For plans to raise taxes, sell state assets and privatize services

MEDIA RELEASE April 15, 2000 For plans to raise taxes, sell state assets and privatize services BAYAN HITS IMF, US-ESTRADA REGIME ANEW

Manila - The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today said it will lead a rally Monday (April 17) at the Central Bank against what it described as "the US-Estrada regime and the International Monetary Bank-World Bank's connivance to foist new taxes, sell strategic state assets at bargain prices and to further sell out the economy to big foreign interests."

The rally will coincide with big protests in Washington, D.C. as the IMF and WB hold their Spring Meeting. Bayan is part of the People's Assembly Against IMF-WB and, since 1996, the People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization.

"It is no coincidence that while an IMF review team is currently in Manila, several controversial measures like the Road User's Tax, the Omnibus Power Bill and the New Securities Act were passed separately by Congress," said Bayan Secretary-General Teodoro Casiņo while adding that "these have long been demanded by the IMF."

Casiņo also took the US-Estrada to task for promising to the IMF team the privatization of the National Power Corporation, government shares in the Philippine National Bank and eleven state hospitals .

"This time, President Estrada can no longer point his finger at others. The government is consciously and lustily following all these IMF impositions to the obvious detriment of the common folk," Casiņo said.

"This not only shows how good Estrada is in the role of 'chief puppet' but also the IMF-WB's part as the 'director' of Philippine economic policies," the Bayan leader said.

"What it has failed to do with Concord, it is doing bit by bit through legislation. By passing these laws, the US-Estrada regime is enshrining into law the evils of privatization, liberalization and deregulation," Casiņo explained.

He said that this further proves that "Estrada is selling the patrimony and economy to big foreign interests at bargain basement prices."

Casiņo said that the Napocor privatization wherein the government will assume all its debts in favor of the new owners is "like selling Petron all over again, with the same script and the same promises."

"In the end, the people will suffer the brunt of endless hikes in power rates while the owners wallow in profit," said Casiņo.

"Even the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) wishes to score brownie points with the IMF-WB by announcing a 30-centavo hike in electric power rates," Casiņo added. Meralco is the largest electric power distribution company in the Philippines.

According to Meralco, the hike is based on the 8 percent return on rate base imposed by the World Bank and other multilateral lending institutions on utilities to ensure viability and the ability to pay up its debts.

Casiņo warned of more and bigger protests over the spate of new taxes, the sellout of state assets and the privatization of basic services. Last month, transport group Piston launched transport strikes that debilitated major parts of the country to protest the Road User's Tax.

Instead, Casiņo called for the immediate scrapping of the US-Estrada regime's deregulation, liberalization and privatization policies which he said has worsened the economic conditions of the Philippines by keeping it agrarian, backward and dependent on debt and imports.

"We remain poor because of puppet regimes like Estrada's and meddlesomeinstitutions like the IMF-WB," he said. ###