Ilocos guv felt taxman’s woes

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ALAMINOS CITY- The top honcho of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who supervises Western Pangasinan referred to the “Belt-Tightening” Policy of the Aquino Administration in the first fiscal semester for a sluggish tax collection.

Revenue District-5 Chief Quirino Ramos said that in all of the six (6) Revenue District Offices in Region 1, only La Union’s Revenue District Office (RDO) breached the goal  for this year that was given to it by the national government.

“There are no new industries in my district. One of the bulks of my tax sources come from the TRA (Tax Remittance Advisory) where revenues come from the withholding taxes like income and value added tax of contractors doing government projects,” he stressed.

He said that last year all the RDOs in the Ilocos Region were beneficiaries of the massive government spending under the administration of then president Gloria Arroyo. He said the bullish collection during that year was capped by the 2010 national and local election where politicians spent billions of pesos in poll campaign spending.

Ramos blamed the shortfall of his tax goal to the uncollected P75 million TRA.

“I was given a 16% increase tax target .Without the deficit of P75 million I should have hit my target”.

He said that of all the RDOs in Region 1, his district is the smallest.

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee R. Marcos corroborated the woes on the sluggish tax collection encountered by Ramos and most of the RDOs in the Ilocos Region.

Marcos in her column in a tabloid said that the government should not crow on the billions of pesos it save for the first fiscal semester as it did not spend a dime for this year.

“Hindi naman kailangan pa ng isang ekonomista para hindi maunawaan ang ginagawa ng gobyerno. Simple lang naman talaga ito, hindi ba? Ang kailangan ay gumastos, itaya ang pera o i-invest ito ng higit na kumita hindli lang ang kaban ng bayan kundi mismo ang bawat bulsa ng mamayang Pilipino”.

The governor concluded that as result of this policy there was no production that caused unemployment among the taxpayers.

Manay Gina bats for the establishment of a fish port in Dagupan

Manay Gina teams with Pfizer to combat pneumonia: Rep. Gina de Venecia of Pangasinan's 4th District  has joined Pfizer Philippines in its campaign to eradicate  pneumonia, otitis media and meningitis that endanger children. Some 500 kids from Barangay Pantal, Dagupan City  benefitted from the said project. 

Photo shows Manay Gina with Barangay Captain Lilia Yazar during the Pfizer Philippines vaccination program held at the University of Pangasinan last Saturday. 

Fourth District Representative Gina de Venecia is pushing for the establishment of a modern fish port in Dagupan City.

“Most iconic of Dagupan is its title as the Bangus Capital of the World,” she said, “but despite the strength of its fishing industry and after 64 years as a city, Dagupan still lacks a modern fish port to support this major industry.”

She said that while a fish processing facility was opened last year to aid the fast processing of fish harvest, there is a difficulty in transporting and bringing the fish harvest to the plant.

“This calls for a dire need to establish a fish port within the city, where the fish processing facility is located, she said.

She added, “Moreover, with the presence of both the fish port and fish processing facility, the export of local fish to international markets will be greater than before.”

She expects that the construction of the fish port will improve the income of fisherfolks and fish processors in the city thereby ensuring the sufficiency of fish supply in the whole province.

Under this act, the Department of Agriculture, through the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority shall formulate the rules and regulation necessary to effectively implement its provisions.

The proposal was successfully defended by Rep. De Venecia, last week, at the hearing of the Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries at the House of Representatives.

Once passed, the fish port is expected to benefit bangus growers and other fishpen operators in Dagupan and the whole of Pangasinan. 

Pag-amyenda sa R.A. 9165 patuloy na pinaguusapan

MALAMAN ang naging pagpupulong ng Committee on Dangerous Drugs nitong nakaraang Martes sa House of Representatives sa pangunguna ng CommitteeChairman Cong. Vicente “Varf” Belmonte.   Ang patuloy na pagpupulong ay naglalayong mag-review sa Republic Act 9165 (R.A. 9165) partikular sa isyu ng “mandatory drug testing” para sa mga drivers at mga mag-aaral; pagbabalik ng parusang kamatayan at ilang mga panukala na magiging dahilan upang i-amyenda ang batas at mas maging epektibo at kapaki-pakinabang.

Nakatutuwa sapagkat ang naging “battlecry” na ng aking kolum na ito na pagbabalik ng parusang kamatayan ay isa sa pinaka-mainit na tinalakay sa pagpupulong.  Sa akin kasing obserbasyon at maging ng ating mga mambabatas, tanging parusang kamatayan lamang ang tunay na makapag-papabawas ng problema sa iligal na droga.

