Indonesia

Indonesia
BATU, Indonesia. Photo by Jes Aznar

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Dear Haters



Stumbled upon this through the blog of veteran journalist Raissa Robles, whose husband found it on the web. It's related to the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. There's all sorts of "ops" going on these days. Some journalists obviously belong to the Yellow Army. Some to the defense camp. Exciting times, indeed. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Scenes from Barb and Mark's Wedding


January 24, 2012
Sanctuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park, Makati City
Reception at Blue Leaf, The Fort























Monday, January 23, 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Call for Donations: Art Therapy for Sendong children


This is from Malaya reporter Madelaine Cabrera. Hope we can all help. She is organizing an art therapy session for Sendong children on March 10, 2012.

Disasters can have a severe impact on communities, but the impact can be difficult for the most vulnerable in our society: The CHILDREN.

We can all help them cope in the aftermath of Sendong by reassuring that everything will be all right through more donations and prayers.

Let us unite on helping alleviate the pain of one of the most marginalized.

The American Art Therapy Association says, “Art therapy uses the creative process of art-making to improve and enhance physical, mental and emotional well-being. The creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (such as drawing, painting,etc.), and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy.”

Through your help, donations and pledges, we can all make this possible.

SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR THE ART THERAPY ON MARCH 10 WITH 40 KIDS:

Sketch Pads
Pencil
Eraser
Bottled Paints (Hand Painting)
Crayons
Bond Paper
Colored markers
Colored Paper
Safe scissors
Glue
Art Work Punchers
Pentel Pen
Cartolina
Modeling Clay
Story books preferably in Filipino
Coloring books
Musical instruments (Easy to carry if possible)

SUPPLIES NEED FOR GIVE AWAY AFTER THE THERAPY

Transparent envelope
Pens
Pencil
Sharpener
Crayons
Notebook
Candies and lollipops
Toothbrush
Sachet toothpaste
Mild bar soap
Sachet kiddie shampoo.

Interested parties may email madelainecabrera@yahoo.com or eyesgonzales@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Get Out There and Enjoy It by Martha Beck

When you just can't take it anymore and you feel like exploding, try this:





Mang Rudy Marcelino, 52



This is a story of survival; of simply joys; of laughter; of tragedies; of overcoming one’s disability or weaknesses; of growing old; of songs belted out from the heart. But most of all, this is a story of real love and togetherness; of taking life’s punches holding hands and of having someone to share one's life with. 


Mang Rudy and me
By Amy Marcelino as told to Iris Gonzales

It was in the pre-departure lounge of the Cebu airport where I met him. The year was 1985. He serenaded passengers waiting for their flights or offered to massage their sored muscles. I sold them candies and other pasalubongs to take home.

We would talk in between flights or when passenger traffic is light.  He didn’t want to marry.  He said women would only break his heart. The altruistic ones would only be attracted to him out of pity, he believed.

But his biases and fears disappeared with the last plane that departed on the day we left Cebu. It was the end of our work in the airport but the beginning of our life together.

We went from one province to another, from one place to another, to earn a living.

We lived in borrowed rooms, in rented shelters to survive. We arrived in Manila in 2001. We went from one house to another.

Once, we were on our way home and saw smoke coming from our community. The shanties were razed to the ground including our space. We had to find another place.

Again and again, we moved from one place to another. We found a way to survive. We went around bars and restaurants to serenade men and women.

The GROs loved his voice. They would always ask him to sing, Maging Sino Ka Man. On good nights, we made P3,000.

He got sick. We spent the holidays at the ward of the East Avenue Medical Center.  

He is gone now. I’m not sure if I’m going back to our rented room. I still don’t know. Actually, I don’t know where to go.


(Photo by Jes Aznar)

Monday, January 9, 2012

Living the Story: Sendong and the Journalists of CDO and Iligan*


Our story about journalists affected by tropical storm Sendong, published originally here and here, were carried today, January 9, 2012 by The Philippine Star, Interaksyon and GMAnews.tv. A shorter version was also published by The Philippine Daily Inquirer, quoting Jes's blog.

