Tag: government

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Impeachment Trial

In the end, it boiled down to Corona’s own admission that he had not declared $2.4M and P80M in his official statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth. But is that an impeachable offense? Here’s my layman’s analysis :P

Article XI Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution states that “A public officer or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth.” Under oath. Meaning he must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He did not. He is in violation of the Constitution.

It goes on “In the case of the President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Cabinet, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Commissions and other constitutional offices, and officers of the armed forces with general or flag rank, the declaration shall be disclosed to the public in the manner provided by law.” By failing to honestly disclose his assets, liabilities, and net worth he betrayed public trust.

Article XI Section 2 of the Constitution states that “The President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. Thus he should be impeached.

As I expected, most senator-judges of the court more or less had that line of reasoning. Except for Miriam. Her rambling hysterical rhetoric centering on her contrarian interpretation of Republic Act 6426 The Foreign Currency Deposit Act (FCDA) is just as twisted as Corona’s interpretation that the reason he didn’t declare his dollar assets is due to the absolute confidentiality of foreign currency deposits as stipulated in the FCDA.

Section 8 of the FCDA states that “Secrecy of foreign currency deposits. – All foreign currency deposits authorized under this Act, as amended by PD No. 1035, as well as foreign currency deposits authorized under PD No. 1034, are hereby declared as and considered of an absolutely confidential nature and, except upon the written permission of the depositor, in no instance shall foreign currency deposits be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office whether judicial or administrative or legislative, or any other entity whether public or private.

The way it is stated and the way I understand it, the section is intended to allow financial institutions to protect the confidentiality of foreign currency deposits from “any person, government official, bureau or office”. Nowhere does it say that the depositor cannot disclose his own deposits.  In fact it even explicitly allows for all those prohibited parties to do so upon the written permission of the depositor.

Corona’s interpretation of the FCDA at best illustrates that even the highest magistrate of the land is fallible at best. And incompetent for the position at worst. In the same way, Miriam’s interpretation illustrates that even a lawyer, law professor, former regional trial court judge, and future International Criminal Court judge (as she constantly loves to point out) is fallible at best. And incompetent at worst. Or should it be unhinged?

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Tit For Tat

The Supreme Court issued ruling that would have allowed Arroyo to go overseas, supposedly seek medical treatment, and possibly escape the criminal charges against her. The Department of Justice blocked the departure of Arroyo and then had her arrested despite, or because of, this ruling.

Now with timing that looks suspiciously like childish spite, the Supreme Court has ruled that Hacienda Luisita, which happens to be owned by relatives of President Aquino, has to comply with the agrarian reform law (signed into law by the other President Aquino) and parcel the land to its farmers.

What’s the next episode?

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PLDT DigiTel Purchase

After long months, the purchase of DigiTel by PLDT was finally approved by the National Telecommunications Council (NTC). Of course there still are opposers particularly a congressman who cited Section 15 of Digitel’s franchise (Republic Act No. 7678), granted in 1994, which says that Digitel:

“…shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell nor assign this franchise or the rights and privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any other corporation or entity without the prior approval of the Congress of the Philippines.”

Okay, that’s fine since PLDT is buying DigiTel and not its franchise directly. But then it goes on:

“Neither shall the controlling interest of the grantee be transferred, whether as a whole or in parts and whether simultaneously or contemporaneously, to any such person, firm, company, corporation or entity without the prior approval of the Congress of the Philippines.”

This is interesting since it effectively means it is illegal to buy even a single part or share of DigiTel without prior approval from congress. So if you bought a share of DGTL you’re a lawbreaker. Nice.

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The Math of Company Ownership

The Supreme Court is at it again with their whimsical decisions. They have decided to change the rules in the middle of the game. They have decided that ownership is only achieved through common stock and not preferred stock. So with their new formula, PLDT is now 64% foreign owned. And the same goes for more than a few other companies.

How they came to that decision boggles me. A company is the sum of its assets. And assets are purchased with equity and possibly debt.

A = D + E

In accounting both common stock andpreferred stock are owner’s equity.

A = D + (CS + PS)

Debt is borrowed money and is paid off with interest. Equity is owner’s money and shares benefits from earnings via dividends or suffers from losses. And preferred stocks get first dibs at dividends. If you look at it this way, preferred stock is more ownership than common stock.

Now, if the company is to be dissolved and the assets liquidated or sold,

A = D + (PS + CS)

$$$ = D + (PS + CS)

Debtors collect first,

$$$ – D = PS + CS

$$ = PS + CS

followed by preferred stockowners,

$$ – PS = CS

$ = CS

and finally common stock owners.

$ – CS = 0

If you look at it this way, preferred stock is more ownership than common stock. In fact the only thing going for common stock is it’s decision-influencing attribute via stockholder vote.

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SSScam

Last Sunday, my dad, James, and I had a post-dinner discussion about Social Security Service (SSS) and I said it’s a scam or SSScam as I like to call it.

Based on a definition of a Ponzi Scheme: A Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme is a scam SSScam in which people are persuaded forced to invest through promises of unusually high returns by law, with early investors paid their returns out of money put in by later investors.

Continue reading “SSScam”