“What I am suggesting is for the government to give the consumers a break by giving up its tubong-lugaw coming from the inflated world market price of oil.”
by Ducky Paredes
If the government actually wants to bring down pump prices of oil products, why does it not collect a value added tax (VAT) based on the price of fuel prior to the exorbitant increase in the world market price of oil? I can understand that it does not want to totally suspend the collection of the VAT since that would severely affect the government’s finances.
But, why cannot the government collect a VAT based on prices prior to the giant increase when the world price of oil was at, say, $60 per barrel? After all, when it made its assumptions for the tax collection efforts for the year, it must have assumed a lower oil price than now prevails in the world market? Who could have known then, some months back, that oil would breach the $100 mark?
By doing it this way, the government would be meeting its budgeted tax collections; at the same time, however, it would not exacerbate the consuming public’s problems by continuing to collect a 12% VAT on the overly inflated pump prices. Imagine if oil hits $200 per barrel and the pump price for gasoline goes up to P80 per liter. That would mean that instead of collecting P3.60 per liter (on a P30 per liter price) or P6.00 (on a P50 per liter pump price), it would be taking in P9.60 per liter.
What I am suggesting is for the government to give the consumers a break by giving up its tubong-lugaw coming from the inflated world market price of oil. It would still collect the 12% VAT but based on the lower prices that were prevailing before the world market price went crazy.
Government’s revenue would not suffer much since it would still be within the budgeted range when the projections for 2008 were prepared. At the same time, the consumer would have some kind of relief by his being able to buy his fuel at lower prices than if the VAT were collected at current pump prices.
The suggestion of Senator Mar Roxas that government give up the VAT all together was too populist and too drastic and would have created more problems that it would have solved.
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The Liberal Party Drilon Wing was unjustly unfair to the Atienza Wing. I realize that the Liberal Party (Drilon Wing) is now headed by Senator Mar Roxas, its declared candidate for 2010 and does not particularly like having its party divided into wings but what can one do when the LP continues, in fact, to be sorely divided.
When the Supreme Court made its final disposition on the travails of the Liberal Party, it ordered that the status quo remain in place until the time when an election could be held. This meant that Drilon was President until the time for an election, which should have taken place sometime last year. There was never any election held. Instead, the Executive Committee met and decided that there would be no election or party convention to decide on the leadership of the party.
In fact, the Drilon Wing boxed the Atienza Wing out of the exercise by not inviting them. The idea broached by many in the Drilon Wing was that they could do what they wanted since they had the pedigreed members of the party what with the grandson of President Manuel Roxas and the son of Senator Gerry Roxas and the son of Senator Ninoy Aquino as well as the venerable Jovito Salonga among those who participated in choosing Mar Roxas as LP President.
(But, why was the LP born in Manila where the appointed mayor and among the LP founders was Hermenigildo Atienza, Secretary Atienza’s uncle, if all of the now-pedigreed LP leaders came from the Visayas, Central Luzon and Rizal province?)
My point is not to nitpick with anyone about who is right or wrong. The fact is that the Supreme Court’s decision was not followed since there was no election where all Liberals were electors. Only the Drilon Wing chose Roxas as President. But, lay that to rest.
Mar Roxas is now in the hot seat. Can he erase the divisions between the two existing wings of his and his grandfather’s and father’s’ party? Can he make the LP whole again? If he cannot do this, his party (the Drilon Wing) will be a very small party that cannot possibly carry Mar to victory in 2010. A party that can win in 2010 must have people in just about every one of our more than 1,600 towns and cities if not in every barangay.
How was the late Fernando Poe cheated? He had no candidates in many towns, cities and even whole provinces. How could he expect to stop those who would cheat him out of his votes? Sure, the opposition also did not have much of an organization in the last election and yet they won the Senate race. But that was not a one-on-one presidential election. It was only a senate election. The stakes in a presidential contest are different and much higher.
The way I look at it, if Mar can get the Liberal Party together, he might have a chance. If he expects the Drilon Wing and his pedigreed elitists to win it for him, he may be in for a painful reality check after all the votes have been finally tallied.
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Can the many opposition candidates who are firming up their resolve to run in 2010 actually work together to elect just one among them in that election or will we have many candidates claiming the opposition mantle in that election?
If they cannot get their act together and unite behind one candidate, chances are that the Fernando Poe performance at the polls in 2004 will be repeated in 2010.
The votes can only be meaningfully divided between three candidates. Any number over that brings about a ridiculous situation where someone with 25% or less of the vote can actually become President, as it happened in 1992 when there were five candidates.
If, in 2010, several are from the opposition and only one will be from the administration, that would give the administration candidate a great big advantage.
Sadly, none of the presidentiables seem to have any real plans for serving the country. All that interest them seems to be winning the presidency for their own selfish reasons, as if this were some trophy that they can bring home to place on the mantelpiece.
Serious contenders to national leadership should be able to work with others under a President other than themselves for the good of their party and the nation. What I would most like to know is what these presidentiables plan to do if and when they do become President. Right now, no one has any idea – much more so the candidates themselves – how the different wannabes will be as Presidents.
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hvp 01.10.08)
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