Thank you. Let's keep on telling their stories.

Again, we thank the Center for Community Journalism and Development and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines for supporting this multimedia project.

Most of all, we thank the journalists we interviewed for sharing their stories.






(Photos by Jes Aznar as published on the Philippine Star)
*Title taken from the Interaksyon post

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Dateline: Northern Mindanao


By Jes Aznar and Iris Gonzales
Their story started on a quiet Friday night, supposedly the end of another week at work, the start of a much-awaited weekend with loved ones, just nine days before Christmas Day. The place is northern Mindanao.
Cong Corrales
Leonardo Vicente “Cong” Corrales sat in front of a borrowed computer to write what just happened.  Tropical storm Sendong ripped through the province and other parts of northern Mindanao.
As a provincial correspondent for various local and foreign media agencies, Cong had to report on the devastation.  The storm had left hundreds dead, homeless and missing. The morgues were overflowing.  The streets were flooded. Cadavers were floating along with heaps of trash. Crumbs of homes were all over.
But after three hours, the only words that came out were: “Cagayan de Oro City. By Cong Corrales, correspondent.”
Saturday, December 17, 2011.  A few hours before, Cong and his family rushed to the roof of their wooden house to escape the flashfloods unleashed by the surging storm.
They waited for the waters to subside. In the darkness, they could hear the cries of pain. People were shouting the names of missing loved ones. The screams for help went on for hours, struggling to be heard amidst the sounds of the howling winds.
Cong’s home, the second floor of a two-story shelter, is along Burgos Street, Barangay La Consolacion, one of the hardest hit areas in the province.
The morning after the flood, Cong’s home was a portrait of mayhem. Everything was covered with the thickest mud and the stench of garbage filled the damp air.
But Cong did not have enough time to clean the trash.
He had a story to write.
“But I did not know where to start,” Corrales said.
Cong is one of at least 35 journalists from Cayagan and Iligan affected by the storm. Two Iligan-based journalists died while others lost everything.
Merlyn Manos
GMA-7 correspondent Merlyn Manos, a single mother to two children, was already asleep when the floods came.
She was in deep slumber in a worn-out white nightie, exhausted from a day’s work. She was out all day doing a feature story about the Christmas Village in the center of town.
Her son roused her from sleep. “The house is flooded!” he said in a shaking voice. Their house is a small rented space in Green Village, Hinaplanon, Iligan City.
Merlyn had no time to pack. She managed to slip on a shirt before they rushed out to the roof. They could not open the door, as the waters were already high. The only way out was through the hole for the air conditioning unit.
The winds were wild and the waves were punching hard. Merlyn felt it was the end.
“I felt then that we were going to die,” she said.
From above, they could hear the cries of mercy – loud, shrieking screams for help from mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons and daughters.
“We could not do anything. We were helpless up there,” she said. As Sendong battered their street, the shouts grew louder.
They went back to the house when the waters subsided. It was then that Merlyn realized she had lost everything.
“When I went to my room, I saw my laptop floating.  I said to myself, ‘it’s gone. It’s gone,’” Merlyn said.
But by 12 noon, Merlyn had to file a story. Her desk had called. She had to report something. Amidst the chaos, she managed to do a phone patch — a live report via telephone — as it is known in broadcast industry parlance.
Merlyn ended up reporting her own story. At that time, she did not imagine how she would be able to work again without her laptop and camera.
Jigger Jerusalem
Jigger Jerusalem, a correspondent of The Philippine Star in Cagayan de Oro, also lost his laptop in the flood; and everything else in the rented room where he stays.
“Now, I have to start from scratch again. I have to buy new things and tools. I need a digital camera and a laptop,” said Jigger.
But Jigger can’t bring himself to write just yet. The trauma is still very fresh. At night, he can still see in his inner mind’s eye the flood of mud that gatecrashed his room. He can still hear the winds and the screams from little voices, the cries for help; the sounds of panic, desperation and pain.
“I promise I will write again when the time comes when I can again function as a working journalist,” Jigger said.
On January 4, Jigger’s by-line appeared again on the front page of the Philippine Star. He wrote a story on the opening of classes in CDO.
Bonita Ermac
She works as a correspondent for Mindanao Gold Star Daily in Iligan.  When the floods came, Bonita, also a single mom, secured her son and her 80-year old mother.
“From our room, we went down to the kitchen. The waters were already high. We had to hold on to wooden bars in the ceiling. My 80-year old mother was with us. She was hospitalized after because of pneumonia.
After that, Bonita could not think of writing again just yet.
“I lost all my things,” she said.
Michael Kundimann (missing)
Leni Kundiman lost her husband, Michael and her home. Michael was a radio reporter and news anchor and the last time Leni heard his voice was at the height of Sendong’s wrath.
They held on to a rope just outside their house in Bayug Island in Iligan City but a shanty that had been washed away by the flood hit Michael. His voice trailed off and was never seen again since that night.
Bayug Island had been wiped out. What used to be a village where hundreds of families lived and survived the daily fare is now a barren lifeless land. There are no more homes, just makeshift wooden altars with candles and flowers for the dead. The laughter of children who used to roam around will never be heard again.
There’s only a deafening silence and an eerie shade of gray in Bayug Island and in the rest of Iligan and Cagayan.
But the story does not end here. Each and every journalist affected by Sendong will carry on. “Padayon,” as they say it. They will again find the words and capture the images. They will start again and again and they will keep on telling other peoples’ stories the way they used to do before howling winds and a merciless storm struck that fateful Friday night. 
(This project is produced by Jes Aznar and Iris Gonzales, in cooperation with the Center for Community Journalism and Development and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. To those who wish to help the affected journalists, you may call the NUJP office at at (02) 3767330.) 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

