Preliminary Statement of Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello
Committee on Foreign Affairs Hearing, House of Representatives, Feb 21, 2012
I would like, first of all, to express my gratitude to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Alfrancis Bichara, for calling this series of hearings and the Committee Secretary Millet Apostol for arranging it.
Need for Transparency in Foreign Policy
Transparency has been one of the watchwords of this administration in its battle to root out corruption. It is a goal that I, as a member of the administration coalition, fervently agree with. Thus, it is with some disappointment that I must say that I still have to see the campaign for transparency extend to the realm of foreign relations, especially when it comes to our relations with the United States.
Congress is very much in the situation of the ordinary citizen these days when it comes to our relations with the United States. We know very little about what is going on. And this is not because we are preoccupied with the impeachment process, but because the Executive is sharing so little with us. And with so little information being passed on to us, many of us are beginning to feel incompetent when it comes to the formation of our country’s foreign policy, which is one of our constitutional obligations. We are not even in a position of being able to exercise our duty of providing a critical counterweight to executive decisions so that the interests of the people and the country are truly served. We are, in short, being taken for granted.
By Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello
Published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 20th, 2012
A comment I made to the Inquirer (Feb 17, 2012) urging the administration to initiate moves to confiscate Chief Justice Renato Corona’s undeclared wealth prompted a number of comments, one of which was from a reader who asked if that would not be prejudging the result of the impeachment process and thus subverting it.
The Facts
But before I answer, a few facts are in order. And when it comes to the case of the Filipino people versus Corona, contra factum non esse disputandum, as the Romans put it: one cannot argue against the facts. It is clear by now that Corona deliberately concealed the magnitude of his wealth from the citizenry. He did not declare two of seven properties and grossly undervalued the rest. The difference between Corona’s claim of P18,436,980 for his declared properties and their actual acquisition cost of P47,047,731 —as revealed by documents presented at the trial—is a whopping P28,054,951.
Moreover, in his 2010 SALN (Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth), Corona declared a cash balance in five bank accounts of P3,500,000, but evidence presented at the trial showed a total of P31,752,623. This meant a yawning discrepancy of P28,252,623.
Adding up the missing P28 million+ in undeclared property and P28 million+ in undeclared income yields P56 million+. And this sum does not include the unknown sum in Corona’s dollar accounts, the subpoena for which the Supreme Court has issued a TRO, which the majority in the Senate have voted to respect.
Corona is not only a peso millionaire but a dollar millionaire, with his net worth coming to at least $1.4 million at the current rate of exchange. He may not be a Henry Sy or Lucio Tan, but this amount places him among the less than one twentieth of one per cent of Filipinos who are dollar millionaires, indeed of the minuscule number of dollar millionaires worldwide. This is not the financial profile of a senior civil servant that derives his income principally from his government salary but that of a Filipino CEO or a man of inherited wealth.
Group says people successful in revealing truth behind bank records
Akbayan Party today reiterated its call to Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona to resign from his post saying that his guilt is already “clear and obvious.”
According to Akbayan spokesperson Risa Hontiveros, the basis of Article 2 alone of the impeachment complaint has already been proven that Corona is unfit to hold the office of Chief Justice.
“Sapat na ang nadinig at nakita ng mamamayan sa impeachment trial. The evidence that has been presented unmistakably showed that Corona has failed repeatedly in submitting accurate, truthful, and timely SALNs (Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth). It is as clear as day. This is an important victory for the people,” Hontiveros said.
Akbayan Party today lambasted Chief Justice Renato Corona’s filing of an urgent petition before the Supreme Court asking for certiorari and prohibition with prayer for an immediate issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a writ for preliminary injunction which, among other things, would prevent officers of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Philippine Savings Bank (PS Bank) from giving testimonies and submitting Corona’s bank documents before the Senate, sitting as the Impeachment Court.
Akbayan said Corona’s petition is virtually seeking to transform the high tribunal into a refuge for plunderers, liars, and crooks.
“Should the SC decide to tackle the petition, it would not be for the rule of law or constitutional order but to ensure honor among thieves, guarantee that Corona remains scot-free and to prevent him from being removed from office,” Akbayan Spokesperson Risa Hontiveros said.
According to Hontiveros, “Corona is turning to the high tribunal to whitewash his crimes.”
By Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello
www.inquirer.net
Apple’s march to market supremacy has been accomplished at tremendous cost to both American and Chinese workers
Ever since the beginning of the current global economic crisis, the focus of both critical analysis and public odium has been speculative capital. In the populist narrative, it was the breathtaking shenanigans of the banks in an atmosphere of deregulation that led to the economic collapse. The “financial economy,” characterized as parasitic and bad, was contrasted to the “real economy,” which was said to produce real goods and real value. Resources flowed into speculative activities in finance, resulting in a loss of dynamism in the real economy and eventually leading to credit cutoff at the height of the crisis, causing bankruptcies and massive layoffs.
Vampire Squid versus Corporate Galahad?
The principal villain in this narrative is Goldman Sachs. The image of this Wall Street denizen has been etched in the public mind by Matt Taibbi’s description of it in Rolling Stone as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
In this account, the old nemesis of the progressive analysts, the transnational corporation (TNC), slips quietly into the background. Indeed, it is seen as part of the real economy, as the commonly used term “non-financial corporation” implies. In contrast to the investment banks that create fictitious products like derivatives, TNCs are said to create real products like Apple’s nifty iPads and iPhones. While Goldman Sachs is pictured as a vampire squid, Apple is depicted as a corporate Galahad that can be relied on to deliver the consumer’s wildest desires. In one survey, 56 percent of Americans associated nothing negative with Apple.
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