By Chino S. Leyco

The Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday that the government’s ambitious infrastructure program will shift to “high gear” starting this year following the enactment of the first tax reform law.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the government will roll out first set of big-ticket infrastructure projects this year under the Duterte administration’s so-called “Build, Build, Build” program.

Dominguez said the infrastructure projects will be funded by revenues from the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law as well as concessional financing packages from the Philippines’ development partners.

“I am sure the projects that have been planned for the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] are going to go into high gear now that we have basically our capital already, our own funding for our portion of these projects,” Dominguez said.

“And I guess this will also encourage the multilateral agencies and the other funding agencies to increase their lending to us,” he added.

In particular, Dominguez said the government will implement the expansion of the Clark International Airport in Pampanga through the construction of a new and state-of-the-art passenger terminal.

The government will also implement the Philippine National Railway (PNR) North two project between Metro Manila and Clark airport.

There is also the PNR South Commuter Rail in Los Baños, Laguna, which is set to start later this year.

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran earlier said that the government lined-up 75 flagship projects under the “Build, Build Build” program worth P1.8 trillion, majority of which is already in the construction or pre-construction phases.

Among these big-ticket projects are the P23-billion Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which is co-funded by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the World Bank.

Another is the P355.6-billion Mega Manila Subway funded by official development assistance (ODA) from Japan, Beltran said.

Dominguez added the P19.8-billion Davao City Bypass Road as another flagship project that is also under the implementation phase.

“Let me just point out that our debt as a percentage of our GDP [gross domestic product] has been on a steady decline. When we took over, it was something like 43 percent,” Dominguez said.

“Even though we borrowed more during the interim from when the time this new administration took over, the debt as a percentage of GDP is now just slightly over 41 percent. And we can see that declining over the years,” he added.

According to Dominguez, about a fourth of the capital needed for the government’s P8.44-trillion infrastructure modernization program will come from TRAIN revenues, while the rest will be funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans.

In an economic bulletin, Finance Undersecretary and Chief Economist Gil S. Beltran said the debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to 41.7 percent in the third quarter of 2017 from 42.4 percent in the previous quarter and from 43 percent in the third quarter of 2016.

At end-2017, Beltran said in a separate economic bulletin that the proportion of the national government debt to GDP “has been maintained at 42.1 percent as nominal GDP also surged by 9.1 percent.”

From a high of nearly 75 percent in 2004, Beltran said that debt-GDP ratio was “drastically” reduced to below 45 percent owing to prudent debt management, fiscal discipline, and economic growth.

“The economy has been outgrowing debt in the past years, meaning, the country’s capacity to service its debt has been improving,” Beltran said.

“In the short term, the government’s ‘Build Build Build’ Program may exert upward pressure on the debt stock. In the medium to long-term, however, a sustainable high economic growth rate (brought about by better infrastructure) will outrun the growth of debt,” he added.

About 70 percent of the incremental revenues from the TRAIN have been earmarked for infrastructure, and up to 30 percent for social services, including unconditional cash transfers of P200 a month (or P2,400 per year) for the country’s 10 million poorest households for 2018, which will increase to P300 a month (or P3,600 per year) in 2019 and 2020.

Besides the incremental revenues from TRAIN, Dominguez is also banking on the remarkable improvements in the collection efficiency by the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs, as reflected  in their respective high accomplishment rates in 2017.

For 2017, the BIR achieved 97.18 percent of its revenue goal of P1.829 trillion, collecting a total of P1.777 trillion.

The Customs collected R457.553 billion in 2017 as against a revenue target of P467.896 billion, representing an accomplishment rate of 97.7 percent in 2017.

Tags: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Department of Finance, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez, Infrastructure projects, Metro Manila Flood Management Project, Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran

By Ellson Quismorio

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez questioned the competence of Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 general manager Rodolfo Garcia during a public hearing Wednesday, causing the latter to throw a fit, even offering to resign there and then.

The tension-filled confrontation took place during a joint hearing between the House Committees on Transportation and Public Works and Highways wherein the continuing operational woes of the 19-year-old mass transit system was brought to the fore by Alvarez.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez (left); MRT-3 general manager Rodolfo Garcia
(MANILA BULLETIN)

Alvarez said commuters have long been suffering from the MRT-3’s sorry service, including the ordeal of having to stand in long and winding queues, overcrowding in the trains, and the frequent breakdowns of the train line.