My two-part special report on tax evasion and smuggling

FIRST PART: Tax evaders, smugglers getting more sophisticated

By Iris C. Gonzales, The Philippine Star

Posted at 01/02/2012 7:12 AM | Updated as of 01/02/2012 2:29 PM

MANILA, Philippines - When President Aquino was elected into office, the nation wrapped itself in euphoria. Filipinos were filled with hope as Aquino promised that he would finally be that leader the country needed.

On June 15, 2010, under a gloomy weather, and as the whole nation listened in bated breath, Aquino took his oath at the Quirino Grandstand and promised that his administration would be free of corruption and would only tread the clean and right path - a governance framework he dubbed “Tuwid na Daan.”

He said the excesses of previous regimes had no room in his administration and that he would make the bold move of rectifying the bad practices.

There would be no new taxes as he stressed that he would focus on fixing the country’s tax leaks.
One year and five months into his term, the fight against tax evaders and smugglers remains an uphill battle.

Officials from both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and from the Department of Finance’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) told The STAR that the schemes of tax evaders and smugglers have become more sophisticated and as such more difficult to fight.

RIPS executive director Romeo Tomas said the modus operandi of public officials have become more sophisticated as anti-graft agencies have also become tougher.

Topping the list of schemes used by corrupt officials is the formation of dummies.

Often these individuals set up corporations, law offices and third persons for their properties so that they do not have to declare these properties in their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

The dummies become the owners on paper of land assets, vehicles, and other accumulated wealth instead of the individuals themselves.

Along this line, the offenders also put the names of their illegally acquired wealth in their relatives’ names.

Tomas said there are many cases wherein the assets are listed under the names of a relative’s law office so that the link to the real owners is almost impossible to prove.

Those who declare their properties in their SALNs grossly undervalue their properties, which is another common scheme.

Based on the different cases it has filed, RIPS has found out that it is common for public officials to declare only a portion of their land properties in their SALN or reduce the value of the properties.

