WHEN the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), composed of 30 Western countries led by the United States, included the Philippines on its blacklist of tax havens early this month, I frankly considered that move as insulting to us as a nation.

And when, a few days after our country was removed from the list, the reaction of the administration was, to put it mildly, pitiful. It welcomed the OECD’s “compassion” and even vowed to bring the bank secrecy law in line with international standards.

“We appreciate the OECD’s quick action to remove us from the list of noncooperative countries to the internationally agreed tax standards,” Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said in a written statement. “We will be working closely with congress to review existing legislation relative to bank secrecy and tax information secrecy to align our practices with OECD standards.”

The Philippines, together with Costa Rica, Malaysia and Uruguay, was transferred to a “gray list” of territories that had committed to internationally accepted tax standards but had not yet fully implemented them.

Tax havens have come under increasing scrutiny with the worsening of the global financial crisis. There were calls for radical action to curb abuses like tax evasion and bank secrecy. After US and European governments bailed out a number of banks, politicians began questioning how and why some of those same financial institutions were able to continue to operate in countries that encourage tax evasion.

I have no argument with that. But I would like to point out that we have put in place adequate measures to protect our banking industry, such as the anti-money laundering law. The bank- secrecy law, which I think is the basis for the Philippines’ inclusion in the OECD’s list of alleged tax havens, allows the courts to open bank accounts under certain conditions.

What I consider unacceptable is when the United States and other developed nations force weak countries, like the Philippines, to follow their every whim when, in fact, it is the United States that has a very big problem.

That, to me, is a slap on our sovereignty.

And it is lamentable that we’re always scared to be blacklisted on trade, etc. and even allow ourselves to be forced into approving laws just to satisfy the United States and its European partners. Why can’t they do that to China? Why do it to weak countries which do not have money?

The big financial scandals are happening in America, but nobody blacklists America. Instead, the United States and its confreres want to know everything that happens in our country to the point of intruding on our sovereignty.

For instance, whenever our fiscal- deficit ratio approaches 2 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP), the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) starts pouncing on us. Yet, the US fiscal deficit for this year, estimated at $1.667 trillion, is 11.9 percent of its GDP. Next year, the US fiscal deficit is projected at $1.39 trillion, which is equivalent to 7.9 percent of GDP. And yet, we don’t hear any grumbling from the IMF.

If it’s not double standard, I don’t know what else to call it.

The global financial crisis, whose roots have been traced to America, clearly shows the need for developing countries to examine their policies that have been adopted to “conform” to US standards. We now see that the crisis has exposed these policies as inappropriate or inadequate. That’s why many of the policies adopted by the US and imposed on developing countries are being questioned.

And that’s the very reason I have been pushing for the reexamination of our economic model, with the objective of crafting a new model suited to our economic conditions, responsive to our needs, and lead us to sustainable, high-rate growth.

We should have laid down the groundwork in 2007, after the Bangko Sentral paid the last outstanding debt from the IMF, and we declared ourselves finally free of the US-led fund.

It’s not late, but the more we dawdle, the greater the risk of losing the opportunity to propel our economy and bring prosperity to our people!

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