Income tax woes

There’s no bitter rancor after all, only sweet romance, in the Palace spokesman’s sudden three-month leave right after he was appointed press secretary. Everyone loves a happy ending. Congratulations, Bobbie Tiglao. And best wishes, Getsy Selirio.

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Christ taught us to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. But on this dreaded day, we wish we’d never read the Bible. Income tax-filing day is when we all have to shell out everything we have, much like going bankrupt in Monopoly, then starting over again. Just that, this is real life, not a parlor game. So it hurts where it does most.

They say taxes are necessary. So are inoculation shots, but no one enjoys them either. They say only two things are certain in life – death and taxes. Only, death seems more blissful. They say taxation without representation is tyranny. Even with representation, it’s not all that great. April 15 is when government tells everyone to stick ‘em up. It’s the day you look at our heroes on peso bills and their lips are puckered up, as if kissing you goodbye. To think that our heroes gave their lives for freedom, equality and justice – all of which entail taxes.

Where do our taxes go? To programs for the poor, government says. After April 15, we’re all poor. Yet we never benefit from any big project, only from waiting sheds that proclaim the names of our governors and mayors, congressmen and senators. Why, with the taxes they withhold from our incomes, we can each on our own build one waiting shed per month. What the heck do we need them and their billboards for?

Someone once told me he never cheats on his taxes. But you can’t believe a guy who can lie that big. They once ran a poll that says six out of ten people cheat on their taxes. That’s probably higher because eight out of ten people cheat on polls. Talking of polls, no wonder the approval rating of everyone in government is down these days. Malacañang reasoned out that it’s a bad time for surveys. Of course it is, it’s tax-payment time. The BIR says tax avoidance is legal, it’s tax evasion that’s not. Frankly, nobody knows the difference. We just end up, as Evan Esar said, "closing our eyes, cupping our ears, shutting our mouths, and paying through the nose."

The government is taxing everything: food, water and clothes, all the way to cigarettes, liquor and driving. The only loophole is to remain quietly in your room. But then, they’ll eventually get to you when they start taxing silence the way they tax empty moviehouses and idle lands. I told a guest in my radio show last Saturday, a BIR regional director, that filing income taxes is barbaric. It’s like being kidnapped and forced to write your own ransom note. He laughed the laugh of Abu Sabaya. No wonder they say the taxidermist is a saint compared to the taxman because he takes only your skin.

With the huge taxes we all pay, we wonder why the government is still spending at a deficit. Then again, on April 15, we discover we’re no different from government. We too spend on deficit. The only difference is that government doesn’t have to pay taxes. We do, and we end up paying even more to cover government’s deficit.

I’ve often wondered if the congressmen who set our taxes or the BIR guys who collect them enjoy paying their own taxes. Perhaps, as Herman Wouk remarked, they write "income tax returns that are the most imaginary works of fiction." I wish I could write as well.

A friend told me paying taxes won’t hurt if there’s no corruption in government or red tape in the bureaucracy. I looked him straight in the eye, and asked, "Are you kidding?" He said yes. Frankly, I’d like to pay my taxes with a smile. But the BIR always insists on cash.

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There he goes again, calling the administration brutal for dispersing the picket of his loyalists at the Supreme Court last Friday. Someone please tell Joseph Estrada to ask his chief legal adviser Andres Narvasa about it. It was Narvasa who, as Chief Justice, fired a memo banning rallies within 50 meters of the Supreme Court building, and swift dispersal by the police.

The picket was a dry-run to a commemoration of what Erap allies call EDSA-Tres. What’s there celebrate about defacing a religious shrine and defecating at the foot of statues of saints? What’s there to honor about handing out shabu and bottles of gin to fire up the mob? What’s there to extol about using the poor as cannon fodder in an assault on Malacañang?

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Reacting to my piece last Wednesday, Philippine Ports Authority general manager Alfonso Cusi says he is rushing to modernize seaports by 2003. Just that, his hands are tied by judges who issue TROs (temporary restraining orders) on his moves.

Cusi cites the case of the favored operator who leased from his predecessor a 73,000-sqm portion of the Manila North Harbor for only P12.15 per sqm per month, when other operators are paying P123.70. The lease was supposed to last from Jan. to Jun. 2001, subject to 22 items the operator must develop. Port clients certified the completion of the items, Cusi says. The PPA nonetheless told the operator in Nov. to vacate the site. It went to court, the same way that operators in other ports sued him for calling for new public biddings when their contracts expired.

Perhaps Cusi should sue the judges for issuing TROs that hamper progress at seaports.

Cusi is aware of the problem in seaports: whenever a new mayor assumes office, he also takes over the arrastre and stevedoring services at his city’s port. That way, he gives cargo-handling jobs to his supporters while delaying the setup of roll on-roll off (RORO) operations. Under a RORO system, trailers would roll on to ships and roll off at ports of destination and drive on by land to delivery points like sari-sari stores or malls. It would do away with slow, wasteful and costly manual handling of cargo each step of the way.

Perhaps Cusi should convert the entire Manila North (domestic) and South (international) harbors into RORO operations, to force other ports to follow suit. If they don’t, they’d have no goods.

Then again, Cusi says he first must clear segments of the harbors big enough to accommodate 200 trailers being unloaded and 200 being loaded within hours. Does he have time to finish such project by 2003?

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