Equations
Equations
Updated 09:27pm (Mla time) Sept 27, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the September 28, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IT'S a reminder that needs to be made again and again. Recovering ill-gotten wealth is not the end in itself, it is the means to an end. The point is to use it for the public good. Specifically, to promote justice, the one thing martial law obliterated. Recovering the wealth the crooks stole from the people is just the first part of business. The second part is giving it back to them.
That hasn't happened, least of all under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as a group called Partnership for Agrarian Reform (PAR) revealed. Last week, during the 32nd anniversary of martial law, it showed how exactly the Ms Arroyo government has been using the money it has gotten back from Ferdinand Marcos.
That money stood at P38 billion early this year. That was to be divided into P8 billion for the martial law victims and P30 billion for land reform. A meritorious arrangement. Of course, all Filipinos, except the Marcos cronies, were victims of martial law. But some were more victims than others. Indeed, what made the torture victims exceptionally deserving of compensation was not just that they suffered the most, but that they did the most to free this country from its chains. That was why they suffered the most, because they raised a hand against tyranny, often when there was no one else to do it.
That the rest of the money would go to land reform made sense just as well. The "people" are preponderantly the poor, and the poor, who are to be found particularly among tenants and sharecroppers, have had one burning cry throughout the ages--to own the land they till.
The compensation of the martial law victims has not happened. The martial law victims may have won the battle of the court, but they have not won the battle of the count. To this day, they have not gotten their due, and only God, or Ms Arroyo, knows when they will get it. The wheels of justice have been known to grind slowly, but in this case they do not grind at all.
The second--the portion that should go to land reform--has been used sparingly for land reform. The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council Agreement of August 2003 stipulates that 70 percent of the P30 billion would go to acquire and distribute lands and 30 percent to "high-impact interventions that will reach a greater number of beneficiaries." The Arroyo government has already used P6 billion and allocated another P6 billion.
Of the first P6 billion, P2.7 billion has been given to Land Bank in partial payment of its land acquisition activities, P2.2 billion for support services, P544 million for Ms Arroyo Rice program, P544 for irrigation projects of the NIA, P30 million for coconut processing. Of the second P6 billion, P3 billion has been set for land acquisition and distribution, P1 billion for net cash allotment, and P2 billion for automatic payment of bonds.
Three things are wrong with this use of the Marcos money.
First, of the P12 billion that has been spent or allocated, only the P2.7 billion and P3 billion for land acquisition and distribution clearly follow the PARC agreement. The others go beyond the 30 percent ceiling for support services and most of them do not qualify as high-impact interventions anyway. Certainly, giving P30 million to a private firm to process coconut is entirely unjustifiable.
Second, the P12 billion, which is 40 percent of the P38 billion recovered Marcos loot, has been spent or allocated in a record eight months, from February to September this year. At this rate, nothing will be left of the money by the end of next year. Indeed, the way Ms Arroyo has been using the Marcos money, the torture victims may seriously wonder if they will get compensated at all. Agreements do not seem to have a binding effect on their President.
This raises a related issue, which is: The use of the Marcos money has been left nearly entirely to the President's discretion. She may or may not follow the PARC agreement as she pleases. Indeed, she may or may not follow the law as she pleases. There is no transparency, or accounting, in the uses of the funds. That is particularly worrisome in light of one important thing. Which is the PCGG's disclosure that from 1986 to 2003, the government has recovered an additional P22 billion from the Marcoses. This money has not been accounted for to this day. Malacanang has yet to show which agency, or pocket, or quicksand it has gone to.
That brings us to the most important issue of all, which is, whether the billions of pesos that have already been spent have actually gone to where they appear on paper. PAR does not suggest a reason for the speed with which Ms Arroyo used up the bulk of the recovered Marcos wealth, but we know that the period from February to first week of May was the campaign period. And we know that the period afterward was one where debts, of the political rather than financial kind, had to be paid.
We have at least Frank Chavez to give evidence about how a portion of that money went to finance Ms Arroyo's campaign. He may be entirely right when he says, that is but the tip of the iceberg. Ms Arroyo spared no government agency to raise a sum with which to pay a king's ransom, or in this case to buy a queen's continued stay on a throne. It is inconceivable she did not think of the Marcos loot first.
Recovering ill-gotten wealth is not unlike raising taxes or making suggestions of pooling scant resources to avert economic disaster. That is all very well, but raising money is just the first part of the equation. Spending it wisely is the second.
In this country, the second is clearly the harder thing to do.