In his response, Garcia claimed that they were looking to augment the present number of operational MRT-3 coaches by using the 48 new light rail coaches procured by the previous administration from Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stocks Co.

However, the coaches worth P3.8 billion have been reported to be incompatible with the MRT-3 —something that the outspoken Alvarez underscored. Garcia, who was visibly irked, insisted the the China-bought coaches can be used by the train line.

“Sigurado ka? (Are you sure?)” the Speaker asked him several times in mocking fashion.

“Then, I will resign kung hindi ako sigurado (if I’m not sure),” Garcia said in a raised voice, after which he stood up and threatened to walk out of the hearing.

Congressmen present at the hearing then advised Garcia to accord proper respect not only to the joint committee but to Alvarez.

Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Alvarez’s party-mate and right hand man, warned Garcia that they could have him detained for his demeanor.

Fariñas then asked the MRT-3 general manager to apologize, which the latter did by approaching the Speaker. Alvarez accepted the gesture.

Garcia narrowly escaped being cited for contempt by the solons as the motion was withdrawn following his apology.

Earlier during the hearing, Alvarez noted that Garcia, a retired police general, had no real experience in the running and maintenance of a train system.

Competence questioned 

Alvarez, an ex-Transportation secretary, took issue with Garcia’s claim that his mandate was to make sure the MRT trains were running.

“Hindi mo natanong kung kulang ba [ang coaches?]. Ang haba ng pila, anong gagawin mo? Di magdagdag ka ng train, di ba? Eh kung ganyan yung nasa isip mo, how will you manage MRT-3 na ang laki-laki na ng problema? Ibigay mo yan doon sa marunong,” he said.

(You didn’t ask if the coaches are insufficient? What will you do about the long queues? You should add trains, right? If that’s how you think, how will you manage MRT-3 now that the problem is so big? Give it to someone who knows what to do.)

Alvarez stressed that the real mission of the MRT-3 train managers is to ensure the convenience of the riding public as well as the safety and cleanliness of the mass transport system.

According to the data of the committee, the original specification of the MRT-3 system is designed to serve 300,000 passengers a day with at least 20 trains. But officials admitted that the system is accommodating an average of 350,000 passengers daily with around 10 trains running.

In a chance interview much later, Alvarez stopped short of asking for Garcia’s resignation. “Ayoko nang makialam… ayoko nang manawagan (I don’t want to meddle… I don’t to make any more calls).”

However, the Speaker noted that Garcia seemed bent on stepping down from his post. “Ang sabi naman niya, oo seryoso siya (He said that he’s really serious),” he said.

Toward the end of the hearing, Alvarez asked Garcia if he was serious in his offer to resign.

“Yes, your honor. Medyo pressured na po ako as GM (I feel a bit pressured as GM). I’m contemplating getting out,” Garcia said.

Reports said that the official wasn’t able to finish the hearing since he had to go to the clinic and have his blood pressure checked.

Maria Ressa —JOAN BONDOC

News website Rappler has found millions of false social media accounts spreading fake news linked originally to the 2016 campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa on Tuesday said her social media team had traced the spread of fake news after she was attacked with an average of 90 hate messages per hour in October 2016 after the online news site published a story on fake social media accounts.

“By mid last year, we had 12 and a half million accounts being part of it,” Ressa said at the resumption of hearings on fake news by the Senate committee on public information.

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As an example, she cited the account of a certain Sally Mathay that reposted wrong information via cut-and-paste.

“If you look at the websites and the groups of where she posts disinformation or what she wants to post, you can see the combination of pages,” Ressa said, adding that it was how an “ecosystem” of fake news was created.

“You can see both the Duterte campaign pages and former Sen. Bongbong Marcos coming together here,” she said.

‘Patriotic trolling’

Ressa said Rappler took part in a study looking at “patriotic trolling” — a state-sponsored online hate and harassment campaign “to silence and intimidate.”