Wire transfers and money laundering are also common schemes used by public officials to conceal their wealth. These officials usually keep their money in banks in Hong Kong or Singapore.

“Some go out of their way to transfer money to other countries such as Hong Kong or Singapore,” Tomas said, adding that this makes it more difficult for authorities to trace the money.

For luxury vehicles, the practice among public officials is to put their fleet of expensive cars under the name of their children or trusted friends who are not from government.

Tomas cited an instance wherein a child was barely 23 years old and already has a number of luxury vehicles to his name.

Methods of tax evasion


The methods of tax evasion are also more sophisticated now, said BIR Deputy Commissioner for Legal and Inspection Group Estela Sales.

In a recent interview with The STAR, Sales said the BIR is trying to fight tax evasion every step of the way through the agency’s Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program.

One common method of tax evasion is the non-issuance of receipts. This is the simplest form of evasion wherein the business owner or establishment does not issue receipts for the goods or services it has rendered.

Through non-issuance of receipts, the seller or business establishment is able to reduce the volume of declared sales as well as the tax liability.

Another common scheme is under-declaration of sales and over declaration of expenses so that the business would be able to deduct more through input value added tax (VAT).

Under BIR rules, a business establishment may deduct through input VAT the cost of its raw materials and supplies.

Under the amended VAT law of 2005, businesses can avail of tax credit on input purchases. These are the VAT paid for purchases of raw materials, supplies and capital goods. There is a cap on VAT credit for inputs up to 70 percent of output VAT.

To claim the tax credits, companies must present to the BIR invoices, which would detail their purchases.

VAT is the tax slapped on consumption and is levied on the sales of goods and services at each stage of production and distribution process.

It is collected using the invoice of the tax credit method. In computing for one’s VAT liability, a VAT-registered taxpayer can deduct input tax from output tax. Output tax is the VAT due on the taxpayer’s sale of goods and services

The more glaring form of tax evasion, Sales said is the non-filing of returns. It is also one of the easiest forms of tax evasion, she said.

Going along with this is another glaring form of evasion, which is the non-registration of the business.

There are also more sophisticated forms of tax evasion, Sales said.
One such scheme is the use of non-existent suppliers. Some businesses use smuggled raw materials for their supplies to save on costs.

Sales said that when the BIR asks for receipts or proof of payment to suppliers, these businesses would have nothing to show and would instead say they paid in cash.

“For example, one taxpayer said he paid in cash amounting to P20 million for his company’s supplies. How can you pay P20 million in cash?” Sales said.

Tax evasion is usually made in connivance with BIR insiders, ranking deputy officials said.

This is why BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said that in the agency’s fight against corruption, it is doing two approaches - external and internal.

“Internally, it is changing 107 years of bad habits,” Henares said.

When she took over on June 30, Henares made it clear to her people that she would not tolerate the “bad habits.”

She put in place a so-called performance management system wherein BIR employees know exactly what is expected of them.

“There will be a contract between BIR as an institution and individuals as employees stating what the performance indicators will be. For me, what’s important is that everyone’s contract will be related towards our goal,” she said in an interview months after she took over the agency.

The government’s main revenue agency has a staff of 12,000 people, headed by Henares and six deputy commissioners for the different groups: -- the Information Systems Group; the Legal and Inspection Group; Operations; Resource Management; Special Concerns and Tax Reforms.

The list of internal reforms is endless but one critical area of reform is the audit system a deputy commissioner of the BIR said rampant corruption happens in the audit system.

Auditing a company happens at random. Officially, a BIR examiner audits a company’s books if he or she suspects that the company may be dodging its tax obligations.

However, the finance official said the examiner could also choose to audit the company simply to harass the owner - especially if he thinks they have the capacity to pay a substantial amount of “grease money.”

