Friday, November 30, 2007 Editorial: Questionable letters
STUDENTS of Pampanga High School (PHS), numbering about 10,000, have been asked by the school principal to write a letter to a well-known school benefactor who's facing a jail term in the United States for tax evasion.
The letters, according to PHS principal Dr. Imelda Macaspac, are small gestures of appreciation for the many good things that Rene Medina, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of tax evasion charges, had done for the school.
By Dr. Macaspac"s account, Mr. Medina has given the school P7 million for such worthy causes as a school feeding program, scholarship and infrastructure. In fact, the school's Bulwagang Kampampangan has been renamed after him, in recognition of his philanthropic deeds for the school.
We wonder if Dr. Macaspac and other school officials have seriously considered the impact these letters would have on the young impressionable minds at PHS. These could not simply be explained away as expressions of appreciation or gratitude because of the serious context involved.
The person, for whom the letters are intended, is not simply a generous do-gooder involved in a simple misdemeanor. He's a confessed tax evader, a very serious crime in the United States where people like him are publicly humiliated by such unsavory term as scofflaws.
And Mr. Medina is no minor tax evader, either, if the amount involved in his case is the basis. Based on a press release by the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Medina, who operates a gambling business, deducted about US$2.6 million in false business expenses from his business income. That's roughly equivalent to more than P100 million. Until his plea bargain, Mr. Medina stood to face a potential jail term of up to 38 years, in addition to other penalties.
How will the purported PHS letters address internally the moral issue of Mr. Medina's case in light of the facts and the school's mandate to teach values?
For instance, hasn't it occurred to Dr. Macaspac and the other school officials behind this letter-writing campaign that the P7 million donated to the school by Mr. Medina could have probably come from this illegal deduction made by Mr. Medina?
Indeed, given the huge amount the US government is charging Mr. Medina for tax evasion, the donation to PHS could have probably come, not from Mr. Medina's personal funds, but from what was due the US government in unpaid taxes.
There's a word for that, and highly-educated people like Dr. Macaspac with lots of honorable titles appended to their names, know what it is.
Has it not occurred to Dr. Macaspac and the other school officials eager to tell the US judge just how good and generous man Mr. Medina has been to PHS that the letters themselves would risk inculcating a permanent, distorted sense of values among its students, primarily on the real importance honesty?
And if, as Dr. Macaspac explained, the letters are not meant to influence the US judge, why send the letters at all?
Dr. Macaspac and company cannot unabashedly and unwittingly stand for Mr. Medina at the expense of the PHS students' sense of values and pride in their school, higher and worthier causes that Mr. Medina has unfortunately failed to enrich by his confession and, inevitably, conviction as a tax cheat and law-breaker.
