BOTH chambers of the 13th Congress should not only address their concern to Malacañang’s burdensome tax proposals but also urge the administration to collect the taxes effectively. The legislative priorities that may be crafted in the bills for promulgation into laws should give preference to those that deter connivance between dishonest tax collectors and taxpayers under extreme criminal penalty. In fact, of President Arroyo’s five reform packages she intends to pursue, it is the anti-corruption group of legislation that will be the key to the success or failure of those packages.
* * *
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s idea proposing that the LGRs, NGOs, BIR, ECOP, and PCCI form a system that will involve barangay officias in assisting the Department of Finance in tax collections may be meritorious. At least it was presented with sincerity and in good faith. But aside from the Department of Finance, questions might arise regarding the nature of participation each of those organizations will have without overlapping their activities. Not only will there be "many cooks spoil the broth"; there may also be dishonest hands to dip into the tax collection box to pocket the taxpayers’ money.
* * *
The last national election was so exciting and emotional that some of those who were involved in it as candidates or campaigners may still be wishing it were not yet over. It is times like it that friends became enemies and enemies became friends. Remember the saying "There is no permanent friend or permanent enemy in politics.’’ This is usually truer after an election, especially one that just passed. But politicians are politicians, especially those who have their respective political parties the principles of which they have to support, more so when they are in the midst of congressional debate either for the administration or the opposition. But if a proposed tax increase legislation is under deliberation, dragging into it the issue of the alleged diversion of the tax money by the administration to spend in the last election is obviously alien to the issue. In short, the election is over, and any campaign issues are immaterial now.
* * *
The 911 Commission Report did not include the war in Iraq. The US Congress did not want it included on grounds that to do so would open up a whole vast area beyond any reasonable interpretation. As reported in The Fayatteville Observer, President Bush is expected to adopt the 911 Commission recommendations. Perhaps, after the US election, another commission would include Bush’s Iraq war in its report. Just days ago, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged Egypt to stand fast in the face of its diplomat’s kidnapping, ignore the militants’ demand, close ranks to fight them, and stop them from growing bolder since their recent kidnapping scores. Let’s see how the Democratic or Republican president will handle those militants.