Bagama’t ang Department of Justice (DOJ), ayon sa kanilang kinatawan sa pagpupulong, ay may kaunting “reservation” sa isyu ng pagbabalik ng parusang kamatayan kung kaya’t minabuti ng committee na sila ay hingan ng posisyon hinggil dito.

Ikinakampanya ko talaga ang pagbabalik ng parusang kamatayan sapagkat alam kong ito lamang ang makapag-bibigay ng hustisya sa mga kaso at personalidad na binibiktima ng salot na droga.  Sa pamamagitan ng parusang ito, magiging patas na rin ang batas sa pagtrato sa ganitong kaso laban sa mga dayuhang nagpa-patakbo ng sindikato sa ating bansa.

Magbibigay hustisya rin ito sa mga inosente at karaniwang mamamayan na madalas ay nagiging biktima ng heinous crimes, na kadalasang nabibiktima ay mga taong walang sapat na kakayahan upang bigyang-katarungan ang nangyari sa kanilang pamilya.

Sa bansang Tsina, hindi inalintana ang pakiusap ng isang Bise-Presidente upang pigilin ang pagbitay sa ating tatlong kababayan noong nakaraang Marso na umano ay “drug couriers” ng international drug syndicate.

Ito ay kanilang patunay sa buong mundo na ang kasong “drug trafficking” ay tinatrato nila ng seryoso at walang sinuman ang makapag-bibigay ng impluwensya upang hindi maisakatuparan ang kanilang istriktong batas ukol dito.

Ganito ang pinapangarap ko para sa Pilipinas kung kailan walang sinumang dayuhan ang magba-balewala sa ating batas at mangangahas na gawing transit point ang ating bansa para sa kanilang iligal na negosyo!

***

Isa rin ang “mandatory drug testing” na umani ng iba’t-ibang reaksyon sa pulong subali’t ito ay normal lamang lalo na kung nais nating maging seryoso sa pag-amyenda ng ating batas ukol sa iligal na droga.

May mga nais na kasing magpa-balewala nito sapagkat hindi sila naniniwala na ito ay epektibo. Sa totoo lang, kung drug testing sa mga driver ang pag-uusapan, maaari nga itong madaya.

Sa panahon kasi ng renewal ng kanilang lisensya ginagamit ang drug test kung kaya’t sila man ay regular na gumagamit ng shabu o marijuana, ilang araw bago dumating ang kanilang renewal at pagpa-drug test ay maaari na silang tumigil pansamantala upang hindi makita sa resulta ang kanilang pag-gamit!

Ito ang nakikita ng mga kritiko na kahinaan ng mandatory drug testing para sa mga driver! Ang renewal kasi ng lisensya ay ang araw ng kapanganakan kung kaya’t alam ng driver kung kailan dapat magpa-drug test!

Ngunit sang-ayon tayo sa “random” drug testing na isinusulong kung saan ang sinuman ay hindi makapag-hahanda sapagkat ito ay isinasagawa ng hindi naka-anunsyo o pasabi.  Sa mandatorydrug testing kasi alam ng tao kung kailan ang drug test.

Maging sa mag-aaral, ginagawa na ang random drug testing ng Department of Health (DOH)  at batay sa mga report na ating tinatanggap, nakatutulong ito upang ang mga magulang ay ma-alarma at makipag-tulungan sa paaralan kung paano maagapan ang problema.

Ang mga nabanggit na isyu ay ilan lamang sa masusing pinag-uusapan ngayon at pinag-aaralan ng Technical Working Group (TWG) sa Kongreso.  Bawa’t isyu ay nangangailangan ng maingat na pag-aaral bago pa mapag-desisyunan na  isama sa dapat ma-amyendahan.  Ilang panahon na lamang at umaasa tayo sa magandang resulta ng pag-aamyenda sa R.A. 9165.

***

Sa kolum ko noong nakaraang Agosto 4, 2011, isinulat ko ang aking panawagan kay Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman para tipunin ang mga street children na palagiang nakikita sa mga kalsada, tulay at ilalim ng tulay na pagdating ng hapon ay tila sinusundo ng isang sasakyan upang dalhin kung saan ay hindi natin alam.

Natutuwa ako sapagkat parang napapanahong kasagutan sa         aking panawagan ang ginawang forum ng DSWD kamakalawa sa Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria sa Ortigas para sa kanilang target na “zero street children by the end of this year.”

Ginawa sa pakikiisa ng Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) at 17 local government units (LGUs) sa buong National Capital Region (NCR).