Updated 09:27pm (Mla time) Sept 27, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the September 28, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IT'S a reminder that needs to be made again and again. Recovering ill-gotten wealth is not the end in itself, it is the means to an end. The point is to use it for the public good. Specifically, to promote justice, the one thing martial law obliterated. Recovering the wealth the crooks stole from the people is just the first part of business. The second part is giving it back to them.
That hasn't happened, least of all under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as a group called Partnership for Agrarian Reform (PAR) revealed. Last week, during the 32nd anniversary of martial law, it showed how exactly the Ms Arroyo government has been using the money it has gotten back from Ferdinand Marcos.
That money stood at P38 billion early this year. That was to be divided into P8 billion for the martial law victims and P30 billion for land reform. A meritorious arrangement. Of course, all Filipinos, except the Marcos cronies, were victims of martial law. But some were more victims than others. Indeed, what made the torture victims exceptionally deserving of compensation was not just that they suffered the most, but that they did the most to free this country from its chains. That was why they suffered the most, because they raised a hand against tyranny, often when there was no one else to do it.
That the rest of the money would go to land reform made sense just as well. The "people" are preponderantly the poor, and the poor, who are to be found particularly among tenants and sharecroppers, have had one burning cry throughout the ages--to own the land they till.
The compensation of the martial law victims has not happened. The martial law victims may have won the battle of the court, but they have not won the battle of the count. To this day, they have not gotten their due, and only God, or Ms Arroyo, knows when they will get it. The wheels of justice have been known to grind slowly, but in this case they do not grind at all.
The second--the portion that should go to land reform--has been used sparingly for land reform. The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council Agreement of August 2003 stipulates that 70 percent of the P30 billion would go to acquire and distribute lands and 30 percent to "high-impact interventions that will reach a greater number of beneficiaries." The Arroyo government has already used P6 billion and allocated another P6 billion.
Of the first P6 billion, P2.7 billion has been given to Land Bank in partial payment of its land acquisition activities, P2.2 billion for support services, P544 million for Ms Arroyo Rice program, P544 for irrigation projects of the NIA, P30 million for coconut processing. Of the second P6 billion, P3 billion has been set for land acquisition and distribution, P1 billion for net cash allotment, and P2 billion for automatic payment of bonds.
Three things are wrong with this use of the Marcos money.
First, of the P12 billion that has been spent or allocated, only the P2.7 billion and P3 billion for land acquisition and distribution clearly follow the PARC agreement. The others go beyond the 30 percent ceiling for support services and most of them do not qualify as high-impact interventions anyway. Certainly, giving P30 million to a private firm to process coconut is entirely unjustifiable.
Second, the P12 billion, which is 40 percent of the P38 billion recovered Marcos loot, has been spent or allocated in a record eight months, from February to September this year. At this rate, nothing will be left of the money by the end of next year. Indeed, the way Ms Arroyo has been using the Marcos money, the torture victims may seriously wonder if they will get compensated at all. Agreements do not seem to have a binding effect on their President.
This raises a related issue, which is: The use of the Marcos money has been left nearly entirely to the President's discretion. She may or may not follow the PARC agreement as she pleases. Indeed, she may or may not follow the law as she pleases. There is no transparency, or accounting, in the uses of the funds. That is particularly worrisome in light of one important thing. Which is the PCGG's disclosure that from 1986 to 2003, the government has recovered an additional P22 billion from the Marcoses. This money has not been accounted for to this day. Malacanang has yet to show which agency, or pocket, or quicksand it has gone to.
That brings us to the most important issue of all, which is, whether the billions of pesos that have already been spent have actually gone to where they appear on paper. PAR does not suggest a reason for the speed with which Ms Arroyo used up the bulk of the recovered Marcos wealth, but we know that the period from February to first week of May was the campaign period. And we know that the period afterward was one where debts, of the political rather than financial kind, had to be paid.
We have at least Frank Chavez to give evidence about how a portion of that money went to finance Ms Arroyo's campaign. He may be entirely right when he says, that is but the tip of the iceberg. Ms Arroyo spared no government agency to raise a sum with which to pay a king's ransom, or in this case to buy a queen's continued stay on a throne. It is inconceivable she did not think of the Marcos loot first.
Recovering ill-gotten wealth is not unlike raising taxes or making suggestions of pooling scant resources to avert economic disaster. That is all very well, but raising money is just the first part of the equation. Spending it wisely is the second.
In this country, the second is clearly the harder thing to do.
posted by Dante at 12:22 PM
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