Potshots from Manila
By Sonny Pucio
Mirasol
PNP PDG Lomibao said last week that we are over hump as far as
political unrest is concerned. That’s the government’s spin. But
there are still so many bumps in the road ahead for the Glory bee
administration.
The day before the Glory’s SONAta, Pulse Asia said their survey
showed only 13% of respondents believe the SONA would be truthful,
42% were undecided and 45% believed in would be untruthful… That’s
87% of respondents, who supposedly represent the population, who
doubt or don’t believe in Gloria’s truthfulness.
I worked with the first opinion survey firm in the country in the
early 60s, Robot Statistic (which later became Robot-Gallup
Research, then Asia Research and folded with Martial Law), as a
field interviewer. I can attest to the strictness of that survey
firm in the fairness and integrity of their surveys.
Judge Felimon’s decision on the Naga City Hall compound was a very
sour lemon for Naga’s citizens. But it is true that while the
people were grimacing from the sourness, someone was delighting in
a million forbidden sweets, and that the sweetening occurred in
far off Gubat? Someone may soon be sweating from this forbidden
sweetening. Can anyone be called a sweet-tik?
Newly-minted Finance Sec. Teves said he will look for alternatives
to EVAT. My worthless two centavos worth on this is that the
government should REDUCE income taxes to get MORE taxes. US
President Reagan stopped a threatening economic downturn and
revived the economy by giving the people tax breaks which upped
domestic spending, boosted manufacturing and trade and in turn,
increased overall tax collections.
I think reducing income taxes to only 10% for ALL income earners
will deliver the same results. First, it will give fixed income
earners more disposable income to use on domestic spending (a
great PR move the government). Increased consumer spending will
boost local production and sales. Increased production and sales
will bring in more taxes for the government from the business
sector.
Second, the uniform 10% income tax will bring in more income taxes
from the rich who evade taxes or rig their returns (Imagine Mr.
Pidal paying only P15 – 18,000 a year for 4 years when he is worth
P300 million, while fixed income earners earning about P400,000 a
year are subjected to withholding taxes of at least P50,000).
By having to pay only 10%, the rich will not fell that they are
being penalized for their success and prosperity (I think this is
the underlying reason why the rich cheat on their taxes), because
everyone pays the same, equal rate, be he a minimum wage-earner or
a taipan.
Thus, the rich will find cheating not worth the trouble, the
expense (of paying operators to cook their books), or the risk of
shame and imprisonment. Third, professionals and small business
who currently duck income tax, will find, that like the rich, tax
evasion is no longer worth the trouble or the risk. So, a 10%
income tax will not only get more taxes from the rich but will
also enlarge the tax base.
As Mao Tse Tung said, one step backward, two steps forward. Reagan
was no economist but engineered a great economic recovery. Why
can’t our economist-president do the same? Is the doctorate really
in economics or just home economics? People at home are raking it
in. Take the B-movie actor-son (B-movie, mind you, is not balato
movie), whose income was only P50,000 in 1993, but rose by leaps
and bounds to assets of over P76 million after 10 years in
politics, according to Congressional reporters. (By, the way, is
it true Big Mike is enjoying exile with number Toh?)
A bird flu strain was discovered among ducks in Bulacan. Tests
abroad showed it was not the deadly H5N1 strain that also kills
humans. So, the Tanay duck king’s pets are safe. And so is pandak.
News of the imprisonment of Joe Perez came as I was doing this
column. Like everyone else, I was shocked and outraged. The affair
stinks like a posonegro. I hope the judge relents.
Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after Me. Let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”… Romans 8:14, “As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”…
John 3:7, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born
again’.”
