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Jeepneys: all right getting on, dangerous getting off |
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The only good thing about the roads in Manila is the jeepneys. The long, brightly decorated Filipino buses-cum-taxis bring a dash of colour to the tedious traffic jams on dilapidated, pock-marked roads.
Signs on the fronts and sides of the vehicles declare: “God will protect us”, “The Lord is looking over you” and “Jesus will save us”.
Which is probably just as well, because with the way some people drive, he’s going to have his work cut out.
Swerving past the potholes, picking up a bit of speed, and running wide into the path of some squatters, René, the hotel driver – not a fan of jeepneys – responds to the compliment paid to his competitors: “My neighbour’s in hospital because he was hit by a jeepney. He was jumping out of the back of the one he was on and got hit by another behind.” Is he badly hurt? “Oh yes, quite badly hurt,” says the driver, flashing a strange gummy grin. “His funeral’s tomorrow.” Unfazed he continues: “Unfortunately people don’t drive carefully in the Philippines. And,” he jokes, “65% of the population was caused by accident.”
Taking both hands off the steering wheel, René turns round in his seat and offers his cigarettes, which he admits are fake Marlboros. He starts coughing in an attempt to bring up a piece of lung and acknowledges, in between gasps for breath, that although cheaper than the real thing, fake Marlboros are a bit harsher on the throat.
As we cruise bumpily through the back streets of Manila coughing in unison and taking short cuts that add more time to the journey, René points out the houses of the mistresses of the rich and famous. He says one of ex-president Estrada’s many extra-curricular ladies was lucky enough to have had a new beach built onto the back of her modest pad – all paid for by Erap’s hard-earned commissions held in secret accounts with false names. Down the road sits the Polo Club. It nestles very nicely into its surroundings, and so it should. A Coca-Cola expat executive reckons it costs up to $120,000 to join. He does, however, attest that the tennis courts “are kinda neat”.
Around the corner from the tennis courts are the squats – ramshackle bits of tin and corrugated iron standing together in the shadows of the Makati business sector. The disparity between rich and poor is getting worse. Over 30% of the population now live below the poverty line.
Imelda Marcos, while dividing her time equally between supporting her husband, ex-president Ferdinand Marcos, and supporting the world shoe industry, did attempt to come up with a solution. She commissioned two very high, extremely long, beautifully whitewashed walls to be built along the railway track through Manila.
So the squalor in this part of the city now lies conveniently out of sight if not entirely out of mind.
With a tax collection system that is as inefficient and corrupt as the one in the Philippines, it’s going to be a while before the necessary funds become available to alleviate the problem rather than hide it. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) contributes 80% of revenues in the Philippines. “I would agree it is corrupt,” says Sergio Edeza, treasurer of the Philippines. “The issue is being addressed. But you cannot just remove all the officials because you can’t judge everyone to be corrupt. But yes, corruption does have a long history in that organization.”
One analyst says: “To what extent [president Gloria] Arroyo can call up her friends and compel them to pay tax is unknown. But if the top 20 did pay their tax, the Philippines could solve the fiscal problem. The government would hit its budget deficit target of P145 billion [$2.8 billion] and some of the social problems could be cleared up too. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear that she would make them pay in the state of the nation address.”
Another analyst, based safely in Hong Kong, mentions one infamous and very high profile businessman in the Philippines. For years, Lucio Tan, the beer and tobacco tycoon, has been accused of evading tax. It is said by the BIR that Tan, like so many others, successfully exploited the rather large loopholes in the system.
It says he set up several dummy companies that appeared to be losing vast sums of money, while at the same time his empire continued to grow through acquisition. Under president Ramos, BIR took Tan to court in search of the $1 billion in taxes that it says he owes. Being an Estrada favourite, Tan has yet to settle that little IOU.
“The government does need to try to bring more taxpayers into the fold,” says an investment banker taking a swig on a San Miguel in a bar just outside Makati City. “But for now most think, including myself: ‘why should I pay when so many of the powerful and rich don’t?’ The government is just as bad and should put its own house in order first to create credibility.”
Arroyo is going to find this challenging. But where better to start than in her own home. Her husband, Michael, has been accused of taking a $1million kick-back in an attempt to restart a telecommunications franchise deal that was going sour with the government.
A newly elected congressman drinking copious amounts of alcohol on the house in the same bar thinks that far too much is made of the corruption issue, the security issue, and any other issue that is mentioned. “The media,” he slurs, “is unnecessarily stirring up negative perceptions about my country.”
A young lady, dressed in a fetching stretching sequined top and sitting as near to his lap as is possible without actually being in it, nods her head slowly in agreement. He necks his vodka tonic and orders another two. “And another thing,” declares the pie-eyed congressman, “the Philippines is the safest country in Asia and I should know because I used to be a security consultant for the national police force.”
He then explains, for whatever reason and with a piercing look, how much he loathes journalists, but adds that people hardly ever go missing in Manila.
Later, after locking, chaining and casually propping a suitcase and chair up against the hotel door, your reporter anxiously waited for the morning flight out of the country.
