- Secretary on Trade Peter Favila
then, a blogger disagreed with the idea and proposed more sin taxes and free SMS, considering text messaging now more as a need than a want. i disagreed.
i think Favila (though also have his own controversies) is right! he just delivered his message offensively.
the blogger and i fortunately agreed on three points:
1) finding an alternative source of public revenue after a proposed oil tax reduction;
2) sin products (alcohol and tobacco) as one alternative; and
3) penalties and fines as another source.
i however stressed on the sensibility of a clear proposal on SMS tax, given that there long has been sin taxes (in fact, it is one of government's urgent taxes for adjustment).
SMS tax is sensible enough because:
1. it has minimal negative effect to all, being a “suspendable or foregoable modern need”; and
2. it provides more public revenue to government, being necessarily embraced by a “taxpayer unit of texters, which are larger than the unit of drinkers and smokers.”
just like votes, tax is also a numbers game. the more, the better. and any govt would definitely tax on “more”.
eventually, SMS tax just felt bad to the blogger because texting became a “need” to him/her and to most of us. and i believe, taxing SMS is still sensible “along” with sin product taxes….because texting, almost closely similar to drinking and smoking, can be “suspended” or even “stopped/foregone” without DEPRIVING THE HUMAN NEED TO TALK/ASSOCIATE/RELATE. remember, humanity survived before the SMS technology. the real “basic” needs are food, water, sleep, shelter, clothes, not texting and drinking. you cant stay long without food, but you can without SMS.
But think on this, …ever consider a higher (or 50% more expensive) taxi fare rate during midnight or a Ph18,000 fine for not flushing the toilet bowl in public comfort rooms? if it is crazy, please don't travel to the crime-free and lickably clean Singapore, where people are discretely discouraged to go out by midnight and disciplined for cleanliness. those are just one of those crazy policies of Singapore, but look at them!!! look at them now. we could had been like them if Marcos stayed more with his superior plans of a New Society, believed to be emulated by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yu and believed to parallel to the concept of Socialism and Communist.
finding more alternatives aside from SMS tax is not my responsibility though. i leave it to our more intellectual leaders, whether legitimate or not. though i believe our government as a whole is really questionable by performance. please, let us leave our leaders (either good or bad) do the thinking and building for our nation. building a nation is undeniably a hard task and i believe they can do deliver such task than leaving it to less superior intellectuals. remember we voted them. meaning we entrusted nation-building to them. if you believe election was corrupted and election is unrepairable, you can leave Philippines. wicked analysis though….if election was truly corrupted, it only meant a plausible superb effort that was intellectually planned by few individuals who I think is capable of governing wisely any country.
i do believe people cannot be governors and governed at the same time. and if we indeed proved our current “intellectual” leaders do rigged the election, would you allow nation-building to the masses? if ever you know intellectuals who are not in the government, please convince him/her to be in the government. if you dont have any alternative leaders, please be contented with our existing.
im also discontented with our country (not just the leaders, but also the voting masses) but im still hopeful and not leaving the country and doing everything to, at least, change how we look at governance and nation-building. democracy has done a lot of damage. do u think, we'd still stick with it?
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