A STROKE of genius.
So hailed a garments exporter of our piece CDC’s flawed economics chiding the Clark Development Corp.’s (sub)standard of performance for Clark as a Freeport which is solely based on its volume of exports.
An instance of idiocy.
So smirked a former used-car importer at the same article, specifically of me asking: “So how much did the Clark Freeport spend in imports for 2011?”
From the peak of intelligence to the abyss of imbecility within the space of a minute. My fall from intellectual grace makes a record worthy of a Guinness. So why am I idiotic for simply asking CDC to make public the volume of imports at the Clark Freeport, if only for balance reporting?
Duh, came the answer. The CDC is not so stupid as to shoot itself in the foot, moreso suicidal as to put the bullet in its head by releasing the volume of imports at the Clark Freeport.
What has publicizing the imports got to do with CDC self-destruction?
Duh. Duh. A slight edge of exports over imports at the Clark Freeport makes CDC inefficient. A higher volume of imports than exports makes CDC grossly incompetent.
Removing the imports altogether from the equation makes the Clark Freeport a most profitable enterprise, and CDC a top performer among all government-owned and –controlled corporations.
Worthy of all the hallelujahs the CDC heaped upon itself with its praise release of its earning “a staggering $3.912 billion in exports – a historical 161 percent increase from the state-owned firm’s US$1.453 billion record in 2010 due to impressive performances of its locators and investors.”
The CDC’s self-projection is but the very tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Hidden but lurking below the surface is an even more insidious agendum: SMUGGLING.
A CDC report on the volume of imports with the same eye for detail as its report on exports will provide a paper trail to any amateur sleuth on smuggling at the Clark Freeport. Indeed, it will open CDC’s own Pandora’s Box.
Of course, CDC has always made a clean breast over smuggling at Clark. Duh. Duh. Duh.
Notwithstanding the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s issuance of Revenue Regulations 2-2012 specifically to “combat rampant oil smuggling and ensure that proper taxes are correctly collected from petroleum and other oil products imported into the Philippines, including those coming through Freeport Zones and Economic Zones.” That, as stated in news reports.
(Claiming the BIR resolution violated RA 7227, Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin has been granted successively a TRO and a preliminary injunction over its implementation. But that is another story.)
Likewise, the continuing operations of the so-called Ninjas and Cowboys of old make an affirmation of all allegations of smuggling at the Clark Freeport.
So have you heard of their now-not-so-new modus operandi? Instead of the too ubiquitous and even unwieldy container vans and trucks, small vans are now used for easy, albeit low volume, transport of goods out of the Freeport. Making up for it in increased number of trips.
The guards at the gates are not necessarily in connivance with the smugglers. With “proper documentation” from higher ups, the guards had no recourse but to make the cursory inspection and allow the goods to go out of the Freeport.
This calls for an interview with the CDC Security Services.
Why not go all the way to the top?
Sure, will do.
And you think you’ll get the answers?
Of course, I do.
Yeah, go and make yourself the greater idiot for it.
Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh.