Lumagda ang DSWD at punong-bayan ng mga pangunahing siyudad tulad ng Manila, Quezon, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Mandaluyong at Muntinlupa bilang “priority areas” ng Comprehensive Program for Street Children.

Napakaganda ng hakbang na ito ni Sec. Soliman at hangad ko ang mabilisang implementasyon nito para na rin sa ikasasagip ng ating mga street children.

(Para sa inyong impormasyon, suhestiyon, o reklamo, mag-text lamang po kayo dito sa number ko: 09159509746 o di kaya ay mag-email sa wagkukurap_101@yahoo.com.ph)

Now Showing : Media versus SP on jueteng payola

By Ruel Camba, Examiner Newspaper

DAGUPAN CITY— A group of veteran newsmen  met  here yesterday to map strategies on how to unmask public officials who received jueteng payola.

            The meeting, held at an eatery along Arellano Street, was an offshoot of an expose made by Northerm Watch columnist Mortz Ortigoza alleging that most members of the Sangguniang Panglalawigan were receiving jueteng payola which they immediately denied.

Among those in the meeting were Ruben Rivera (Northern Mirror), Jun Velasco (Sunday Punch and Manila Bulletin), Ruel Camba and Alex Tulao (Regional Examiner), and Manuel Celzo (DZXL-Manila).

In his column, Ortigoza said most SP members were receiving P40,000  a month.

Ortigoza said he based his allegation on a conversation with Board Member Danilo Uy who claimed he rejected his share of jueteng payola in the presence of other mediamen.

“I was with at least two other newsmen when BM Uy made the claim,” Ortigoza said, adding that his companions were willing to testify should the libel case against him prosper.

The media group threw their support to Ortigoza even as they urged the authorities to provide  him security as motorcycle-riding men have been seen tailing him.

They surmised that some jueteng lords and their supporters in Pangasinan are out to block the entry of the Loterya ng Bayan (LNB) which is being pushed by at least four members of the House of Representatives from the province.

Ortigoza’s claim that many public officials, including SP members, were receiving jueteng payola was  also corroborated by the director of Region I Medical Center, Dr. Roland Mejia.

Mejia said he had once a patient who operated jueteng and the latter told him that many Pangasinan officials used to receive jueteng payola.

This is the reason why jueteng continues to thrive in Pangasinan and elsewhere, Mejia said, adding that he supports the Loterya ng Bayan which is being operated by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

“We have many hospital patients who are beneficiaries of PCSO,” he said.

Aside from Mejia and several newsmen, Ortigoza also found support from businessman Rosendo So who is an anti-jueteng advocate.

So, founding chairman of Abono Partylist, said he will convince some friends, including those in media, to stand as witnesses to corroborate Ortigoza’s story.

 Bince Jr. said  most members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan have expressed their desire to file a libel suit individually or as a group against Ortigoza and Northern Watch publisher Yolanda Fuertes.

Bince said they found the item in Ortigoza’s column alleging that most SP members received P40,000 a month from jueteng, “malicious”.

Bince, a lawyer, said that their colleague, Board Member Uy, from whom Ortigoza quoted the alleged statement, manifested in their last session that he never said those words attributed to him by the columnist.

Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim, SP presiding officer, was first to react on Ortigoza’s column, saying there was no truth to this, branding the same as malicious and just hearsay.

Ortigoza said in a radio interview that it was unfortunate that Uy denied his statement but said he had some media men with him when Uy allegedly made the supposedly offensive claim.

Bince said not only Calimlim is filing the libel suit but also all SP members who were badly offended by Ortigoza’s alleged malicious column.

The issue surfaced when the SP tackled possible moves to thwart the operation of PCSO’s “Loterya ng Bayan” (LnB) in Pangasinan.

                                        
Meanwhile, at some fora recently many media men corraborated what Ortigoza has alleged that BM Uy uttered those words on the payola. They were Rivera, Ronel de Vera (Pangasinan Reports), Vir Maganes (Northern Watch), Vierna Beltran (Bombo Radyo), Cory Bactad, and others who asked anonymity in preparation for their being a witness incase the written slander case is filled by the Provincial Board.

Chairman na Abono Partylist na si Engr.Rosendo So ingiit to na wala ray board member na manaawat na

(From the website of Bombo-Radyo Dagupan)

DAGUPAN CITY--Ingiit na Chairman na Abono Partylist na si Engr.Rosendo So na walay nanbaga na wala saray board member na manaawat na jueteng payola na nagkatidad na
P40,000.00 kada bulan.
     
