By the time you finish reading about the biggest accounting scandals in recent years in the Philippines, you will be aware of the other side of the medal when it comes to this country. Usually advertised as the tourist paradise, the Philippines have a darker side, too. There is a lot more going on in these 7,000 islands than meets the eye. If you are keen on accounting, bank, and big companies’ financial scandals, you may have already read our article on 10 biggest recent accounting scandals in UK. Let me assure you, most of Philippines scandals have nothing in common with the British ones.
This archipelago has a long and interesting history. Ever since Magellan put his step onto one of its islands, there had been trouble. Poor Filipinos were striving for freedom for centuries until it finally came in 1946. Again, similar to other societies who were craving freedom, when it finally arrived they had a rough time organizing; the country also had a dictator in the past. We are taking a glance at history to point out the fact this is a relatively newly stabilized country and an ex-colony. Having said that, we can observe it has all the problems of an ex-colonial country: low incomes, high corruption levels, a market very suitable for foreign investment, and small gullible local investors. Accounting incidents from our list brought us to this conclusion. They are a good parameter for the country’s actual state. To give you an even clearer picture, let us compare them with the USA. Firstly, the national currency is PHP, Philippine Peso. One PHP is almost 20 cents, which means that you would get 50 Philippine pesos for one dollar. The gross national product of the USA is 63 times higher than the Filipino’s. It is no wonder why so many Filipinos are seeking jobs outside their own country, and it is the country itself that is enticing them to do so. Apparently, overseas remittances are a valuable asset to the Philippines economy, as confirmed by Philstar.
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Hopefully, this data has given you a clearer image of this above all wonderful country (and we are not saying that just for the sake of tourism).
As for the largest financial incidents that occurred in the recent years in the Philippines, it comprises various frauds and scams. There are tax evasions, pyramid or Ponzi scams, even a hackers’ attack which has been the most prominent nowadays. Filipino’s Securities and Exchange Commission has its hand full when it comes to investment companies. There are so many of them it is hard to differentiate the real ones from the unscrupulous deceivers. The proper information is hard to find, but we managed by consulting with Marvin Germo, Finance Manila, Philstar, Inquirer, CNN Philippines, World Socialist and the good old Forbes. Apart from the latest incident with Bangladesh, all the other data is scarce, which justifies why the archipelago is a heaven for Ponzi schemes and fake investors. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
The criteria the financial affairs are listed is the amount of money which was/is in question. The order of financial crimes corresponds to the amount of money which was illegally obtained, or on one occasion, almost obtained. That was the main criteria, while the years are given to justify the “recent” in our headline.
Without further ado, here are the 10 biggest accounting scandals in recent years in the Philippines.
