Two congressmen Marcelino Teodoro of Mari-kina City and
Florencio Miraflores have appealed to critics to spare the "Katas ng VAT"
program of Gloria Arroyo from nitpicking. They say the dole-outs specifically
the P500 one-time grant to poor power users and the free fertilizers to farmers
are helping the poor cope with rising prices of basic good and services. The
program should, therefore, be spared from the usual carping and bitching.
To further drive their point home, the two House members said
the critics should try launching a campaign for the beneficiaries to return the
P500 grant they have already spent on food or school supplies. They would be,
Teodoro practically said, inviting a lynching.
As further proof of the peoples overwhelming support for the
P500 giveaway, the two said the quibblers should take a look at the long lines
at Land Bank branches of small power consumers seeking to get their unlooked-for
entitlement. The people have voted with their feet, as it were, overwhelmingly
in favor of Glorias "Katas ng VAT."
To this kind of argument coming from legislators, we might as
well counter with a favorite of Plaza Miranda "filosopos." Why stop at P500? Why
not P1,000? And monthly for life and not just a one-shot deal like the one
undertaken by Gloria? And why not for all the 30 million or so Filipinos who,
according to official statistics, live below the poverty line?
The benefit to the would-be Santa Claus would be immense.
Gloria would end up president for life, and not only limping along to her
constitutional mandated exit in 2010. Who knows, Marcelino and Miraflores might
also end up members of the House for life.
Thats the trouble with politicians. They sink the ship, they
launch a few lifeboats and they want us to applaud them for their compassion.
We are tired of saying that we originally welcomed the
imposition of VAT because more revenues are needed to bail the government from
chronic deficits that lead to ever-deepening indebtedness. Now, we are
entertaining doubts.
We had hoped the revenues would go to the improvement of
physical and social infrastructures necessary for the country to move forward.
Gloria is spending left and right all right and we are not talking of the P4
billion "Katas ng VAT." We are talking of big-ticket items with 25 to 30 percent
"tongpats." We are talking of multi-billion grants for purported farm inputs
which in the case of fertilizers turned out to be bottled colored water.
We dont know how much of the money passed through the hands of House members
like Teodoro and Miraflores as well as the governors, the mayors and the rest of
local officials. But we can guess. In total, the money stolen must dwarf the P4
billion earmarked for "Katas ng VAT."
