WHERE SHOULD TAXES GO?

I have not heard anyone talk nicely about taxes. It seems human beings have always rejected the idea of paying the government money for governing. But taxes are really the ones that could propel a country to prosperity. Without taxes, how can a government, local or national function? I remember when I was in London, my friends hated paying taxes. It was really atrocious, but then we could see where the money was going. London is a top attraction to tourists because the city is well planned, no telephone and electric cables running haywire; most of the streets are clean, the huge buildings some of which date back to the medieval ages are well taken care of, cleaned up to make them look light gray or white as the pollution from the factories tend to blacken their walls. Then of course, bus is cheap and reliable, and does not emit pollutants. Also, London has those public baths, hot baths where for something like 120 pesos way back in the 80’s one could have a good relaxing moment there. But the greatest come-on of London are the theatres which have running shows at the West End, daily. And if you come late to the show, you could get in for a discount.

That is how taxes are spent. But here in our country, where do we find big time returns from our taxes? Nada, nada, nada. When we go out of our homes, what we see are hundreds and thousands of electric wires where birds have a neat time swinging about. When a huge truck passes by and its roof gets entangled with them we would find ourselves negotiating the street where this happens, with great caution as we could get electrocuted. The barangay cleaners hardly clean, or they clean only those streets which they like to.

What about Manila? Manila, the shining city of the Spanish era is terribly abhorrent. The streets are dirty, with pedestrians just throwing their cigarette butts, plastic and foil empty packs around. I would even question now if Mayor Alfredo Lim ever walks through the Manila streets at all.

My dentist, Dr. Hao showed me pictures of her sojourn in Vigan where she conducted a medical mission with other doctors under her evangelical church. My goodness, I was really amazed to see the pictures because the location was a street where nary a piece of white paper or garbage was lying about. That Vigan street where they posed was truly clean, and with the beautiful background of old houses dating to the Spanish era. It is really well-kept. Now compare that with the Balic-Balic and Legarda streets where you could still find the same architecture of houses. Zero, man. Getting off to walk through those streets you would feel as if you could catch tetanus or TB.

I really think now that taxes should have a caveat. Okay, we will pay taxes when we shall get good plans and programs for our country. Taxation should be connected to what the government will do with it, not just a ritual of paying.sums of money, no matter how big or small. Yes, that’s it. We should move the tax period to that time after the government has given us its blueprint for what it will do for a year. By doing so, we would feel confident and sure that it would be performing its functions well and then we could also get back at it should it not perform according to what it had planned.

Now with regard to paying taxes correctly, I do think many of our businesses are willing to pay their correct taxes. The problem is that the oil prices, the major anti-business factor, keep going up, thereby making the pricing of their products and services go gaga all the time; worse, the government looks helpless about this. I recall that former Representative Enrique Garcia of Bataan has a plan to topple the oil cartel in this country,. He wants the government to buy the oil itself from the oil producing governments abroad and then sell it to the different companies here for refining. In this manner, all the prices of oil could be measured if they are based on normal pricing. Now what happened to his idea? Nada, nada, nada. Again.

Truly now, how could the Philippine government expect the people to be good citizens, to pay our taxes promptly, and dutifully when the very basic problem is not being addressed, and that is the skyrocketing oil prices? I think that PNoy and his cabinet have to really sit down with Mr. Garcia now and map out a strategy on how to carry out his plan to make the oil companies truly serve the needs of the Filipino people.

I have been reading the problems of some affluent foreign countries in raising taxes among the rich sectors of the country and I wonder greatly why that could really be a big problem. I think that would stem from the lack of visible poverty-stricken areas. Their media could be partly to blame, I guess. The newspapers and television hardly carry those scenes. Most of the time, they just depict the debates, the rational perspectives in looking at their problems. If ever there would be such scenes at all, usually they are situated somewhere out there in Africa, or southeast Asia, and not really within their perimeter. The normal reaction to that of course is to shun poverty and say, “Thank God it is not happening to us.” But is that being a Christian?

That’s it. A news report said that many churches in the west have been desanctified simply because people do not go to worship anymore. And in a place where godlessness prevails it is very easy to close our eyes to the next door neighbor and say “That’s his problem, not mine.” Yesterday, I was appalled to watch on an NBC TV news how in New York, a mother of three children in her twenties drove down the Hudson river, eight feet below. Her son survived by opening the car window and swimming out He said that his mother tried going to the driver’s seat to reverse the happening and said, “Oh my God, I made a mistake.”

All morning, I could not erase the images of that report from my mind. I really felt numb because it could have happened here as well. The children were beautiful and I could not understand how the mother could possibly prefer an afterlife to the life now.

Here is where a need exists for leaders to be inspiring for people to live. They should make the people understand that “We are in this together,” not the officials saying, “I am just doing my job, and that is fiscalizing.” No, a leader must show that every act, every step of his or her is geared towards enhancing the lives of the people, towards making them feel that this country, or this planet is ours to live in, to prosper in, and to protect in order that we would also be happy.

Yes, it all boils down to that. Everyone could be happy. Or that should be the goal of governance – the people’s happiness, not just of a few. Now, is that too much to ask?