What next?
What next?
Posted 11:13pm (Mla time) Mar 14, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the March 15, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
TAX consumers for the use of raw water? Next they will be taxing people for breathing in air. And then tax people for daily physical activities like eating, drinking, etc.
The National Water Resources Board last week was contemplating charging a fee for the use of raw water to raise revenues to fund water resource development and to force consumers to conserve the scarce resource. The board admitted that its proposal is "socially sensitive'' and could be very controversial.
The proposed tax is very socially sensitive because water, next to air, is essential for a person to stay alive. Seventy percent of the human body is composed of water, and one can survive for only three days without water. Make water so costly and you would be practically condemning some very poor people to death.
As it is, water consumers in the cities and other urban areas are already paying water companies for the use of water. Various taxes and imposts are already included in the final rate charged to consumers. A tax on raw water would again make the water companies raise their rates; they cannot be expected to absorb the new tax themselves.
Under the proposal, even water coming from the ground would be taxed. So artesian wells would be taxed. Deep wells, from which water would be sucked up by electric motors, would be taxed. Conceivably, water scooped from shallow wells dug near water sources like rivers and brooks would also be taxed.
Water for irrigation, which is also raw water, would be taxed. This could raise the prices of rice, which is heavily dependent on water for its cultivation, and other agricultural products.
And what about the rain "that falls from gentle heaven''? Will rainwater collected in big catchment basins or small pails be also taxed? That is "raw water'' too.
As it is, a big sector of the population, particularly those in the rural areas, does not have sources of clean, potable water. This sector depends on ground water and rivers, brooks and lakes for its household water. And yet it is this sector that will bear a big part of the proposed tax.
Right now, people living below the poverty line manage to survive from day to day by eating rice or gruel (which is rice boiled in a lot of water), salt or “patis” [fish sauce] or “toyo” [soy sauce]. They finish their meal with a glass of water since they are too poor to afford soft drinks whose prices have been raised recently. Very soon, even a glass of drinking water may be a luxury for the poor if the proposed tax on raw water is approved.
Who's next?
THE KILLINGS of activists and members of leftist organizations all over the country, and the slayings of pro-worker people in Hacienda Luisita have reached alarming levels, and yet they do not seem to disturb government officials at all.
Is it perhaps true, as Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo alleged in a recent privilege speech, that the killings, abductions and disappearances of leftists are acts of terrorism, perpetrated by agents of the state? A total of 11 activists were killed and five were abducted in several provinces in the first quarter of this year.
One of the aims of the framers of the present Constitution in providing for party-list representation in the House of Representatives was to encourage leftist organizations to go above ground and wage a parliamentary and not an armed struggle. But, as Ocampo asked in his privilege speech, "Is the present government determined to illegalize Bayan, Anakpawis and the Gabriela Women's Party? Is it the government's policy to make no distinction between the underground revolutionary movement and the aboveground legal democratic mass movement?''
Will some responsible official please answer his questions?
As for the killings in the troubled Hacienda Luisita, no one in government seems to be alarmed by them. Are they perhaps turning a blind eye on these killings, hoping that the "troublemakers'' or those supporting the strikers, would all be eliminated?
The police are going through the motions of investigating the killings and going after suspects. There may be a need to change the police unit assigned to Hacienda Luisita so that a new group can look at the situation with a fresh eye. Meanwhile, the authorities should consider placing Hacienda Luisita under police control, something similar to Comelec control during elections, to prevent further killings.
Posted 11:13pm (Mla time) Mar 14, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the March 15, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
TAX consumers for the use of raw water? Next they will be taxing people for breathing in air. And then tax people for daily physical activities like eating, drinking, etc.
The National Water Resources Board last week was contemplating charging a fee for the use of raw water to raise revenues to fund water resource development and to force consumers to conserve the scarce resource. The board admitted that its proposal is "socially sensitive'' and could be very controversial.
The proposed tax is very socially sensitive because water, next to air, is essential for a person to stay alive. Seventy percent of the human body is composed of water, and one can survive for only three days without water. Make water so costly and you would be practically condemning some very poor people to death.
As it is, water consumers in the cities and other urban areas are already paying water companies for the use of water. Various taxes and imposts are already included in the final rate charged to consumers. A tax on raw water would again make the water companies raise their rates; they cannot be expected to absorb the new tax themselves.
Under the proposal, even water coming from the ground would be taxed. So artesian wells would be taxed. Deep wells, from which water would be sucked up by electric motors, would be taxed. Conceivably, water scooped from shallow wells dug near water sources like rivers and brooks would also be taxed.
Water for irrigation, which is also raw water, would be taxed. This could raise the prices of rice, which is heavily dependent on water for its cultivation, and other agricultural products.
And what about the rain "that falls from gentle heaven''? Will rainwater collected in big catchment basins or small pails be also taxed? That is "raw water'' too.
As it is, a big sector of the population, particularly those in the rural areas, does not have sources of clean, potable water. This sector depends on ground water and rivers, brooks and lakes for its household water. And yet it is this sector that will bear a big part of the proposed tax.
Right now, people living below the poverty line manage to survive from day to day by eating rice or gruel (which is rice boiled in a lot of water), salt or “patis” [fish sauce] or “toyo” [soy sauce]. They finish their meal with a glass of water since they are too poor to afford soft drinks whose prices have been raised recently. Very soon, even a glass of drinking water may be a luxury for the poor if the proposed tax on raw water is approved.
Who's next?
THE KILLINGS of activists and members of leftist organizations all over the country, and the slayings of pro-worker people in Hacienda Luisita have reached alarming levels, and yet they do not seem to disturb government officials at all.
Is it perhaps true, as Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo alleged in a recent privilege speech, that the killings, abductions and disappearances of leftists are acts of terrorism, perpetrated by agents of the state? A total of 11 activists were killed and five were abducted in several provinces in the first quarter of this year.
One of the aims of the framers of the present Constitution in providing for party-list representation in the House of Representatives was to encourage leftist organizations to go above ground and wage a parliamentary and not an armed struggle. But, as Ocampo asked in his privilege speech, "Is the present government determined to illegalize Bayan, Anakpawis and the Gabriela Women's Party? Is it the government's policy to make no distinction between the underground revolutionary movement and the aboveground legal democratic mass movement?''
Will some responsible official please answer his questions?
As for the killings in the troubled Hacienda Luisita, no one in government seems to be alarmed by them. Are they perhaps turning a blind eye on these killings, hoping that the "troublemakers'' or those supporting the strikers, would all be eliminated?
The police are going through the motions of investigating the killings and going after suspects. There may be a need to change the police unit assigned to Hacienda Luisita so that a new group can look at the situation with a fresh eye. Meanwhile, the authorities should consider placing Hacienda Luisita under police control, something similar to Comelec control during elections, to prevent further killings.
posted by Dante at 12:00 AM
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