Explaining the audit process, Wendell Ganhinhin, senior tax manager at the auditing firm Punongbayan & Araullo said in an article that the purpose of an audit and investigation is to uncover violations against and non-compliance with laws and regulations.

“In the process, even compliant and law abiding taxpayers have to go through an ordeal to prove their innocence if they are under suspicion,” said Ganhinhin.

With the burden of proof generally resting on the taxpayer, long hours and many resources often need to be devoted to refuting findings of discrepancies.

He also maintains that there could be inefficiencies in the audit approach and the lack of necessary tools, such as computers, databases and online references which prolong the process.

“Hence, the audit period becomes a long agonizing process, which some taxpayers describe as a dreaded nightmare that they would not wish to experience again,” he said.

It is because of this that the taxpayer sometimes chooses to ‘settle’ or enter into ‘under the table’ deals with the examiner to make “things easier for his business,” a Department of Finance official said.

BIR Deputy Commissioner for Operations Nelson Aspe said that as part of the fight against tax evasion is concerned, the
BIR also does regular rigodon or revamp of its examiners. Examiners or those who examine the books of companies are considered the front liners of the agency. They are the ones who deal with businesses.

There are different ways by which BIR examiners are co-opted so that they would turn a blind eye on the irregularities of tax evaders.

The bribes can range from P100,000 to a million, depending on the offense and the net worth of the company seeking to bend the rules, a BIR insider said.

No examiner accepted The STAR’s request for interviews. Aspe said it is difficult to prove connivance between examiners and businesses. He said there is usually no proof.

At the same time, he said there are dedicated and well-meaning examiners and BIR employees who fulfill their duties well.

Henares said it’s a long way to go in reforming the BIR but stressed that the situation is not hopeless.
Whether or not President Aquino’s Tuwid na Daan framework of governance would materialize and bear fruits remains to be seen.


To be continued



CONCLUSION: Connivance continues between smugglers, Customs staff

Posted at 01/03/2012 7:40 AM | Updated as of 01/03/2012 7:40 AM
(Continued from Monday)


MANILA, Philippines - The World Bank estimates that P200 billion is lost annually due to tax evasion and smuggling.
Smuggling is defined as the use of illegal channels of importation and exportation.

Smuggling has existed in the country for centuries, as traders attempt to bring in goods into the Philippines and skirt around existing Customs rules and regulations.

Through the years, smuggling has evolved and has become more sophisticated.

Up to this day, the problem of smuggling remains unresolved in the Bureau of Customs, the government’s second largest revenue agency.

There are different forms of smuggling, and  connivance between smugglers and Customs insiders is at varying levels as well.

 According to former Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, it’s hard to pin down smugglers legally because there is always no paper trail that leads to the smugglers.

 Alvarez revealed that he has tried to offer insiders protection and assurance to get information about smuggling activities -- but nobody is willing to squeal.

Insiders, Alvarez said, feared there was no assurance he would stay long enough to protect them.

True enough, Alvarez had to resign from his post in September, paving the way for the appointment of Ruffy Biazon, a known associate of President Benigno Aquino III, way back during their time at the House of Representatives.

In a recent interview with The STAR, Biazon said he plans a revamp of collectors and Customs executives so that operations could be more efficient.

This would help avoid connivance with smugglers, he said.

He also plans to file charges against smugglers, but has yet to file a cases against any big smuggler.

Records of the Department of Justice show the Run After the Smugglers (RATS) program of Customs has not been able to file even just one smuggling case worth at least P1 billion since former Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez had been put on 90-day suspension since October.

One case filed in October against onion smugglers amounted to only P27.3 million, while a similar case filed in December amounted to an even smaller P3.7 million.

A case filed against traders of misdeclared Asus computer laptops was worth P96.8 million.

Chavez used to head the RATS program and under his leadership, the program filed at least 44 smuggling cases before the Justice department with total claims worth almost P60 billion.

In October, however, the Office of the President ordered the suspension of Chavez and seven of his men following an administrative complaint filed by Sanyo Seiki Steel Corp. (SSSC).

