Kim Henares is probing pork scammer

The good news is… Kim Henares has started to investigate the pork barrel scammer. Kim is one proactive official who needs no prodding to do her job well. She reads the newspapers and that’s enough for her to start a new episode in her hunt for tax evaders.

Indeed, Kim is the only person in government today who gives me confidence to deliver quick results in matters like this disgusting pork barrel scammer. She can sometimes be stubborn and even unreasonable as in the case of that badly announced deadline for new receipts. But she needs to be what she is to deliver results.

The best thing about Kim is there’s no question about her honesty. Because of her tenacity to flush out tax evaders, she is able to squeeze out the proper tax payments from the usual suspects who got away with it before.

It is interesting how Kim is able to get her sights on her targets with the help of the tax evader’s propensity for ostentatious display of wealth. It’s that simple and one wonders why past BIR chiefs didn’t do it.

I have heard a number of stories about how flashy launches of luxury cars are quickly abandoned by well dressed guests as soon as Kim steps in. I am told one such launch at Bonifacio Global City had guests scampering out to the safety of the nearby S&R warehouse store and having their drivers pick them up there instead of the car showroom.

Kim is said to be on the lookout for expensive jewelry on well dressed women in parties. I don’t know how true this anecdote is, but there is this story of how she managed to get the guest list in the inauguration of one of the clinics of her “bilas”, Vicky Belo. If you have the money for body sculpting, you must have the money to pay the right taxes. Hmm… walang kamaganak for Kim.

This is why I think Kim is the best hope of the P-Noy administration to get into the bottom of that disgusting P10- billion pork barrel scam. A lifestyle check of that woman in the center of the shocking scandal is essential. I have heard this woman’s neighbors in Ayala Alabang and Pacific Plaza talk of her lavish lifestyle. How did this woman from Basilan get so rich? 

It is interesting to note too that one of the witnesses against this woman related how she puts a hoard of cold cash in her bath tub. That must be her way of money laundering. But seriously, the probe should involve the Anti Money Laundering Council too.

Because that woman couldn’t have moved all that money without the help of banks, any investigation by the BIR must include asking her banks some questions. Indeed, that woman and the corrupt lawmakers have been laughing all the way to the bank all these years. It is time our banks and bank managers be made accountable under the principle of “know your client” – specially a client moving such vast sums of money.

The BSP should impose a significant penalty, like what was imposed on Standard Chartered and HSBC in the US, when they were caught dealing with money from embargoed Iran on the part of StanChart and laundering money from Mexican drug dealers on the part of HSBC.

It is but proper that banks shown to have been careless or connived with this pork barrel scammer to take responsibility. The bank managers involved should be forever banned from working in a bank. This is the only way we can make our current system work in favor of the good guys and effectively go against the bad guys.

More than P10 billion of our hard earned tax money went up in smoke! It is amazing how such a scam can go on for so long without anyone noticing. Let the NBI and the Ombudsman investigate the public officials who signed off on this scam, but I think Kim is the only one who can make this woman realize how wrong she had been to steal from the public coffers.

The first thing the public must know is how much income tax this woman was paying. All the companies and foundations used in the scam should also be subjected to the BIR probe.

It should be easy to build a viable case because this woman has flaunted her wealth… bought expensive cars and real estate, held lavish parties, among others. Fruits of ill-gotten wealth are out there for everyone to see. Catholic bishops and priests who have received support from this woman should also come clean.

The public will give the P-Noy Daang Matuwid a real big boost of credibility if Kim is able to nail that woman down. It seems to me only the Al Capone strategy will work in any anti-corruption drive, starting with this case.

It is good to hear P-Noy wants an exhaustive prove of this pork barrel scam. There are rumors circulating that administration personalities have also had business with that woman. If they only go after opposition personalities, the drive will be given political color and thus, be less credible even if those opposition politicians are guilty as hell.

So Kim must quickly go out there and run after this woman. A report of this woman’s tax liability will be a nice boost to the President’s SONA next week. It may even mask the absence of accomplishments in other areas of governance. I think Kim can save the day for P-Noy, but only if P-Noy wants her too.

Go after her, Kim. You are our hope in regaining our faith in our government. This scandal is just to shocking for words!

PDAF

The congressional pork barrel or PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) really ought to be abolished. So much waste of scarce resources has happened on account of this pork barrel fund.

But I don’t believe it will go away any time soon or ever. It is the nature of our politics that such a source of funds for political supporters must exist. I can try to understand why officials who are elected by local constituencies need pork. But why should senators, elected nationally and supposed to be statesmen, have it too?

One more thing… why should NGOs be given funding from pork? NGOs should remain true to its name – non governmental. As it turns out, fake NGOs have apparently been used to siphon funds from the Treasury using pork funds diverted to so-called NGOs.

There are legitimate NGOs doing good using pork funds. But it defeats the rationale for NGOs as a private sector initiative if it gets funds from the government. We can’t remove the pork barrel fund system any time soon. But it should be easy for Congress to rule that from now on, NGOs will have no more access to the pork fund.

Ride public transport

I have just one thing to say to DOTC Sec. Jun Abaya in the light of his advice for car owners to ride public transport to help solve the traffic problem: do it first. Indeed, top cabinet officials who have anything to do at all about our traffic problem, from MMDA, LGUs and the do-nothing DOTC, should be required to ride public transportation.

Never mind that it will take them longer to get to their offices, as Amy Pamintuan, our editor-in-chief proved, the education they will get from the experience should be priceless. One reason why our DOTC and MMDA officials have been ineffective is because they have not actually experienced the daily sufferings of commuters.

Successful megacities elsewhere in the world have made provisions for car owners to park their cars outside a commuter train station and take the mass transport to the heart of the city where they work. On the other hand, megacities like Los Angeles that ignored mass transport until fairly recently, are suffering traffic gridlocks that sap the energy of their populations daily.

Maybe, we should recall all the official cars of cabinet members and require them to ride the MRT, LRT and those buses, jeepneeys and PUs with suicidal drivers. It is only after they are doing this for at least a year can guys like Abaya and MMDA’s Tolentino have the moral authority to give us the advice to take public transport.

Confucius says

It takes many nails to build a crib but only one screw to fill it.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco