Rody has to pay for Noynoying

• Written by  Tribune Editorial 
• Tuesday, 13 December 2016 00:00
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Noynoy in his forgettable six years in office had the habit of dumping the blame on his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, for most of the problems that afflicted his administration and this was his practice even during the twilight of his administration.

The pretensions to the straight path resulted in the persecution of his opponents while doing practically nothing in terms of policies to resolve persistent problems.

Thus, the administration of Noynoy has become legendary for three distinct characters: Noynoying or procrastination, selective justice and under spending.

The current administration of Rody seems to be on the opposite extreme. It is resolute and has strong political will that even results in frictions with the outside world.

On the fiscal front, many of the decisions that were set aside are now being attended to which is proving to be costly since in the field of business, delayed decisions cost a lost in terms of interest costs.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez recently did some pencil pushing on the cost of the procrastination of the previous administration and came up with P25 billion in potential hit in the budget this year and up to P100 billion more before the end of Rody’s term.

The biggest potential is an ongoing international arbitration case filed by water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) and the Manila Water Co. (MWC) before the International Court of Arbitration in Singapore in 2013 for the failure of regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to act on toll rate hike petitions which is contained in their concession agreements they wangled with former President Fidel Ramos.

MWSI filed a second arbitration case last year against the government, seeking compensation for P3.44 billion in foregone revenues after MWSS ignored an ICC decision in December 2014 granting this concessionaire’s 2013 petition for a rate adjustment.

In its separate arbitration case in 2015, MWC is charging the government P79 billion for projected total losses from 2015 till the end of its concession in 2037 on the same issue.

A definite fiscal drain is the P20 billion payment to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 proponent Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) which the Supreme Court ordered to be paid $326.93 million or P15.6 billion in just compensation, plus yearly interest rates.

The Supreme Court had nullified the Piatco contracts but ruled that just compensation was incidental because of the structures already built by Piatco before the deal was voided.

Just recently, the BTr transferred some P20 billion to the Department of Transportation for payment to Piatco which included the accrued interest.

Dominguez also found some P6.3 billion in payables as a result of former Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares’ decision to impose a 20 percent final withholding tax (FWT) on bondholders in 2011.

The banks that filed a suit on the ruling won the case and the Supreme Court had ordered the government to return the P4.9 billion paid plus P1.4 billion in interest.

The yellow racket called the Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates Bonds issued during the term of President Arroyo will cost Rody’s budget P5 billion in payments to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC). Capital also over FWT collected when those 10-year zero coupon PEACe bonds issued during the past Arroyo administration matured in 2011. Code-NGO got a clean P1 billion, tax free.

The BTr sold these notes with a 10-year tenor in October 2001 through a public auction that was won by RCBC on behalf of the Caucus of Development NGO Network of yellow stalwarts Marissa Camacho and Dinky Soliman. What a disgusting bunch of civil socialites style, an out and out scam, with them making money from hard earned taxpayers.

Also, the Manila North Tollways Corp. and Cavite Infrastructure Corp. have cases against the government before the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in Geneva, Switzerland and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in New York that could cost the government more than P3 billion.

More than P100 billion would be the cost of inaction during the term of Noynoy in its failure to act on disputes regarding spoiled deals.

Who says Noynoying was harmless?

http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/editorial/rody-has-to-pay-for-noynoying