THE PHILIPPINE STAR
THE PHILIPPINE STAR
WEDNESDAY I OCTOBER 30, 2OI9 neurs
Edltor: RAMOII it, LIM
CTALK
CITO BELTRAN
Qualified theft
by Congress and gov't?
f, lbay Congressman Joey
A Salceda is determined
L \t" pass a bill that will
increase Road Users Tax by 300
percent on all vehicles, from
tricycles, private cars, and com-
mercial vehicles. The Depart-
ment of Finance fully supports
the proposal claiming that it
will giva
sive the government
eovernmenl the much-needed
m funds
for their "Build, Build, Build" projects. If you are a
vehicle owner, you should express your oPposition
to this idea in the loudest and strongest way pos-
sible because it is "highway robbery" figuratively
and literally speaking.
To begin with, what have vehicle owners receive
in exchinge for the Road Users Tax that's been
slapped on them? Any one who drives, whether
in Metro Manila or in the provinces, can attest to
the fact that many roads in the country are Poorly
built of shitty quality and constantly in need of
repairs or are constantly being destroyed by local
officials in order to spend money that goes to fa-
vored contractors. In Metro Manila alone, the EDSA
and C5 are constantly being repaired or re-blocked
because many parts collapsee sink or break apart
in six months time, end up with pot holes due to
below par construction and quality. The DPWH
engineers and contractors cannot even maintain
level surfaces so many of our cars and trucks a1l
need to have their shock absorbers, suspensions
and tires replaced every two years or less.
The authorities always mention the fact that
there are several hundred thousand cars if not
a million cars that are added to the streets but
little or no new streets are built. Whatever is new
comes by way of San Miguel Corp. or the MVP
group that develop toll roads. So we are paying
Road Users Tax as well as toll fees. Many streets in.
Metro Manila and the Philippines have very poor
or no street lighting. The government does not
even spend money to refresh or repairit the lines
on the road that we call lane dividers. Ai road us-
ers we are left at the merciless charges of accred-
-ited
tow truck operators, one of whom rammed
my Mitsubishi Montero leaving a P40,000 repair
bill that I can't charge because the driver fled the
scene! Considering the billions they've collected,
we can't even get professional service from real-
pro{essional operators such as the AAP or Auto-
. mobile Association of the Philippines.
\ PAtls * p'
- Civen the absence oi anv real and direct benefits
to the actual taxpayers, inother reason wh#ve
should scrap the Iioid Users Tax instead of allowilig
Congressman Salceda and Secretary Domingue2
to increase the iax by 300 percent is the pJain and
simple fact that the money for the Road Users Tax
was "immorally" if not "illegally" realigned and
distributed to members of Congress in the past
years. The Road Users Tax was eipressly colleited
to go to the Road Board which in turn was suppose
to allocate or distribute it to various proiects ralated
to road development or improvement. Unfortu-
nately, Congress back then pressured or threatened
officers of the Road Board, while other officials of the
Road Board reportedly rnanipulated the allocations to
benefit congressional districts for a certain percentage.
Months before the last election members o{ Congress
were in a panic when they heard thatthe money from
the Road board would be prolected and preserved by
the DBM from being raided and tumed into campaign
funds! This became a very serious bone of conten-
tion belween former DBM Secretary Ben Diokno
and Congress when Sec. Diokno inte'rvened to stop
the racket and misappropriation of the Road Users
Tax. As we all know, no less than President Rodrigo
Duterte acted decisively on the matterby abolishing
the Road Board.
So here we are, the Road Board was abolished, the
"qualified theft" was exposed, and now we have a
Congressman, the chairman of the ways and means
committee, trying to find w;rys and means to pass a
300 percent increase in the previously misappropri-
ated tax by enlisting Sonny Dominguez to^supfort
the discriminatory piece of legislation that will place
-a brlrden on a select communlty to fund the Duterte
administration's infrastructure programs. Forgive
my ignorance, but what "infrastructure programs"
are we talking about? ]ust about any infiastructure
project I read or hear about is being proposed, funded
and constructed by private developers and investors
and al1 of it comes with a price in terms of tolls, farcs
or fees charged to the public for the next 20 to 30
years! If the intendeil "Build Build Build" projects
are meant to benefit "All" and not just vehicle own-
ers, then shouldnlt the tax burden 6e spread out and
nol uniustly strapped on the backs and pockets of
vehide owners?
It would help if Secretary Sonny Dominguez and
Congressmar Joey Salceda made a litde effort to send
out their PR people to lst down and publish the spe-
cific infrastructure projects they plan to fund relaied
to road use and road development. This will at least
give Filipinos a heads up on whether an inJrastruchre
project makes sense or no[. Otherwise, they should
simply come out in t-he open with a fair and equitable
,
basket of taxburdens for allFilipinos who willaircctly
benefit from the "Build Build Build". While the gov-
emment can certainly use all the funds they can get
for proiects, taxpayers must have firm reassurance
that the.funds will not be raided by politicians for
their own political benefit which is "qualified theft"
or placed in the govemmen(s "piggy bark" to qeate
or simulate the impression that the administration is
loaded and have the best economic managers in the
world. That would be so egotistical and so fake!
Em ail: utalk2 cta lk@ gma il. co m
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