Tambuling Batangas Publication January 10-16, 2018

OPINYON Enero 10-16, 2018 Responsableng tulong ang ibigay sa mga taong lansangan – DSWD LUNGSOD QUEZON-- Kaugnay ng hindi matuldukang problema sa lumolobong bilang ng mga taong lansangan lalo na tuwing panahon ng Kapaskuhan, naglunsad kamakailan ang Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) ng kampanyang #HelptheHomelessPH, na may temang “Responsableng tulong ang kailangan ng mga taong nakatira sa lansangan.” Ang kampanya ay isang panawagan sa iba’t ibang sektor ng lipunan na tumulong tugunan ang pangangailangan ng mga taong nakabilad sa iba’t ibang panganib ng buhay sa responsableng pamamaraan. Ayon kay DSWD Protective Services Bureau officer-in-charge Alicia S. Bonoan, “Hindi iligal ang maging taong lansangan. At walang taong gustong humantong sa kalagayang tulad nila.” Inirokemenda ni Bonoan na sa pagtulong ay isaisip ang daglat na ASK. Ang A ay para sa salitang Alamin. Alamin ang dahilan kung bakit sila napunta sa abang kalagayan at anong mga interbensiyon ang kanilang kailangan. Ang letrang S naman ay, isaisip ang kanilang Seguridad o kaligtasan. Dahil ang paglilimos sa kalsada ay pang-iimbita sa marami pang iba upang itaya ang kanilang buhay sa kakarampot na ibinibigay. Samantalang ang letrang Arnold Alamon Accelerating exclusion IN THE first week of 2018, the Duterte Tax Reform Program is rampaging already through consumers’ purses and budgets. If there are still any political stragglers within the Duterte administration who still believe that he embodies progressive economic ideals, then the marauding tax reform law or TRAIN that is now being implemented should leave anyone without any doubt about the obvious neoliberal direction of his administration. The Tax Reform Law for Acceleration and Inclusion by the Duterte administration signed into law by Duterte last December 19, 2017 is a neoliberal technocrat’s wet dream. One can say that government functions can be divided into two broad categories – collecting and spending money. The new tax measures clearly resolves the issue of securing government revenues by devising of the most efficient ways to collect money from the people by taxing the core of every Filipino’s consumption practices regardless of social standing. It veers away from the over reliance on income taxation of the past and casts a wider net that makes tax payers out of the country’s every man, woman, and child through their consumption practices of basic economic goods such as sugar and oil. It is a shrewd move that on the one hand dangles additional funds to the formally employed workers in the country who before bore the brunt of filling government coffers with their income tax. They are now given substantive deductions from the income tax taken away from their salaries and now they will have more take home pay. However, the salaried ones and every Filipino including those who have no formal sources of income as well as the country’s oligarchs, politicians, and millionaires will now have to equally share in the costs of running government. And if you look at these sectors in terms of number, who among these comprise the greatest number who will eventually assume the economic burden of government costs? Only 7.5 million Filipino families, according to Ibon Foundation’s Sonny Africa, are set to benefit from the reduction of income tax leaving 15.2 million Filipino families who will suffer the ensuing higher prices with the expanded VAT on oil and sugar goods. In other words, the tax reform has widened the sources of revenue beyond income tax by taxing the goods that every one especially the poor who are more numerous consume. The increase in taxes in diesel and gasoline for instance will have a domino effect in other consumer goods since all goods before they reach the consumer will have to be transported. The two to four peso increases in both oil products are already drawing out petitions from transport groups for an increase in minimum fare for the riding public pegged at twelve pesos. What is even more worrisome is the inflationary effect of additional income from those who now have additional buying power. The formal income earners might appreciate the increase in their take home pay at first but in terms of real value, they might actually see their incomes decreasing with the prices of goods going up. The obvious winner in all of these is, of course, government who will benefit from the shift from income