The Supreme Court finally ruled this week that Philippine Congressman Mark Jimenez should be jailed while his extradition hearing is heard. Jimenez then declared he would voluntarily fly back to the United States after Christmas to turn himself in to American authorities to face the charges of tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.

This did not stop the accusations flying between Rep. Wilfredo Villarama and the first gentleman Miguel Arroyo, concerning alleged donations made by Jimenez to two foundations headed by supporters of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Villarama claims that he collected checks from Jimenez in the amount of 18 million pesos and handed them over to Mr. Arroyo. He further claims that only five million pesos ended up in one of the foundations, the remaining 13 million pesos having gone missing. Of course, the implication here is that Mr. Arroyo and wife may have pocketed the remainder.

Mr. Arroyo denied Villarama’s accusations, saying the foundations had receipts proving they had legally received donations from many rich businessmen, including Jimenez. Nevertheless, this whole episode has cast a pall of gloom over Malacañang Palace, with the president’s integrity in doubt.

Jimenez has always been a shadowy figure, but why is Villarama, the former chief of staff of President Arroyo when she was vice president, suddenly coming out with these revelations? Is it just a nasty attempt to besmirch the president’s integrity via her husband? It’s not really clear, but it certainly has blown the lid off the world of non-profit foundations that are used as means of gaining political clout.

In a world of “I’ll scratch my back if you’ll scratch mine,” these foundations have served as moneymaking vehicles for politicians of all stripes. What is extremely worrying is that one of the GMA foundations, the Lualhati Foundation, is winding down its operations according to its former president Ed Manda, head of the Manila International Airport Authority.

One has to wonder why the Lualhati Foundation is only just now closing down. Is it so that vital documents showing Jimenez’s donations are destroyed? The Securities and Exchange Commission should step in at once and sequester the two GMA foundations. All of their transactions should be closely examined and audited, and a public report on the findings should be released. As for Villarama’s accusations that 13 million pesos in Jimenez donations are unaccounted for, I think a special Senate blue ribbon committee should look into the paper trail and try to find out what really happened.

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Why taxing text messages is idiotic

The recent International Monetary Fund suggestion to the cash-strapped Philippine government that it tax text messages as a way of boosting revenue, is frankly idiotic.

If you look at who does the most texting in the Philippines, it is obvious that it is mostly the young from ages 10-24 who text the most. They are also the group with the least amount of income in the country since most are students or have just started working. Taxing them makes no sense, and would only serve to alienate them further from the status quo.

The IMF estimates that the Philippine government could raise up to 44 billion pesos a year in revenue from taxing text messages, which is not an insignificant amount. But I still think it’s an unfair tax, as it would burden the weakest sections of society the most: The poor and the young.

I think the Philippine government could find better ways to collect more tax, perhaps by better enforcing the collection of income tax.

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Eid flu

For those of you who have wondered what happened with my column these past two weeks, let me explain: Eid vacation and the flu.

The Eid-Al-Fitr vacation, which celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, was during the first week of December, with the first day of Eid falling on Dec. 5, a Thursday. I had planned to go to Taif with my friend Marvin, but as luck would have it, that was not to be!

Instead of a relaxing week off from work and anything stressful, I found myself nursing Marvin at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, when he broke out into a fever of 39.5 degrees Celsius. We rushed to the emergency room of the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital, only to find that all the beds were taken by other people similarly struck down by the Eid flu that was sweeping Jeddah. A doctor soon examined Marvin and gave him two injections: One for the body aches, the other an antibiotic to fight the infection raging in his chest. 2,000 milligrams of antibiotics a day was prescribed and we went home, Marvin finally able to sleep after his fever subsided.

Our rest was to be short-lived. Again on Saturday night Marvin’s fever peaked and wouldn’t come down. So off we went again to the emergency room, which was still just as busy. Another round of shots and some completely unnecessary tests (a chest x-ray and blood test) and Marvin felt better again. This time his fever was conquered and it was a matter only of rest and time before he recovered.

Having until then successfully avoided falling ill myself, I finally began to feel unwell on Sunday night. On Monday my whole body was aching and I had a cough. I went to see a doctor and he confirmed that I had the flu.

So antibiotics and loads of Panadol Extra it was to be for me for the next few days. On Tuesday I felt absolutely awful, one of those days when you just feel like a truck has run you over.

A week later and I’ve recovered although I still do have a slight cough. The funny thing is that almost everyone I mentioned this flu to inevitably blamed the outbreak on pilgrims to Makkah, saying, “It must be Haji flu!” As if we people living in Saudi Arabia couldn’t have come up with this flu outbreak on our own! The change in weather in the last few weeks, with much cooler days and rain a few weeks ago, would be enough in my books to cause an outbreak of the flu.

Arab News Opinion 20 December 2002