Economic Haitianization of RP
Arroyo economic avatar Joey Salceda is pushing a 17 percent VAT from the present 12 percent. He cites China’s 17 percent VAT as a basis for his recommendation. Salceda is comparing one mandarin orange to a Filipino latundan. If Salceda were genuine in his concern over Philippine revenue issues he should be comparing the Philippine’s VAT with Thailand which is only 7 percent. The problem of Philippine government revenues is not simply weak tax collection, it is a severely starving national economy with agriculture, industry and employment collapsing because of conformity to globalization and privatization economic policy. They can’t extract more revenues from a dying economy any more than the blood bank can extract blood from a starving, emaciated man. The end 2009 debt was projected P4.49-trillion with each of 90 million Filipinos in hock by at least P47,000.00. The Salceda advice is not an isolated case of financial idiocy but a careful conspiracy to raise VAT revenues the nth time. After Salceda’s outrageous 17 percent VAT recommendation the Neda announces it is “open” to raise VAT to 15 percent, apparently wanting to appear as the good cop to Salceda’s bad cop role. Trying even harder to outdo the two is the Yellow candidate who attempts to grandstand by saying to media, “Read my lips: No new taxes.” They’re all rogue cops in this scenario and on this issue because the right answer to the question of taxes is to “reduce VAT” and all taxes in general. That’s the only way to authentically restart the economy in this continuing global financial-economic crisis of unprecedented proportions. The battle cry of many other economies like China and the US is tax rebates, for industry and consumers; here it’s raising taxes that will kill the economy and the people. An important difference about the Philippine and Chinese VAT is that 70 percent of Philippine VAT revenues go National Debt service. The debt today is P2.424-trillion domestic and P1.914-trillion foreign, which indicts the local bankers in the national crisis as much as the foreign Shylocks. The financial advisers of the Arroyo government are desperate to increase the VAT so drastically today due to the exploding debt from the financial and economic policy of globalization, privatization and sovereign guarantees the Edsa II leaders in government, business and civil society imposed. These policies have reduced government revenues in trade tariff, earnings from profitable GOCCs, and saw the massive transfer of these to private corporations and foreign lands. The Chinese use their taxes not for debt but for economic development, same with the pro-Filipino productivity policies of President Joseph Estrada. In 10 more years the Philippines will begin looking more and more like Haiti is today, broken down, helpless to help itself, completely impoverished. Africanization, i.e. impoverishment to the level of many African nations, was the term I used to employ to describe what lies ahead for the Philippines if the current exploitative and oppressive policies are not overthrown. Haiti was not always the pitiful, broken society that we see today. Haiti was the first country in the Americas to abolish slavery, but it was saddled with a great debt imposed by foreign powers. France demanded, at gunboat point, reparations for freed slaves amounting to 21.7 billion in current US dollars. The US then occupied Haiti in 1915 annexed Haiti’s Bank of the Nation and later imposed its dictator Francois Duvalier who built up the foreign debt again which to this day is still being paid. Reading the Yellow candidate’s glib political “no new taxes” promise I remember the defunct presidential candidate Chiz Escudero who said the same thing when I suggested that the 12 percent VAT be repealed to perk up the economy. That line is really a glib line but it won’t pass the scrutiny of someone who knows economics from grassroots up instead of the textbooks. No one can talk of “no new taxes” without tackling the debt problem, which is one issue neither Chiz Escudero nor the Yellow candidate comprehend or dare delve into. As far back as 2005, President Estrada already threw his weight behind the “Blueprint for a Viable Philippines” drafted by some UP academics with the backing of former UP president Dodong Nemenzo, and in its financial prescriptions it said: “It is no longer sustainable to allot an increasing percentage of the national resources to repay the country’s loans. Initiate a comprehensive debt audit. Renegotiate debts with other governments and multilateral institutions and secure a minimum five-year relief from interest payments.” The other part of the picture is the rule of and abuse by the oligarchs: P40-billion excise tax evasion or avoidance of Shell Petroleum which has threatened to constrict fuel supply if the Bureau of Customs enforces its collection; Independent Power Producers (IPPs) reneging on P65 billion in local taxes; and the Private Sector Assets Liability Management privatizing our energy assets wants to borrow P20 billion again for its operations after the $4-billion Transco privatization deal, tax holidays for privatized water companies and the odious power rates. The tax leakages are actually going to the oligarchs! The oligarchs ensure the Haitianization of RP by putting their puppet in Malacañang, hence the oligarchs’ legal “authorities” Bernas, Monsod, plus Rocamora-Etta Rosales mascot Mon Casiple, lambasts Comelec’s go ahead of their nemesis Estrada’s candidacy. Stop the Haitianization of the Philippines, stop the oligarchs and their puppet candidates. Let’s all rally behind the people’s champion. (Tune to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, M-W-F, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “EQ: What’s your Environment Quotient?”; visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com) |
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(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
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