Unong ed kinde Engr. So, na base ed inbaga na agto nginaranan na bokal, na walay akatanggap tan wala met iray akatanggap na jueteng payola ed hanay na saray
bokal.
     
Kalegenan tonya,hinamon met so Sangguniang Panlalawigan na plano dan idemanda say manatsulat na si Morts Ortegosa na Northern Watch na bali-bali kuno no unpaway so
katuwaan no siyupa talaga so manbabaga na tuwa.
     
Inyarum tonya,anggano saray arum na congressman napanbagaan na saray board member kuno na akatanggap tan pati met la Engr. So et arengelan to met ya so abitlan
pangingiter na payola ed saray board member.

Reaksyon tonya kasumpalan tonya na nanpuligwas so Sanggunian Panlalawigan ed akasulat na wala ray BM na untatanggap na payola, tan nanbantan kasuhan na libelo
si Ortegosa ed ginawa ton artikulo tungkol dia.

BIR-Eastern Pangasinan focuses to it’s almost P1 B target

BIR Asst. Revenue District Office Maria Bernadette Mangaoang

 

URDANETA CITY – Despite the sluggish  government funded projects this year as compared to its phenomenally massive implementation last year, the office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here  is still aggressively implementing programs that will boost collection in difference to  its goal of P975 million for 2011.

Assistant Revenue District Officer Maria Bernadette Mangaoang said that this tax office under Atty. Beverly Milo continues to impose enforcement of tax laws, intensive conduct of tax mapping operations, Lakbay – Aral sa Barangay (educational tours to villages), tax investigation.

 “Pumopukpok kami sa kung ano ang nandiyan na, e!” she disclosed

Revenue District-6 (RD-6) supervises a city and  15 towns in the eastern part of Pangasinan.

Meanwhile, Atty. Milo said that RD-6 became a top performer in the cumulative tax collection in Region 1 from January to April 2011.

She said however that it did not surpass the collection of May last year as against May this year.

“Walang projects ng May, e. You know lahat ng pondo lumabas at that time (2010).

The tax office here was the beneficiaries of mammoth government projects like the P220 million sanitary landfill here, the multi-billion of pesos Re-Regulating Pond in San Manuel town, and others last year.

2010 saw massive government spending on flagship projects of the Arroyo Administration where countless huge bridges, highways, dams, and others were built all over the country. This was capped by the national and local election spending last year where tens of billions of pesos help jacked- up the economy to experience a highest Gross National product of 7.7 percent in the last decade.

GNP this year is predicted by the World Bank to hover by between 4 to 5 percent.

Formulas for the resolution of the Spratlys’s problem

Columnist Ortigoza getting the thoughts of former Philippines House Speaker de Venecia on the Spratlys's problems

Political columnist Mortz Ortigoza sat again with the Philippines five-time House Speaker Joe de Venecia, Jr., an eminent global expert, to get his thoughts on the brewing issues on the West Philippines Sea that are disputed primordially by the saber-rattling and powerful Mainland China. Excerpts:

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA (MCO): How strategic is the Spratlys for the Philippines, Mr. Speaker?

JOSE DE VENECIA, JR (JDV): Why should we sail to China (Sea to the Arab Gulf) all the way to that when we had oil and gas in our own front yard and our backyard? If we could only use (chuckled) our “coconut” (common sense).

MCO: Political and military spectators say that to discourage the incessant intrusions of China in the West Philippine Seas we have to invite our ally the Americans for a joint exploration of oil there.

 JDV: The Americans will not drill for oil in the China Sea because who will invite them to drill there?

MCO: The Philippines government.

JDV: The Philippines? We are courting war with China, courting war with Vietnam.

MCO: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently at the start of his four-day visit to China that the U.S vowed to maintain her presence in the resource-rich waters. What is really the interest of the Americans in Spratlys?

JDV: The interest of the Americans is economics. So they could have a free and untrammeled navigation for being a Pacific power. Secondly, because that is one way of telling China na dahan-dahan naman kayo kasi nandito kami (you should be careful because of our presence here in the West Philippines Sea).

Thirdly, they have to show some semblance of support to the Philippines. Although as the Americans have pointed out while (other countries) threatening their allies they will go to war. (But it is different in the China Sea unless there is authorization by the U.S Congress.  Because unlike the NATO agreement, an attack in England is considered as an automatic attack against the U.S, an attack on France is the same. An attack on the Philippines is an attack on the U.S. But it does not mean an immediate attack- response by the U.S. They have to consult their constitutional process first - it means to say their hall of congress.