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa signed the order which placed Chavez and his men under preventive suspension for 90 days.

The suspended members were Christopher Dy Buco, Edgar Quinones, Francisco Fernandez Jr. Alfredo Adao, Jose Elmer Velarde, Thomas Patric Relucio and Jim Erick Acosta.

Sanyo Seiki, in its complaint, said that the eight RATS officials were engaged in extortion activities and abuse of authority.

The connivance between Customs insiders and smugglers is one of the issues that needs to be addressed if a Customs
commissioner wants to put an end to such activities.

Former Customs Commissioner Guillermo L. Parayno Jr., for his part, said that smuggling would remain for as long as it is profitable and that the risks perceived are manageable.

“Smuggling is a profession and a way of life for a considerable segment of our society and the number of those who would be adversely affected by programs meant to curtail it magnifies tenfold if we include the smugglers’ conspirators and supporters. These individuals will resist any diminution of their incomes or any change in their lifestyles,” Parayno said in a paper titled “The Extent of Smuggling in the Philippines.”

Parayno believes that strong political will is needed to implement laws that would drastically reduce smuggling in the country.

Insiders interviewed by The Star including customs district collectors and former customs commissioners said that pay-offs from smugglers vary, depending on the goods and the rank of the customs employee involved.

A customs police – considered a middle-level employee in the agency of roughly 5,000 employees, gets anywhere from P5,000 to P20,000 a week, insiders said.

The higher-ranking officers can get anywhere from P100,000 to at least a million pesos, insiders said.
The different methods used by smugglers are as varied as the goods that they bring in, Parayno said in his paper.


Methods of smuggling

The common methods of smuggling are concealment, under-invoicing, mis-declaration, use of fake documents, swings, transshipment, and illegal withdrawals from customs bonded warehouses.

Concealment is when legitimate products conceal the prohibited, banned or regulated commodity.

Mis-declaration happens because at the end of the day, the commissioner is not the one who examines each and every container.

Under invoicing is done in cahoots with Customs assessors and examiners. It involves the submission of false invoices. Through this scheme, the quantity or the price is highly understated.

Misclassification, another smuggling scheme, is when the commodity may be properly described but placed under a different heading with a lower rate of duty.

The use of fake documents is also a common method used in smuggling, insiders said.

With this scheme, smugglers submit tax exemption papers, authority to import and other exemption papers to circumvent the payment of proper duties.

Swing is when importers take out the goods from the port outright without the duly processed documents. The volume of goods taken out is usually minimal but entails the connivance of Customs policemen who are asked to turn a blind eye on the removal of the goods.

Transshipment is another form of smuggling used by big-time smugglers. Here, the goods are manifested as transshipments to other ports from a port in Manila.

Smuggling takes place on the way to the port of destination when the contents of the container are replaced or removed before proceeding to the transshipment port, or the entire shipment disappears altogether.

In transshipment procedures, Customs police must escort the goods from the port of discharge all the way to the port of destination.

Unfortunately, sometimes this does not happen.

The police are just given P500 to P2,000 to “go watch a movie, take the day off or to just go home,” said a Customs insider.

In many instances, even without a bribe, Customs are not willing to escort goods to a port outside Manila because of the distance and the time it would entail.

Illegal withdrawals from customs bonded warehouses or CBWs are also common method of smuggling goods.

CBWs allow exporters to import, duty-free, raw materials and other inputs for export production.

However, insiders said, it is common for smugglers to form fictitious CBWs just to avail themselves of the duty-free privileges. As such, the goods find their way into the local market at marked down prices.

Thus, the Government’s battle against tax evasion and smugglers remains uphill.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) needs to collect P940 billion this year, while the BoC has a revenue target of P320 billion.

Insiders from both agencies believe that if tax evasion and smuggling are drastically reduced, it would be easier to hit the respective collection goals set by the government for its two revenue offices.