JOKER HITS BACK AT PING OVER GRILLING OF FOREIGN INVESTORS
MANILA, JUNE 12, 2008 (STAR) By Christina Mendez and Aurea Calica - Sen. Joker Arroyo lashed out yesterday at Sen. Panfilo Lacson and the other senators who had criticized him and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor-Santiago for grilling officials of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFC) last Friday.“Senator (Panfilo) Lacson and company conveniently forget that with complete abandon, they had bamboozled, bludgeoned, and pilloried to the pulp Filipino Cabinet members and resource persons who appeared before them in the NBN-ZTE investigation,” he said in an interview.
Arroyo said Lacson and company have adopted a double standard because they “look down” on Filipinos and “look high” on foreigners.
“That is their new style: Inferiority complex, dual personality,” he said.
“With foreigners it is a different matter, they sing a different tune. They grovel and caution, be polite and be good to them, even if they show disrespect for the Senate.”
Senators who had been criticizing him, Enrile and Santiago have cited Filipino Cabinet members for contempt, and threatened them with arrest “at the drop of a hat,” Arroyo said.
JFC will return to Senate
Sen. Francis Escudero said yesterday JFC members are willing to return to the Senate and discuss bills which they believe will help lure investors to the Philippines.
“According to them they have data that show (we impose one of highest income taxes),” he said.
“The OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), they leave because of higher pay abroad and higher take-home pay. They are saying you can lower the rates always for as long as you don’t touch the tax base.
“The wider the tax base, even the rates are lower, it still (results in) higher collection of revenue for the government.”
Escudero said the JFC assured him that the grilling last Friday would not result in pullout of investments or stop them from airing what they think about certain issues.
“We cannot talk about this one incident when there is much to discuss about the country,” he said. “They are open to attending any hearings in the Senate if there is an investigation in the future.”
Escudero, Senate ways and means committee chairman, said aside from the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the JFC wanted information on the rationalization of fiscal incentives and anti-smuggling bills that would affect their businesses here.
“They said they’re spending money insofar as training manpower is concerned, not only their employees but potential employees, which they said should be the job of the state or the educational institutions,” he said.
“If they do it themselves it’s an investment in human capital.”
The foreign businessmen lamented the high taxes imposed on their employees in the Philippines, he added.
Escudero said the JFC wants tax deductions on the amount spent for training, and expound the definition of training in the law to include other forms of training involving people not necessarily their employees.
“At the end of the day, (it is) for the benefit of the worker,” he said. “We need laws for that because it’s in the Labor Code and the Internal Revenue Code.”
Escudero was invited to a forum with the JFC arranged by the US embassy.
No regrets – Enrile
During deliberations on amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) yesterday, Enrile said that he had no regrets over what his colleagues described as “overkill.”
“ I raised my voice, pointed my fingers, against these foreigners (who attended the hearing),” he said.
“I was not elected by these foreign chambers. They do not merit my respect. I don’t know about others.”
On the other hand, Santiago said she was not rude to the JFC members who attended the committee hearing last Friday.
“The videotape and the transcript of notes during the proceedings will show that Senator Santiago was firm, as she always is,” said Santiago’s media officer Tom Tolibas in a letter to The STAR.
“When Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile asked the president of the French chamber to name the legislators and the practices criticized by the foreign chamber, the Frenchman refused to answer the question. Instead, he read his opening statement.”
Tolibas said it was Enrile who insisted two to three times that Hubert D’Aboville should give a specific reply, instead of reading his statement.
“At this point, under the rules of procedure, the chairperson has the duty to ask the resource person to answer the question or explain why he couldn’t answer it,” he said.
“That was exactly what Senator Santiago did.”
For two to three times, D’Aboville just kept on reading his statement, he added.
Opposition senators took to task their colleagues from the administration bloc for ganging up on members of the JFC during the hearing on its letter to President Arroyo regarding amendments to the EPIRA Law.
Lacson and Escudero joined Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Manuel Roxas II in criticizing the apparent disrespect shown by Enrile, Santiago and Arroyo to JFC officials, especially D’Aboville, European Chamber of Commerce president.
D’Aboville, who got most of the dressing down from Enrile, was also designated as the group’s spokesman for the hearing by the Senate committee on energy chaired by Santiago.
“Resource persons invited by the Senate deserve the courtesy of guests appearing before any Senate committee hearing. Bullying, cutting, insulting or yelling at them won’t help the Senate get the information that we need to help us do our legislative work,” Lacson told reporters in a text message.
“Worse, driving them out of the country will put to waste billions of dollars being spent by our government, both here and abroad, to attract foreign investments and make them stay and continue investing in our country. I think Senators Enrile, Arroyo and Santiago crossed the line of statesmanship in that committee on energy hearing last Friday.”
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2003
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved