By AMADO P. MACASAET
THE Arroyo administration is handling the financial
crisis with a propaganda campaign that insults the intelligence of even a
simpleton.
First, she announced that the World Bank, presumably with the
knowledge and consent of the International Monetary Fund, has committed $10
billion for what she called Asean +3 crisis fund.
The World Bank politely denied having made a commitment. The
IMF said it did not know a thing about it.
As if to undo the harm that her lying did to the people and
their hopes for surviving the present crisis, the President went out on a limb
again. She declared that a P100 billion fund will be created by both the
government and the private sector.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry immediately
committed P50 billion.
The money is presumed to be the contribution of the banking
system.
There is no problem raising the remaining 50 percent as it
could very well be borne by the Development Bank of the Philippines, the Land
Bank, the GSIS and the Social Security System.
But I have very serious doubts about the 50 billion that will
come from the private sector, as proclaimed by the PCCI.
The chamber might have committed the banking system to cough
up the money. Maybe it will, but it cannot be in the form of a contribution or
some such manifestation of cooperation with the President.
Banks, it need not be stressed, invest the money of its
depositors. Their deposits cannot be "invested" in contributions. The PCCI did
not explain how it would produce the P50 billion, but I presume that the money
will come from the banks.
If that is the case, it should be the Bankers Association
that should have made the announcement. But the banks will not part with
depositors’ money without a reasonable guarantee of profit or at least an
assurance of safety of the principal.
This being so, the P100 billion the President said will be
raised can come only from government financial institutions, not from the
private banks. But even that is dangerous as far as the GSIS and the SSS are
concerned.
If the two of them contribute say, P10 billion each, there
should be an actuarial study that would show that parting with the money would
not deny their members the benefits they are entitled to by law.
We have malarkey everywhere. We might try sanity sometimes.
The General Appropriations Act has P170 billion for
infrastructure. Spent for the purpose, that money will create jobs and ease the
tight conditions of the poor, all in good time.
So, why do we need another P100 billion? We do not have the
money flowing out of anybody’s ears.
The way I see it, the Arroyo regime can indeed raise even
more than P100 billion using one of several modes all of which are inflationary.
If the National Treasury tells the Bangko Sentral to raise
the interest rates on the weekly auctioned Treasury Bills, the government will
lay its hands on huge sums of money, borrowed money, that is.
Maybe President Arroyo believes, and she may be right, that a
little more inflation may be allowed for as long as at the end of the day,
production will go up.
The other way, used by President Diosdado Macapagal is for
the government to issue domestic securities to the BSP in any amount it wants
to. If the securities are issued, the BSP will print new money.
The effect on inflation is unimaginable. Domestic securities,
if I remember right, are discouraged by the IMF, if not totally disallowed.
We can grapple with the situation better by facing it
squarely and doing the doable, not promising us pie in the sky.
It would not take too much money to increase agricultural
production. There is plenty of room for BPOs which practically cost very little
but create jobs and even educate the workers by having people learn to speak
better English.
The call of the hour is austerity as the President’s father
did in his time. It seems President Macapagal never taught his daughter the
meaning of the word or she simply could not understand its impact on the
finances of government,
There are too many little ways to save money by being
austere. Flashy cars of cabinet members escorted by mounted cops and several
vehicles are wasteful. It does not sit with an austerity program that does not
exist anyway.
Goebbels might be right that during his time, a lie told often enough is
taken as truth. We need no Goebbels these days. We know a lie when we see one.
There are too many of them.