MCO:Can’t we not use the Libyan Model when President Barrack Obama declared war against Muammar Gaddafi and support the Libyan rebels?

JDV: Well, you know in the case of Libya, there was an authorization from the Security Council of the United Nation but even the Security Council of the UN was abused and being abused by the European Power like France and Britain. Because the decision of the Security Council was really to prevent Gadafi on harming the Libyans who want to bring down their government.

MCO: Some political kibitzers question your formula of consortium among claimant countries in the Spratly because it does not resolve first the issue of sovereignty? What’s your take on that?

JDV: Well, (former paramount leader of Mainland China) Deng Xiaoping proposed that we shall not (discuss) sovereignty for the meantime. Because if the Philippine insists sovereignty, China insists on sovereignty, Vietnam insists on sovereignty, well there will be war. So the practical step is to shelve the issue of sovereignty, and agree on one common development on the Spratly so that Vietnam, China and the Philippines that claims for oil and gas and hydrocarbons under an equity of 1/3, 1/3,1/3 profit sharing formula that eventually would have to bring  in Malaysia, Brunei, whose acreage or whose claim, in the Spratlys are smaller than that of the three. We should also invite them as part of this drilling coalition.

MCO: Does this consortium thing have something to do with our armed forces?

JDV: The weakest of these line states is the Philippines. We have no air force, we have no navy.

China has a large armed forces, Vietnam now has large armed forces, a large air force, a large navy.

MCO:  Were major claimants China and Vietnam telegraphed already their intention that they were amenable to your proposal?

JDV: No, no. Yes, because I’m talking to them directly.

MCO:  Were they amenable?

JDV: Yes!

MCO: Is there a precedent model of your consortium’s formula?

 JDV: Just like that in the North Sea after World War II, England is here (as he lifted the empty coffee cup and the sandwich of the interviewee to put on the other parts of the table to emphasize his point). This is England; the oil field is here in Ecofisk in the North Sea. They took a median line partition so the oil flows to Stavanger in Norway. The oil is in Teesside in England. And the natural gas goes to Crimea, German. I landed here in the Ecofisk  which is above 20 stories high. The platforms from the sea, very stormy seas but (they were composed of) hundreds of oil wells! And siguro mga (Just like) several stories high buildings and platforms from the sea.

MCO: So nobody own these areas? The consortium owns them?

JDV: They have agreed. This part belongs to Norway! (Lifting again the sandwich and coffee cup of the interviewer by putting them to another part of the table to emphasize his point)This part belongs to England! This part belongs to Germany! In the meantime we jointly developed.

MCO: Is the North Sea’s model the only model the claimants in the Spratly’s can replicate?

JDV: Puwedi nating gawin ito( We can copy it). This is one model. The other model is that we will drill together and the profit we split. You see? So we shelve the issue of sovereignty.

This is the formula that will solve the problems of China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Therefore that will solve the problem between China and Vietnam in the Paracel. This (in) the Spratly claim, Vietnam went to war over there a dozen years ago. This is the same formula that should be used because (by) Japan in Diaoyu Strait, what the Chinese call the Senkaku Strait.

This is the third formula that could be used on the Sea of Japan and the East Sea, between Japan and South Korea.

MCO: Taiwan has a claim there, too. Is it because of her being Mainland China once upon a time?

JDV:  It is her being a China then. The Taiwanese claim will be jointly discuss with the two Chinas - China and Taiwan.

MCO: Some Spratlys’s watchers told me the Philippines should have the least claim than China on the disputed islets because the places there have been owned by China since the 17^th Century?

JDV: Well, more than a thousand years ago, you know the Philippines do not exist on that area ruled by certain datus (tribal chiefs). We were not a nation. China was already an ancient civilization, the bigger kingdom. And so they have maps of the area, for example the Spratlys were discovered by my friend Tomas Cloma. He called it Freedom Land in 1957.

MCO: Some proposed that we amend the Constitution for the U.S to have their military bases again in the Philippines for them to guard our aerial and sea domain thus deterring the Chinese’s encroachments.

JDV: It would only put us in deep trouble. Americans are in deep trouble in Afghanistan and Iraq. What we all have to do is sit down with China and Vietnam, pag-usapan na natin ito at mag drill na. Hati-hati na lang tayo. Tapos na!(We discussed the problems with them and eventually drill oil for the equal benefits of all thus we solve the problem). The most practical and the most pragmatic!

(Mortz C. Ortigoza used to teach political science in Dagupan City and Manila, Philippines)