NDF slams Arroyo for remaining deaf to people�s call vs. VAT; hits local �tax code�

Rubi Del Mundo
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao
March 03, 2005

The National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao slammed the Arroyo regime for remaining deaf to the people�s resistance against the new tax measures. Already, the business sector, the cooperative entrepreneurs and even lawyers are raising hell against the lifting of (Value-Added Tax) VAT exemptions on their businesses and profession. They form part of the massive outpouring of public disgust against the Arroyo regime.

To make matters worse, the Davao City Council passed a new law that increases fees by as much as 15% and imposes new fees even on a basic government service like the garbage collection.

Local legislators try to cushion the impact of the tax measure by saying that the old fees are in fact antiquated and that the new rates are socialized. Their excuse is wholly baseless and callous. More than anything else, the new tax law would ensure the steady source of funds for graft and corruption for the civilian and military bureaucracy. The people are already carrying the burden of maintaining the operations of fascist military units like the Task Force Davao depriving them of resources for social services.

The streets are already teeming with VAT oppositors from nearly all sectors in the weeks following the GRP�s Lower House passage of the VAT bill. Yet, Arroyo remains adamant and has recently warned that the impact of the tax measures would allegedly be a �lesser evil� compared to the higher debt interest rates and the peso devaluation should Congress fail to approve the new VAT law.

No matter how unpopular, the regime�s bureaucrats are foisting anti-people measures to solve the economic woes�woes that are not of the people�s making but are direct consequences of Arroyo�s subservience to IMF-World Bank impositions.

For as long as the national coffers are spent on corruption, military suppression campaigns, and imperialist-controlled projects and onerous loans, the so-called fiscal crisis will only worsen. New taxes mean more money to corrupt bureaucrats and for projects and programs detrimental to the people. All sectors in the society should unite, broaden and strengthen their ranks to thwart the Arroyo regime�s tax impositions.#

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