‘I’ll see you and raise you’

I don’t know who exactly should look into the matter but I’ve received a number of complaints from “suppliers” and owners of small trucking businesses about the practice of many companies and accountants of delaying payments for goods and services provided. Given how all businesses are operating at 30 to 50 percent of capacity, whatever income is made by suppliers and truckers all go to salaries of employees and financial obligations. Some people I know are running things just so their employees have something to live on or take home, many of whom are “arawan” or daily wage earners. Unfortunately a number of accountants and companies have not adjusted their practice of delaying payments by as much as 30 days, 60 days, 120 days, and even as wicked as 180 days! Yes it’s wicked because even the Bible points out, that to delay what is due is wrong:

Proverbs 3:27-28: Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it” – When you have it with you. In the book of Romans 13:7 St Paul tells us: “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed”. Speaking of wicked, Psalms 37:21 teaches us that when goods and services are delivered we effectively have “borrowed” them since they are yet unpaid. This is how Psalm 37:21 defines this conduct: “The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives.” Lastly, Leviticus 19:13 “ You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.”

Imagine that last one. God himself said don’t withhold the payment overnight, but companies have made it standard practice to withhold payment for as much as 180 days! And many of them wonder why success eludes them! They don’t give tithes; they now brag about working 24/7 and on top of that rob their “partners” in the business what is due them. I hope and pray that Christian business leaders who belong to associations and chambers will boldly speak to their business associates and contemporaries because these mistakes are also the very reason why many businessmen and companies fail. Such wicked accounting and financial strategies are at the expense and lost opportunities of your suppliers. It is designed to give the big companies an unfair advantage and often causes serious loss or closure or downsizing of start ups. It is to say the least, an immoral practice people call sound financial management. It causes injury and stress to others. What is sound about that?

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In a clear effort to entice traditional Jeepney operators and drivers associations to invest on “Modern Jeepneys”, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade has raised the “Ante” or the offer of government to partly subsidize their purchase from P80,000 now up to P160,000 or double the money! The move of Secretary Tugade could be in response to calls of operators and leaders for the government to simply buy all the jeepneys that are currently collecting dust while drivers resort to begging alms on the streets because they are not allowed to ply their routes.

Ideally we would all want a perfect solution where the operators and associations take the offer and buy modern vehicles. But given how this modernization project has started to turn into a negotiation, chances are the Jeepney groups will “make hirit” or push for a higher price around the 200 thousand mark if not more. This is where I remembered the phrase “ I’ll see you and raise you” that poker-playing cowboys always said in the movies. From the looks of it, Secretary Art Tugade may have the solution right under his nose. He could actually do one of two things; simply give an outright buyout offer for dilapidated Jeepneys or raise his subsidy offer for Modern Jeepneys but make this payable on installment and directly to manufacturers partly in cash and partly in tax exemptions. Either way, the good Secretary achieves his goal of removing jeepneys disallowed by the LTO or the LTFRB. This would be a real Win – Win situation instead of the waiting game where nobody wins.

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From time to time, Mayor Alfred Romualdez calls me to share novel ideas or his annoyance with certain practices that some people do. Last week, Mayor Alfred called to tell me how he managed to “hit two birds with one stone” regarding Community Quarantine. While most mayors and barangays all over the country have spent a lot of time and money putting up quarantine facilities, what he did was to work with PhilHealth by having a couple of hotels in Tacloban City certified as quarantine facilities for positive or suspected or probable Covid-19 cases. This was rather easy since the requirements state that the facility must be separate units, must have separate toilets etc., much like a hospital. Then the City Government simply “rents” the entire hotel facility at around 50% discount and uses PhilHealth allocations to cover daily rent and cost of food and supplies. This way the local government does not need to deplete their funds just to build quarantine sites, the local hotels manage to stay afloat and maintained, and the “patients don’t run away because they have decent facilities and are not under a tent full of mosquitoes and simmering in the heat and humidity.

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Please watch AGENDA via Onenewsph Facebook as well as on Cignal TV channels 8 or 250.

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