Business Circuit

The deal fell through

There was supposed to be a deal where Speaker Jose V. |De Venecia will be allowed to keep his post on condition that his son Joey III keep mum on the Senate investigation of the scandalous ZTE broad band deal.

Venecia was also imposed the duty of making sure that the friend of former NEDA director general, a certain Rodolfo Noel Lozada, does not appear in the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

He failed. The Senate issued summonses but he did not appear.

This must have sunk in the mind of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo who is reportedly behind the move to oust De Venecia.

According to my sources, he is not cutting any deal with anybody. He just wants De Venecia out. Never mind what the witnesses will say against him.

The call of the hour is that De Venecia must go. It seems that the First Gentleman has a score to settle with him, as reported by other papers.

The word that comes out of Malacañang, in whispers, of course, is that both Kampi and Lakas have dumped Speaker Jose V. de Venecia.

In fact, the House is set to vote tonight. The expectation is Davao Congressman Prospero Nograles will replace De Venecia.

That is what Malacañang says. Proof that powerful people in the Palace, said to be led by the First Gentleman no less, are out to kick out the Speaker.

But the Speaker, believing that he has served the President well, is just as certain that his colleagues will not abandon him.

Let’s see what happens.

The unexpected can happen. It turns out that Mindanao Congressman Simeon Datumanong, former secretary of justice, former secretary of public works and now chairman of the House committee on justice, has not given up the fight.

This space earlier reported that Datumanong is the strongest contender.

Who knows? Datumanong may have the swing vote that can spoil the fun of either De Venecia or Nograles.

If, as reported, the First Gentleman wants to have the Speaker’s head at any cost, we can expect more trouble coming the way of Malacañang.

JDV may go down in defeat. But he can convert it into a victory by fueling his son and Lozada to talk some more about what they know of the scandalous ZTE broadband deal.

In these days of dirty politics, any word against Malacañang and its occupant is taken by the people as gospel truth.

Lozada and Joey III would expectedly be only too willing to tell all if Malacañang or the First Gentleman succeeds in installing Nograles as speaker.

In fact, I can speculate that this incident can spark an open war between JDV and Malacanang.

He can cut a deal with the Opposition on the promise that he would provide critical information against President Arroyo and her husband. He should have quite a lot to tell.

Nobody has noticed the anomaly of continuing with the customs bonded warehouse system. As it is, the CBW is an excellent, nearly foolproof facility for smuggling.

Customs regulations require that goods kept in the warehouse may be taken out without paying a tax because they are supposed to be raw materials for further processing.

What is there to process in completely finished products like galvanized iron sheet roofing? They are taken out without paying a tax. They are sold in the commercial market.

Tariff and expanded value added tax are avoided. The government loses in the hundreds of millions, if not billions in taxes, in iron and steel products alone.

Nobody takes notice.

There is just too much money to make using customs bonded warehouses for finished products which are not qualified for tax exemption.

Customs is the dirtiest agency of the government. The most corrupt. Everybody, including people in Malacañang know it.

No one is doing anything. Maybe they are on the take. This kind of smuggling would not thrive without the protection of powerful people.

May the plague hit them.

I got text messages which I think are too serious to ignore. The first one came from cellular phone No. 0917-384-0051. It says "Good day! You nid to claim and activate ur 3 exclusive x-mas reward privileges from Prudential Group Makati tomorrow.

"This is very important and urgent. For details and for your claiming policy security code …please call 817-3572 and look for Ms. Mhegan Lacdao, releasing manager of Prudential Plans."

I am not insured with that company. Why would I have privileges? I talked to Ms. M. Lacdao and she asked me to come over so I can name my beneficiaries. She may believe I am a sucker. Try another victim, I told her.

Another one was sent to my prepaid cellular phone. The message says "(Notice) Your sim card # had won P680,000 in our 2nd anev (sic) Pre raffle draw last Jan. 28, 2008 from Millionaires Club, Inc. For more details and info, call me (the number of the sender) now. I am Sec Mark A.

Tell you what, Mark. I am not going to call you but I will make you a deal you never heard of. Send just P10,000 of that P680,000 prize. You can keep the rest.

I am warning the rest of owners of prepaid or postpaid cellular phones. Do not fall for this racket.