“Social media provided cheap armies to potential authoritarians and dictators to control and manipulate public opinion,” Ressa said, citing the study that is set to be released in the next few months.

She did not provide details of the study, but said it mirrored the findings of a survey of 65 countries released last November by the US-based Freedom House that showed China and Russia were flooding social media with lies and disinformation rather than seeking to control them.
Trolls followed three steps to do this in the Philippines, she said.

As shown in the case of Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch opponent of the President now detained on drug charges, Ressa said the trolls first attacked the credibility of the target.

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“You allege corruption and then you repeat that exponentially because if you say a lie 10 times, truth can catch up. But if you say a lie a million times, that becomes the truth,” she said.

Sexual violence

Ressa said the second step was to use sexual violence as this “inflames biases, fuels misogyny and then degrades the target as a sexual object.”

And the last step was to directly attack the target, citing her own experience with the spread of the #ArrestMariaRessa campaign.

Ressa said social media was being used to manipulate opinion in the Philippines because the country was “actually the top country that goes online globally” with 97 percent of Filipinos online also on Facebook.

Ressa said her staff had mapped the network of the purveyors of fake news, which has become much more systematic.

She said it was “consistent in its approach and it built off on the social media [election] campaign team and it was weaponized in July” after Mr. Duterte took office.

Silencing dissent

She said some governments had sought to “silence dissent” through the proliferation of fake news, flooding social media with hate messages.

Rappler, which the President has called a “fake news outfit,” is battling the revocation of its license by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly violating the constitutional restrictions on foreign control of mass media in the country.
Resisting press restrictions

Ressa joined other journalists, bloggers and even the government’s communications office to resist suggestions to rein in social media.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who also spoke at the Senate hearing, asked whether statements by Ressa, whom she described as a “very fierce opponent of the President,” be accepted “hook, line and sinker.”

“I just want it for the record that it cuts both ways. This is not the sole crime of pro-Duterte bloggers,” Badoy said. —With a report from the wires

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Sen. Panfilo Lacson (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Wednesday the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement, which he chairs, would ask Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Ganager Alexander Balutan to shed light on his allegation that gambling consultant Charlie “Atong” Ang offered him a monthly bribe of P200 million in exchange for securing full control of Small Town Lottery (STL) operations.

Lacson wondered why Balutan failed to mention Ang’s alleged bribery attempt to him in the Jan. 24 hearing on the measure creating the Philippine Charity Office.

He also pointed out that the P200 million was mentioned at the hearing not as bribe money but as the potential daily gross earning from STL operations per region, which was way higher than what was being declared by STL operators.

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“It looks like the story on the P200 million has been twisted. Now, it’s bribe money,” Lacson told reporters in an interview on Wednesday.

The senator said he also first heard from Balutan at the hearing that Ang had said the PCSO stood to gain P200 million daily – or at least P60 billion a year – if the government took over the STL operations nationwide.

Balutan had accused Ang of offering a P200-million bribe during a hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Jan. 30.

The retired Marine general also told lawmakers that he had rejected Ang’s bribe, which was P200 million monthly.

“We will ask [Balutan] to clarify in the next hearing,” Lacson said.

At the previous Senate hearing, it has been disclosed that gross collections from STL operations in at least eight regions averaged P200 million per day or P6.05 billion a month, substantially higher than the PCSO’s current monthly collection of P1.7 billion from authorized agent corporations.

Ang had told the hearing that the PCSO could easily generate P60 billion a year from STL if the government would man its operations, preventing gambling lords from using it as a front for jueteng. .atn

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By  Ellson Quismorio

House Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia said Wednesday that the Philippine National Police (PNP) should not use as a “convenient excuse” the lack of a punitive anti-wiretapping law in their apparent inability to halt the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

Garcia, Cebu’s 3rd district representative, gave PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) official, Supt. Enrico Rigor a dressing-down after the latter echoed the same complaint to lawmakers during a Justice subcommittee hearing.

House Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia
(Cong. Gwen Garcia Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN)

“I’m just aghast now when Supt. Rigor says that we cannot monitor the communications coming from these drug lords, “Inaantay namin yung [anti-]wiretapping law (We’re waiting for the anti-wiretapping law).’ That cannot be a convenient excuse right now,” she said.

