Why pick on Del Monte Philippines?

A few years ago, elected politicians should keep their hands off companies that are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. They became legislators to make laws and not to turn the Senate and the House of Representatives into sub- sidiaries of the National Bureau of Investigation. (NBI).

As lawmakers, these senators and district representatives should have known that in making Congress an NBI unit, they may be placing themselves under the of Justice.

If the more corrupt among legislators only want to share from the not do it at the expense of listed companies in which the public investors are also stockholders. Why not go direct to the business owners and partake of the cash dividends that they receive every now and then?

- Lihaylihay against Commissioner Internal Revenue ( BIR) and 17 allegations are true, by all means they should be investigated.

should tell the public how he taxed P21 billion for 2011 but this was lowered to P14 billion when supposedly anomalous reinvestigation.” He should have told the

Philippine unit generated in 2011.

Local unit

company. Its parent is.

For the information of Lihaylihay and of the lawmakers, SGV and - - rities and Exchange Commission.

- sure rule. In a public ownership report (POR) as of April 12, it attributed to the public the ownership of 621.106 million shares, or 31.96 percent.

With their ownership of close to 32 percent of outstanding capital stock, the public should have been entitled to at least two seats in the allowing the public to elect their nominees, the company’s eightperson board is divided into four regular directors and four independent directors.

- Bluebell Group Holdings Ltd. own 1.155 billion shares, or 56.44 percent, and 148.227 million shares, or 7.63 percent, respectively.

Public stockholders

Politicians are better reminded that investigating listed companies unnecessarily also hurts the public investors who may also be stockholders. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and his fellow members know this.

Ironically, it seems the Lower House of the two-chamber legislature engages less in making laws and more as an investigator of private companies. Instead of requir unit to justify its tax payments, Alvarez should have studied his lessons before issuing statements and press releases.

It is not the duty of a corporate taxpayer to explain to Alvarez how it paid only so much in taxes. Let the BIR do the inquiry. If both he and his informer were serious in going after alleged tax cheats, how come they failed to provide the public the taxable income on which was computed the alleged Philippines?

Alvarez should disclose to the public the revenues and the result - ippines registered in 2011, and possibly in other years. He should not be like the BIR, which omits from its website the personal income and revenues of individual and corporate taxpayers, respectively.

Due Diligencer’s take

Members of the House of Representatives should make public their compensation by including their salaries and expenses among the reports collated by the Commission on Audit (COA). Based on this report, the public would know how some, if not all its members, could at the same time afford the lifestyle of the very rich and famous.

As the government independent auditor, COA used to include the salaries of legislators in its audit reports. Unfortunately, it does not do this anymore for reasons known only to COA and the lawmakers.

For the sake of the public who are interested in how the government spends other people’s money, COA should also post on its website the expenses of law of the President.

By the way, if Alvarez and his allies in Congress are interested Philippines has been earning, they should start their lessons in accounting by going over the audits conducted by the company’s external auditors. The numbers alleged by Alvarez’s informer should tally with these audit reports.

Who, by the way, is Lihaylihay? than P3 billion as his reward for his alleged past exposé of unpaid taxes? Just asking.