BUT WE already knew that, boss!

Even before anybody could scurry to Hong Kong, we had a good idea about how the formerly cute administration spent government funds with abandon.

As a matter of fact, that cute administration still tried to cover up for its miserable finances by striving hard to sell more government assets.

One of them was the government share in the revenue from the Malampaya gas field, amounting roughly to P20 billion a year.

It did not push through, actually, although the foreign bank that was supposed to package the sale still got a handsome fee of P130 million.

We already knew about the cute administration?s profligacy, decadence, wastefulness, or extravagance.

The thing is, sir, boss, kuya?or whatever?we just wanted to hear concrete plans of the Aquino (Part II) administration to get us out of this financial rut.

We cannot go on forever just blaming that cute administration for our misery.

* * *

IF ONLY we can lick the collection leaks in the Bureau of Customs?

Well, the new customs commissioner, Angelito Alvarez, who this early got some bad press over his indiscretion in a game of golf, just barred what are known as ?haoshiao?? those ?fake? employees?at the BOC inspection areas.

From what I gathered, they served as conduits between BOC personnel (real ones) and customs brokers in releasing import shipments. We all know what happens in such transactions.

Still, getting rid of those scalawags may not be enough. Smuggling has become a huge protection racket under that administration.

The IMF estimated that uncollected VAT on our imports alone could amount to more than P20 billion a year.

In business, they are saying that healing the government finances of the smuggling scourge can become one of the priorities of the Aquino (Part II) administration.

Local flour milling companies, for instance, have been complaining about rampant smuggling of flour from Turkey.

Our info is, well, the industry already submitted a detailed report on the smuggling operation of at least eight companies. It is hard to say whether or not Alvarez has already seen it. More likely, the syndicates at the BOC tore it apart, burned the scraps, and buried the ash.

Anyway, reports persisted that, apart from being smuggled, shipments of certain brands of Turkish flour were contaminated. The guys down here, more than anybody else up there, will most likely end up consuming the bad flour.

Reportedly, the government so far this year lost at least P51 million in import duties and VAT on imported Turkish flour?and this was only based on the operation of those eight firms, as detailed in the paper submitted to BOC.

In one case, the importer valued the flour shipment at $24.77 per metric ton. The reference value, which is a guide for the BOC, was $300 per. It?s that kind of cheating!

Word has it that the undervaluation continues even under the Aquino (Part II) administration. We need to stop it right away.

That kind of concrete step, boss!

* * *

WE GOT an e-mail from somebody who claims to represent the maker of ?Saridon:?

?The reformulated Saridon contains propyphenazone. It is a derivative of a different family of analgesics.

?It is not a derivative of phenacetin (p. 103, Martindale 35th Edition, The Complete Drug Reference, 2007). It is Paracetamol that is an active metabolite of phenacetin (p. 703 Goodman and Gilman?s The Pharmacological Basics of Therapeutics). Paracetamol has been widely tested and accepted to be safe for use. It is also being marketed by leading pain relief brands in the Philippines. The report is quite disconcerting as propyphenazone is ostensibly being linked to phenacetin.?

* * *

BASED on the latest from the pharmaceutical industry, the makers of a painkiller ?Saridon? are marketing it in the Visayas and Mindanao?exclusively.

That is the painkiller the Food and Drug Administration of the United States banned almost 30 years ago, as it was feared to be cancerous.

One of the active ingredients of ?Saridon? is ?phenacetin,? which according to the FDA, could be fatal.

Subsequent to the market pullout, some bright guy used a different formula for ?Saridon,? putting into it some ingredients.

One of them was propyphenazone, said to be a ?safer? derivative of the dreaded ?phenacetin.?

Really now!

According to the website of the world famous Netherlands-based Lareb, which is like a watchdog for pharmaceuticals, it already received reports of adverse reactions to ?Saridon,? some of them identified as possibly fatal.

What was that?just ?possibly fatal??

Well, our contacts in the pharmaceutical business said that it meant the product induced dizziness, fainting, hardness of breathing, low blood pressure, heart failure and?as the term indicates?even death.

And the product called ?Saridon,? mind you, is now available in this country. Again! Okay, it is available only in the Visayas and in Mindanao. So who is going to complain there, right?

If you ask our drug authorities, like the Bfad (Bureau of Food and Drugs) and the Department of Health, they will tell you that they have not received reports on clinical studies on its safety.

Still, we can get some product brochures, and what have you.

So the product is being, ah, test marketed in the south, is that it? And that is why we do not see the product in Metro Manila?

We await the next e-mail.