The hearing, presided over by Justice Committee Vice Chairman Misamis Oriental 2nd district Rep. Henry Oaminal, tackled the alleged continued proliferation of illegal drug activities within the Muntinlupa City penal facility.

Attending the proceedings aside from PNP officials was Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Officer-in-Charge Supt. Roberto Rabo, as well as some Department of Justice (DOJ) officials.

The BuCor supervises the NBP which has been the focus of Congressional inquiries for the past two years due to the rampant illegal drug activities there and reports about how the detained drug lords live in luxury while inside the prison facility.

“Right now with regards to the operation of the NBP, we’re continuously monitoring the activities,” Rigor said when asked by Oaminal what the PNP has been doing to address the matter.

“Actually we [need] the anti-wiretapping law because as mentioned earlier, most of the activities there are concentrated on transactions using cellphones. So we continuously monitor the activities transacted within the NBP, but unless and until the anti-wiretapping bill will be enacted, we cannot go against those incarcerated in the NBP,” Rigor added.

The PDEG official was apparently referring to legislative efforts to “improve” Republic Act (RA) 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law so that law enforcers can make better use of it in going after drug lords.

Tacit admission 

Rigor’s remarks did not sit well with Garcia, who reminded the officials in attendance that NBP inmates should not even have access to mobile phones in the first place.

“I cannot accept the statement of Police Supt. Enrico Rigor…[It] may become a convenient excuse in order to say that we cannot really curb the illegal drug trade inside the NBP–where cellphones are prohibited–because we’re waiting for the new anti-wiretapping law.

“This gives more excuse to the authorities not to do their jobs,” she reckoned.

“There is, I suppose, an existing policy to block all cellphone communications [from inmates]. We bought [signal] jammers. In other words, cellphones are illegal. The reason you’re putting in jammers is because kahit banned na nga yan, ewan ko kung bakit may nakakalusot pang cellphones (even if they are banned, cellphones still find their way inside).

“Installing jammers is a tacit [admission] of the fact that they cannot even implement that policy,” Garcia said in front of the police and jail officials.

If she would have her way, the Deputy Speaker said she would have the detained drug lords targeted first.

“Why don’t we first start…eto mga drug lords to eh (These are the drug lords). Sila yung nagte-trade (They are the ones conducting trade), why don’t we start with that,” Garcia said, adding that solving the drug problem has always been the top agenda of the Duterte administration.

“Once you nip the head, the arms and legs would necessarily be affected.”

SINULOG organizers are planning several improvements in next year’s celebration, including expansion of the coverage of the liquor ban, purchase of additional communication equipment, and better crowd control.

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, Sinulog executive committee chairman, said he will propose to Mayor Tomas Osmeña to extend the coverage of liquor ban from within 300 meters to 500 meters of the route of the Sinulog grand parade.

“But we will still endorse this to the mayor because we have observed that it (liquor ban) created traffic congestion on the roads near the 300 meters. Beyond the 300 meters, there are still those who were drinking liquor,” he said.

Tumulak will also recommend to Osmeña to implement a liquor ban within 500 meters of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.

Police Regional Office 7 Director Chief Supt. Robert Quenery, in a separate interview yesterday, said that more hand-held radios are needed by the police officers securing the event.

“Communication is very important for us. We lack hand-held radios and it hampered inter-agency coordination, really. We hope to have more next year,” he said.

Although the City Government has no approved budget for the purchase of hand-held radios this year, Tumulak said they can find ways to help the police.

Quenery also said that the shutdown of the cellular phone signals was effective as there was no major incident recorded this year.

“It somehow affected our communication…but overall, Sinulog 2018 has been the most peaceful and orderly in a decade of Sinulog festivals,” he said.

As for the crowd control, Quenery said that human barricade was not effective in some areas of the parade route and he recommended the use of pylons.

Tumulak said they will install metal collapsible railings instead of using humans as a barricade.

The purchase of the metal collapsible railings will be funded jointly by the Sinulog Foundation Inc. and the City, he said.

Tumulak, police officials, and church officials attended the final critique session for the Sinulog 2018 celebration in City Hall yesterday to discuss the areas that need to be improved next year. (RVC)