pr - Militants Urge Senators to Quit Using the Peoples' Health to Justify a Sin Tax Law

PRESS RELEASE
20 November 2012

Militants Urge Senators to Quit Using the 

Peoples' Health to Justify a Sin Tax Law 

Five thousand workers and urban poor assaulted the Senate gates once again to reiterate their demand for the Senators to scrap the sin tax bill version of Senator Franklin Drilon because of the profound consequences on the lives and livelihoods of more than three million tobacco workers, planters and their families.

The contingent of workers and urban poor were affiliates of the anti-sin alliance, Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation or PCART. The coalition has consistently insisted that the Aquino regime is laying down a regressive system of taxation hiding behind its Universal Healthcare Program. PCART does not have any qualms with the government's universal healthcare program as long it will truly serve the poor majority of our countrymen. The sin tax bill is the opposite of such an objective.

The militant workers called out to the Senators but most specially to Senator Drilon to shed their questionable pro-health posturing and once and for all admit that it is the projected tax revenues from tobacco and alcohol products are what they are really salivating about.

According to Gie Relova, Secretary-General of the National Capital Region and Rizal chapter of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP-NCRR), "How did Drilon manage to become the number one health advocate in the Senate when he is a rabid promoter of shifting our public health services towards a profit orientation?".

Senator Drilon is the author of Senate Bill 3130 or the National Government Hospital Corporate Restructuring that gives fiscal autonomy to hospitals to raise income for its operations and in doing so, it cuts off its dependence on government subsidy. The bill intends to corporatize twenty-six public hospitals including the San Lazaro Hospital and the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, both in Manila.

"It has been reported already in the press that the tax collection from the sin products has already been included in the 2013 budget, 2013 being an election year. The budget of the government needs to be ballooned to accommodate financial requisites of the electoral campaign of its candidates. Its just a matter of connecting the dots," Relova explained.

"The soon to be victims of the sin tax bill are aware that no amount of propaganda spinning and cosmetic publicity shall ever be enough to cover-up the massacre of jobs and livelihoods by the fervent campaigners of the sin tax bill" Relova concluded.

The BMP urges that the Senate must focus its attention on issues that have definite and direct improvements in the lives of the Filipino workers. The Senate must tackle issues such as the plague of contractualization of labor, the housing crisis, the rising gap between the workers' wages and the prices of basic commodities and rising costs of utilities.

pr - Itigil ang Paggamit sa Isyu ng Kalusugan Upang Ipuslit ang SIn Tax Bill

PRESS RELEASE

20 November 2012

Itigil ang Paggamit sa Isyu ng Kalusugan ng Taumbayan upang Ipuslit ang Batas sa Sin Tax, Giit ng mga Militante 

HINDI usaping pangkalusugan kundi karagdagang kita mula sa buwis na maaaring gamitin sa darating na eleksiyon ang nasa likod ng isinusulong na bersiyon ng ipinapanukalang Sin Tax ni Senador Franklin Drilon.

Limang libong manggagawa at maralitang taga-lungsod ang muling sumugod sa Senado upang igiit ang pagbasura sa nasabing panukala na naglalagay sa alanganin sa kabuhayan ng mahigit sa tatlong milyong manggagawa at magsasaka ng tabako at kanilang mga pamilya.

Taliwas sa ipinamumukhang Universal Healthcare Program na paglalaanan umano ng makokolektang karagdagang buwis sa alak at sigarilyo, ibinulgar ng Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation (PCART) na panibago na naman itong dagdag pa sa pasanin ng mahihirap.

Kaya patuloy ang kanilang panawagan sa mga senador lalo na kay Sen. Drilon na ilantad na sa taumbayan ang tunay na dahilan kung bakit sila gigil na gigil sa buwis na makukuha sa alak at sigarilyo.

Ayon kay Gie Relova, secretary-general ng National Capital Region at Rizal chapter ng Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP-NCRR), "Paanong magiging numero unong tagasuporta ng programa sa kalusugan si Drilon gayu'ng siya pa ang gumigiit sa pagsasapribado ng mga pampublikong ospital?"

Matatandaang si Sen. Drilon ang awtor ng Senate Bill 3130 o National Government Hospital Corporate Restructuring na nagbibigay kalayaan sa mga ospital na magtaas ng singil sa kanilang serbisyo.

Kaugnay nito, dalawampu't anim na pampublikong ospital kabilang ang San Lazaro Hospital at Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, kapwa sa Maynila ang may ganito nang sistema.

Dagdag pa ni Relova, "Nailabas na sa media na naisama na ang nilulutong kuleksyon ng buwis mula sigarilyo't alak sa 2013 badyet na hindi na nagkataon nga lang ba election year."

"Kunsabagay, kailangan ng malaking pondo ang gobyerno para suportahan ang mga kandidato ng administrasyon. Madali naman pagdugtong-dugtongin ang mga kwento", ayon pa kay Relova.

Gayunman, sa mga mabibiktima ng Sin Tax, mulat na umano ang mga ito na walang anumang propaganda ang makapagtatago sa nakaambang masaker sa kabuhayan ng mga manggagawa't maralita. 

Iginiit ng BMP na kailangan tutukan na lamang ng Senado ang mga isyu na may depinidong at direktang mag-a-angat sa buhay at kabuhayan ng mga manggagawang Pilipino. Kailangan pagkunutan nang noo na lang mga Senador ang salot ng kontraktwalisasyon, krisis ng pabahay, ang lumalalang pagitan ng sahod ng manggagawa at ng presyo ng mga batayang pangangailangan at tumataas na presyo ng kuryente't tubig.