tax to taxing basic economic goods. It also K ay para sa salitang Karapatan. Maraming karapatan ang nawala sa kanila nang sila ay tumira sa lansangan. Alisin sa isipan ang diskriminasyon at magkaisang tumulong para maibalik ang mga nawalang karapatan ng mga taong nasa lansangan. Binigyan diin ito ni DSWD OIC Emmanuel Leyco at kaniyang sinabi,”Para lubusang matugunan ang problema, kailangan nating kilalanin itong mga walang tahanan at alamin ang dahilan kung bakit sila nasa lansangan. Huwag natin sila basta akusahan dahil marami sa kanila ay biktima ng sirkumstansiya.” Dalawang tao ang nagbigay testimonya nang araw ng paglulunsad, si Rizza na matagal tumira sa sidewalk dahil nademolish ang bahay, at si Aleng Juanita na dahil maliit ang kita ay hindi makaupa ng bahay kaya tumira na lamang sa kariton. Pareho nila ginawang tindahan ang kariton na kanila na ring naging tahanan. Anila, malaki ang nagawa ng Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) sa kanikanilang mga buhay lalo sa kanilang mga anak na muling nakadama ng seguridad at kaligtasan Inilahad ng DSWD na marami silang nakausap na taong lansangan, biktima ng iba’t ibang klaseng kasakunaan, gawa ng tao at ng kalikasan. Kasama dito ang mga batang nawalay sa kanilang magulang, mga taong nawala sa katinuan at matatandang pinabayaan o bumalik sa pagkabata ang kaisipan. Nakikiusap ang DSWD na makiisa sa pagtulong upang sila ay maialis sa mapanganib na lansangan. Muli, sinabi nila na iwasang magbigay ng limos sa lansangan dahil nalalantad lamang sila sa iba’t ibang klaseng mga kapahamakan. Pakiusap ni Leyco, “Mayroon po kaming mga programa para sa mga taong lansangan, ang Modified Conditional Cash Transfer, ang Comprehensive Program for the Homeless at ang Sama Bajau, subalit hindi namin kayang tulungan silang lahat dahil sa aming mandato at limitadong pondo. Umaapela kami sa iba’t ibang grupo at mga pribadong mamamayan na makiisa sa pagtulong sa responsableng pamamaraan kagaya ng “organized gift-giving, medical mission, story telling, art sessions” at iba pa. Magkaisa nating tulungan ang mga taong lansangan sa pagbabahagi sa kanila ng ating oras, kakayahan at kung anong meron tayo. Pakiusap, makibahagi at magbahagi.” (DSWD/EPC/LFB/PIA-NCR) will enjoy more efficient means of tax collection by simplifying the revenue stream from the expanded value added tax base. Other winners here include middle and upper class income earners who will have additional income in the few thousands to hundreds of thousands with the reduction in income tax planned over the next few years. In other words, those that do not need additional income already are actually given more under the tax reform regime of Duterte. This propertied class is also set to gain a whole lot more with reductions in estate and donor taxes under the same tax scheme. In the meantime, proponents of the tax law fete the progressive dimensions of the tax law because it supposedly promotes public health by weaning away the public from the consumption of sugary goods as if the inflationary effect of the same tax law will now give them access to healthier organic goods. The same with the imposition of higher sin taxes to local cigarettes and alcohol. The option will be to look for cheaper alternatives because market demand is sure to create such products or go imported which curiously are reportedly exempted from additional taxes. They are also celebrating the new taxes in imported coal, which before entered the country free of any tariffs and duties, in order to encourage the shift in renewable energy. However, lobbying groups reportedly were able to insert exemptions under the new tax reform law for local coal. It is a troubling development for Lumad communities who are sure to feel the brunt of this new incentive for local coal production through increased militarization and human rights violations of their mineral-rich ancestral domains. Behind the populist façade of this folksy president, are the same elite and corporate interests that neoliberal policies serve as embodied in Duterte’s tax reform package. The TRAIN will accelerate this sectors’ wealth as well as the pockets of officials who will benefit from the other dimension to government function – spending the Filipino people’s hard- earned taxes through corrupt infrastructure projects. Like a tired refrain, it will be the common Filipino once again who will remain excluded.

Tambuling Batangas Publication January 10-16, 2018 | Page 5