Biyernes, Nobyembre 14, 2014

STUPID MEDIA MEN

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

PHOTO CREDIT: www.hollywoodtoday.net
Bureau of Internal Revenue Regional Director Arnel Guballa, Revenue District Officer – 4 Chief  Renato Molina, and Assistant RDO-4 Chief Charmaine dela Torre should check this Mainland Chinese –owned three-storey store near the Orchid’s Hotel in Dagupan City. I just called it a store since it has no commercial signage displayed on its façade.
It does not issue a BIR official receipt or O.R, instead it gives its customer a piece of paper enumerating the goods and the corresponding prices the latter bought there.
“Under process pa po ang O.R noong papel namin kaya papel na lang po ang recibo namin na i-issue sa iyo, “ a Filipina sales lady told a man who bought a set of kitchen utensils
BIR should charge the Chinese who owned the store with either a fine of P10 to P20 thousand for failure to issue the O.R or tax fraud. The owner’s malpractices give unfair competition with their Filipino counterparts who religiously pay their dues at the tax bureau.

Some of these Chinese stores who used this underhanded business strategy have been padlocked and fined by the BIR in the past through Operation Kandado.
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Could you still remember my columns before about a broadcaster (a pastor who accidentally became a radio commentator of a religious station) who asked the mayor of a city why the hizzoner practiced double standard on filing a corruption cases against the city treasurer, cashier, and a clerk who were found to have Prima Facie (Latin words “on the first appearance”) on the cases they allegedly committed.
“Bakit niyo kinasuhan iyong tatlo ng Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices, bakit si Prima Facie hindi niyo kinasuhan – ano ba ang meron kay Prima Facie at hindi magalaw-galaw, mayor?” he exasperatedly posed in a press conference in San Carlos City.
Of the 30 media men who were at that conference, only three chuckled. The rest were probably as “stupid” as the broadcaster, they thought Prima Facie or Prima Fa-Sy was the older brother of Northern Times publisher Lelia Sy.
Could you still remember a lady radio commentator explaining in his program that those suspected John Doe and Jane Doe who escaped the police dragnet were probably sibling or cousins because of their similar surnames?
The Americans have a quipped for all of those boo-boos: “I’ll be damned!”

Several mornings ago, a TV reporter of a national network reported that Governor Amado T. Espino and two of his department heads had filed a Motion for Reconsideration on the administrative indictment of the Ombudsman against them on the illegal mining in 2011 of magnetite black sand they allegedly committed.
Her report was wrong unless she and her news writer perused the press release of the Ombudsman sent to us media men through our e-mails.
In that e-mail it showed that the Governor was absolved administratively because he won his reelection bid in 2013. The law says that the election of a public officials exonerate him for the administrative case or cases filed against him before he won his reelection. The logic, according to jurisprudence, is the electorates have forgiven him. We called that the Doctrine of Condonation.

Obama’s Veto Power and the Republican's Majority

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

PHOTO CREDIT: ABC 7 Chicago.com
The American voters have spoken, according to CNN.com.election as of press time it says: 53 senators for the Republican Party or the Grand Old Party (GOP) while 46 solons for the Democrats who used to control that House before the November 4 election.
In the House of Representatives, according to the same source, 244 congressmen for the GOP while 186 representatives for the Democrats.
So what’s the implication of this U.S election to legislation that will be passed by Congress dominated by the Republicans that will be signed into law by a Democrat Party President Barrack Obama?
If the president vetoes the bills he did not like, then he has to return it to Congress where each of both Houses overturned the bill by two-third votes to make it a law.
But the problem is the GOP could not muster 290 votes or two-third from the 435 members of the House or the 66 or two-third from the 100 members of the Senate to pass a law at their own volition.
Just like in the Philippines, a two-third vote of both Houses can overturn a presidential veto into a law.
Here’s the United States Constitution  and its provisions written in a plain English - attention Filipino writers who have the propensity for high highfalutin!: