section 11 clause in the United States for bankrupt taxpayers, or a federal debt protection scheme covering American towns.

He said these schemes shield bankrupt individuals or entities from the forfeiture of their assets, protect their ability to earn, and in the case of the Philippines, its ability to continue supplying public services.

A federal law grants American municipal towns protection from creditors, enabling them to continue restructuring debts without sacrificing the quality of public service.

But Puno points out that the US law bars the towns from issuing new taxes to pay for their debts.

Puno said Hertz's proposal to put up a system patterned after the US bankruptcy laws to help developing countries could be applicable to most Asian nations burdened by debts, which were obtained by graft-ridden governments.

He said government should seek international support for an independent "ad hoc intermediary group" that would assist heavily indebted Third World countries.

Three Mile Island

It was another Puno who stopped the BNPP project. Former Justice Secretary Ricardo Puno was tasked by Marcos with assessing the condition of the plant in light of the 1979 breakdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

International experts have listed the BNPP's safety violations, including its susceptibility to an earthquake-induced damage. The Puno Commission eventually declared the plant unsafe.

But despite its mothballing, the administration of former President Corazon Aquino decided to continue paying the loans after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved

Summary Points on Rehab Leave and Related Benefits

Notes: The following are summaries of points agreed upon by the Systemwide Ad Hoc Committee to Study Rehabilitation Leave (and Related Benefits) for Job Related Injuries during its last meeting today, April 21, 2005, 9:30 AM at the UP Manila Board. Recommendations of the Committee will be forwarded to the Office of President Emerlinda Roman for consideration by the EXECOM and of the BOR.

The present Ad Hoc Committee was already the second created, after the first committee formed on October 16, 2003 failed to came up with a substantial recommendation. It was created in response to Section 2, Article X of the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) executed on April 19, 2002 between UP and the All UP Workers Union.

1. The Rehabilitation Leave with pay up to six months (to include monthly salary and ACA/PERA) shall cover all employees sector and all position levels. It shall also include expenses for transportation and immediate medical treatment for work-related injuries and diseases that shall be borne-out by the University.
2. Each Constituent University/Campus shall establish a commmunications hotline so that a University Official capable of deciding on necessary immediate assistance to an employees who suffered an accident or injuries in line of duty will be readily available.
3. It must be noted that all throughout the UP System, only employees of the Philippine General Hospital has been enjoying the rehabilitation leave with pay (without assistance for transportation and immediate medical expenses) provided under CSC Memorandum Circular No. 41 s. of 1988 prompting the Union to include said benefit in the CNA Negotiation, to add more weight in its implementation.
4. The List of Occupational and Compensable Diseasese prescribed by the Employees Compensation Commission shall be used in determining those covered for service-related illnesses. In such case, records in the Employees Clinic for Employment and Annual Physical Examinations will be immensely utilized to determine whether a disease condition is work-related or not. Note: For UP Manila/PGH Employees, it was already established that all laboratory and radiologic examinations that are available in PGH shall be available to both UP Manila/PGH employees chargeable against UP Manila/PGH and not to individual employees.

Corollary issue of increasing government contributions to the SIF from P30 to P100 per employee per month (Per ECC Board Resolution No. 02-04-235 s. 2002 and GSIS Board Resolution No. 166 s. 2004) will be closely monitored by the Union so that such adjust ment will be included in the 2006 Budget Proposal of UP (General Fund).

State Terrorism Today: Comparable To Or Even Worse Than Marcos-era Martial Law

Press Statement/April 16, 2005
NDF-EV Media Liaison Office
Karlos Manuel, Spokesperson
Efren Martires Command
New People’s Army-Eastern Visasyas

The people’s ordeal is fast worsening. They continue to suffer under the grave political and economic crisis. It is not only the common people who cry out against such harsh exploitation and oppression, but even the middle classes and the small business people. This has come about because of the inhumane and anti-Filipino way that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo runs the government. Instead of the interest of the Filipino people, it prioritizes and protects the interest of the big landlords, comprador bourgeoisie, and the foreigners led by US imperialism.

Arroyo has completely abandoned her honeyed promises to the masses of the people when she was just jockeying to be in power. Whatever grievances, criticisms and calls of the people for genuine reforms have only been met with the grimness of fascism and militarization.

