"Beer is Thicker Than Water, While the Masses Suffer"

PRESS STATEMENT

11 December 2012

Gie Relova 

BMP-NCRR Secretary-General

0915-2792749

On the New Sin Tax Bicam Provisions

Militants Blame Aquino for Overkill and Accuse Him of Nepotism

SOME five thousand exasperated members of the anti-sin tax alliance Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation or PCART assembled at Morayta and marched to the historic Mendiola Bridge brundishing a giant tarpaulin streamer bearing a "Beer is Thicker Than Water, While the Masses Suffer" slogan. The message was meant to expose President Benigno Aquino's partiality for his relatives' businesses at the expense of the masses in the sin tax debates. 

The militants took a swipe at the latest provisions agreed upon by the bicameral committee conference yesterday and blamed the maneuvers on Aquino for the latest alterations in the pending tax measure.

The militants howled in disbelief after learning that bicameral committee removed the provisions that were previously earmarked to the amount of one billion pesos as an unemployment insurance and a re-tooling livelihood program for displaced cigarette workers. The bicameral committee also removed the provision for earmarked for the benefit of the tobacco farmers.

According to Gie Relova, Secretary-General of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino-National Capital Region-Rizal chapter (BMP-NCRR), "The latest maneuvers by Malacanang is undoubtedly the most voracious and greediest act he has done since he came to power. Because of such manipulations, the workers and farmers have not only lost their jobs but end up empty-handed after Aquino shamelessly took every centavo meant to cushion the impacts of the recalibrated excise tax".

"It seemed unthinkable since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship that a single yet omnipotent government official could blatantly ram through all his avaricious impulses on the masses. With P-Noy at the helm of power and placing his weight on the legislative branch, he has vanquished every hope and sympathy our poor countrymen have for his leadership and his ridiculous Daang matuwid polemic. He has now leveled up to the ranks of Ferdinand Marcos, Norberto Manero, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other vile public figures in the history of our country" Relova added.

PCART also took notice and insisted that the agreed provisions were clearly favorable to the business interests of Danding Cojuangco, Aquino's favorite uncle. The militants classified the latest maneuvers of the Palace to enact a well-crafted Sin Tax Law according to their preferred mould as a scheme to legitimize corruption and nepotism.

The anti-sin tax alliance has consistently denounced the mafia-like operations of the government and the private corporations in the crafting of laws to conspire against the poor to squeeze from them the taxes the government drools for and the profits the corporations are dying to increase. 

"For as long as a regressive taxation is in place and a morally bankrupt and exploitative system is in the place, the workers and its allies shall rise against them" the BMP leader concluded.