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Filipinos P35 billion poorer
PEACe Bonds: Unresolved, ten years on
Freedom from Debt Coalition | 8 October 2011Two weeks from now, the Filipino people will be PhP35 billion poorer and deeper in debt from a multi-billion financial controversy brought forth by the equally controversial Arroyo government.... At a time when the public is reeling from the negative impact of the unmitigated increase in the prices of goods and services, and the Aquino government's unwarranted under-spending combined with the catastrophes brought about by the recent super-typhoons, to carve out PhP35 billion from the people's coffers... is unacceptable, especially if the public will be paying for something whose regularity comes under serious question.
A perfect scam
Editorial, The Daily Tribune | 10 October 2011
The so-called Poverty Education and Alleviation Certificate (PEACe) Bonds issued in 2001 was among the biggest racket sprung under the previous administration, all costing the Filipino taxpayers P35 billion which government gave away to a private group called Caucus of Development NGO Networks (Code-NGO) a P1.4 billion windfall, tax free.
and a last-minute P5.4 billion twist....
Tax on PEACe Bonds: Supreme Court TRO fails to restrain
Roel Landingin, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
18 October 2011
The Supreme Court order had not reached the Bureau of Treasury or
Bureau of Internal Revenue by the close of office hours at 5 pm Tuesday.
“We didn’t receive any order from the Supreme Court,” said BIR
Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares at around 6:30 pm. She repeated the
same statement hours later when she appeared in a television talk show
on ABS-CBN News Channel.
Henares said the Bureau of Treasury more likely withheld the 20 per
cent final tax on interest gains on the PEACe bonds, in the absence of
an official copy of the TRO. “The Bureau of Treasury has no choice but
(to) withhold it,” she said.
Vanishing trade in PEACe Bonds: The truth, the banks, and the BIR
Roel Landingin, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
25 October 2011
Kim Henares, chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR),
triggered
some curiosity about the trading of the bonds when she said recently in a
television talk show on the ABS-CBN News Channel that the sharp drop in
buying and selling activity in the bonds in 2004 (see graph) was a sign
the banks are not being entirely truthful about some of their
claims.... “I don’t believe the banks don’t know about it because if you
look at
the history of the trading of that bond, right after we issued the 2004
ruling, the trading became markedly decreased,” she said during the
television talk show last week. “I hate to say that they are not saying
the truth but the circumstances seem to point (to the fact) that the
banks know that it’s no longer as attractive.”
See The PEACe Bonds debate
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