Today the people suffer the brunt of state terrorism that is comparable to or even worse than Marcos-era martial law. Military authority overshadows civilian supremacy. Fascist laws that are being churned out disregard democratic processes and trample on basic human rights. The blind and reckless “anti-terrorism” campaign of the Arroyo government gives license to grave military abuses.

The choice of the “Butcher of Mindoro”, Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan, as the new commanding general of the 8th ID PA is unsurprising. The Arroyo regime believes that the likes of Palparan – a master of abductions and extra-judicial killings – will be able to silence the legal opposition and subdue the revolutionary movement. This is one of the many desperate measures of the Arroyo regime to forestall the people’s resistance and to remain in power. Palparan quickly strutted his stuff as Arroyo’s favorite butcher. After publicly announcingthat he would subdue the opposition within six months, there has been continuing killings of leaders of militant groups,especially Bayan Muna.

Abductions and wholesale harassment were also extensive. Military campaigns in the barrios intensified, resulting in grave military abuses. They do not realize that through such means, they are pushing the people to the wall and convincing them, who have long been hungry and desperate, to bear arms and wage revolution.

The military’s grave human rights violations are inseparable from Arroyo’s general counter-insurgency program that is anchored on her support of Bush’s “war on terrorism” throughout the world. The cases of human rights violations in the country have been increasing since Arroyo declared support for the “war on terror” of Bush, which prods the Arroyo government to launch militarist and fascist attacks on the people who have done nothing but stand up for genuine freedom and democracy.

In this situation, the Efren Martires Command of the NPA-EasternVisayas calls on those who love genuine democracy and freedom to stand up and be fearless in the face of the terrorism of the present state. Let us struggle to defend our civil liberties and democratic rights. Let us be unafraid of struggling against the abuses of the military led by Palparan. Let us launch a powerful protest movement to unseat the inhumane and anti-Filipino Arroyo regime.//

Taxes Under GMA Administration Becoming More Regressive

Press Release/April 19, 2005
Reference: Mr. Paul Quintos, Executive Director, EILER, Inc.
Office Number: 02 9130326
Mobile Number: 09178867286


"The tax policy of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is becoming more and more regressive. The ordinary wage-earners are being taxed more compared to local and foreign big business and is clearly geared against the poor of this country."

This was according to Mr. Paul Quintos, Executive Director of the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Incorporated or EILER, Inc. Based on the data gathered by EILER, Inc., the ordinary Filipino bears the burden of paying more taxes.

"Since President Arroyo assumed power in 2001, the ordinary wage-earners are increasingly being taxed more compared to the business sector. In the year 2001, P75.19B came from wage-earners, while P147.3B came from the business sector," added Quintos. "But in 2003, contributions from wage-earners increase to P121B or an increase of 61% from the previous level, while contributions from the business sector decreased by 17%."

Comparison Between Individual Income and Business Taxes (in PhP Millions)

Income Tax on Business
2001 - 147,334
2002 - 110,800
2003 - 122,101

Income Tax on Individual
2001 - 75,195
2002 - 102,300
2003 - 121,077

Source: Basic data from the NSCB "National Accounts"

"The divide further widens when we compare the percentage of taxes paid by ordinary Filipinos to big multi-national corporations (MNC) which enjoy generous tax breaks and other incentives from the government," opined Quintos.

Based on the EILER research, Fujitsu Philippines, a Japanese electronics company, pays a measly .6% of their gross income in 2001, while Toshiba Information Equipment, paid an even lower amount of .05% of their gross income in the same year.

"While in 2001, an average of 8.2% of the gross income of ordinary Filipinos are being eaten away by taxes, this big MNC's are not even paying 1%," asserted Quintos. "Those who earn less paid more, while those earning billions paid less. Now that is what we call a regressive tax policy."

In 2003 alone, the government's foregone revenues due to VAT exemptions – which benefit big corporations most of all – amounted to P195 billion or more than twice the expected additional revenues to be raised by increasing the VAT rate to 12%.

Mr. Quintos added that such a dire situation for ordinary taxpayers, are bound to go from bad to worse when the additional VAT is implemented. ##