Erap to visit GMA for Christmas

Former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada has filed a request with the authorities to visit former President Gloria Arroyo who is still on hospital detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City. If one can recall, then President Arroyo also did the same in 2001 when she visited Erap Estrada at the VMMC where the latter was detained along with his son Jinggoy.

In the case of Erap, he simply wants to express sincere empathy with the condition of Mrs. Arroyo, believing that kindness and compassion should be shown when one is down – even if he feels that he was unjustly removed from the presidency in 2001. According to the former president, he subscribes to the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi who said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

The president-turned-Manila mayor also disclosed that he is planning to visit Tacloban City over the weekend to personally turn over P5 million cash from the city government of Manila to Mayor Alfred Romualdez for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. Erap will also be giving P5 million worth of relief goods and items for Tacloban from his personal funds. Another P5 million will also be turned over to Leyte Governor Jericho Petilla, making it a total contribution of P15 million.

One should not let the baggage of the past hinder our country from moving forward. We all have to work together especially during this time of great need in our country, Estrada said, saying that partisan politics has no place when it comes to the welfare of fellow Filipinos, especially the most needy.

Horrible congestion at the airport

A balikbayan friend complained to us about how bad the situation at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has become, with the horrible congestion  (and we’re not talking about the runway alone) enough to make one lose the spirit of Christmas. The whole place simply smacks of chaos, with lines even longer than usual because of the number of people arriving for the holiday season.

There are not enough counters or personnel to handle the queues at passport control, and you could feel the agitation growing as the crowd of people waiting before the baggage carousels (they are just too few, our friend told us) keep getting thicker by the minute. Aside from the poor ventilation, people also find it hard to spot their bags/luggage, and it’s not unusual for passengers to wait for an hour or more before they could retrieve their luggage.

Finding a taxi and navigating your way from the airport to the hotel or your destination is another horror story, with the traffic adding to the stress of arriving vacationers. According to our balikbayan friend, it took him longer to get out of NAIA than taking a flight from one western destination to another. If this kind of situation continues, how do we expect to ramp up visitor arrivals to the target of 10 million if even our own kababayans find the conditions at NAIA and the ensuing traffic on the streets insufferable, to say the least?

No doubt a major part of the problem is the DOTC, with many people lamenting the fact that the DOTC has failed to do anything, moving so slowly over the past three years. Officials can keep protesting the negative surveys painting NAIA as one of the worst airports in the world today, but they have not really done anything to speed up the rehabilitation work that has long been overdue.

The DOTC is commissioning a study for an alternative to NAIA, with one of the conditions being that the new location should be less than 30 minutes away from the metropolis. Secretary Abaya has mentioned the former US airbase in Sangley Point, Cavite, but many – businessmen in particular are concerned that the “commissioned” study could take months before it actually takes off. As one of our businessmen friends commented, the DOTC seems to have been afflicted by the “paralysis analysis” virus because of the sluggish pace of work for major and critical infrastructure projects with many still in the bidding or rebidding process like the long overdue DOTC-LTO Road IT project, with the services of the current systems provider being extended despite the overwhelming dissatisfaction from the public.

California has most number of millionaire taxpayers

A recent report by Bloomberg disclosed that the top US state with the most number of taxpayers with incomes of $1 million or more is California, with 42,092 individuals listed. Next to California is New York with 35,802 individuals categorized as millionaire taxpayers.

However, California’s lead seems to be shrinking, with the number of million dollar-plus taxpayers having shrunk by about 3,200 compared to 10 years ago. In contrast, New York registered 10,000 more individual filers with incomes above $1 million. 

The fact of the matter is, more and more US citizens – Filipino-Americans included – are renouncing their citizenship because of stricter rules from the Internal Revenue Ser(IRS)vice that require Americans living abroad to disclose their overseas incomes and assets (bank accounts, properties, insurance contracts, etc.) which will all be subjected to tax under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA. In fact, tax lawyers have noted a record number of renunciations early this year, with Americans living abroad resenting what they call double taxation since they are required to pay taxes not only to the country where they reside and work but also to the IRS.

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