E-VAT is for the poor

By +Oscar V. Cruz

To disprove reality by indulging in fantasy, to challenge the conclusion of common sense with contrary technical jargon, to fill empty stomachs with sterile statistics and pencil pushing are sublime examples of defending the indefensible. These are the strange ways devotedly taken by some people staying in “Cloud 9” while living on earth. The understandable approach made by certain individuals vainly trying to shield their big beneficent boss under threat of losing bottomless E-VAT gains to fool around with.

In other words, the claim that E-VAT is simply great for the poor as it is something necessary for their misery alleviation and even mandatory as an effective instrument of government national development efforts is futile and incredible. It is an official Malacañang ridiculous and empty claim, which brings to fore the following unnerving questions: Why is it then that Filipinos in general are in fact much poorer now than before? Why millions of children are are now in effect more hungry, while millions too of the elderly are less able to have the medicines they need? In other words, where have the E-VAT government multi-billion gains really gone?

There must be something fundamentally wrong with why is there so much E-VAT income for the government vis-à-vis so much loss to the people. If any and all direct and indirect taxes continuously paid by some 88 million Filipinos to the government are eventually meant for the common good and public welfare of the same paying citizens, why is it then that the government has substantially nothing to prove it? Why is it that there are more popular resentment and bigger frustration towards the ruling administration all over the country?

It is appalling to note that the huge amounts of E-VAT charges are levied upon practically anything and everything people buy and pay for—from food to fuel, from shoes to clothes, from housing materials to coffins. It is even more outrageous what the present government does with the “ Katas ng E-Vat,” viz. money dole outs here and there, grocery grants to these and those people. This must be something fundamentally distorted with the mentality of the present government—or something basically rotten with the way the ruling administration looks at public funds. In all probability akin to certitude, there is something putrid why the national leadership and its minions could not and would not let go of E-VAT—even if all the Heavens say so!

This must be why even the formal and public call made by the CBCP for the government to at least review the E-VAT law, especially that appended to fuel, is after all a shout in the wilderness, a jab at the wind. Reason: Without the overflowing E-VAT collections, how could the government continue its standard graft and customary corrupt practices? What would the administration pay for its luxurious living and lavish spending? How could the national leadership pay for its self-serving programs and projects, buy the loyalty of its ally national and local public officials—in view of the coming critical 2010?

There are many images that come to mind when a most corrupt, much distrusted and very discredited national leadership is made to handle and spend unlimited public funds coming from taxes plus local and foreign loans. It is like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank. It is like a wolf made to watch the sheep. It is the exact picture of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves at a treasury.

E-Vat in favor of the poor is hogwash.
E-Vat for the self-promotion of the administration is a hard-hitting truth.
For, E-Vat is a socio-economic curse among Filipinos after all.

(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com.For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/viewpoints/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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