pr - Indignant Workers Condemn New Regressive Sin Tax Law

PRESS RELEASE

21 November 2012

Indignant Workers Condemn the New Regressive Sin Tax Law, 

Vowed to Continue the Struggle 

WITHSTANDING the lopsided 15-2 vote of the Senators in the passage of the Sin Tax Reform Law, indignant workers trooped to the Senate to condemn the passage of a law that they claim to be blatantly anti-poor, regressive and unconstitutional.

The Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation (PCART) reiterated that the country's poor composed of the millions of Filipino workers, farmers, the urban and rural poor shall be the sole bearers of the negative impacts of a pass-on tax while the politicians gain billions in tax revenues and the tobacco and alcohol capitalists continue to reap trillions in profit. The coalition claimed that the sin tax issue was one of the grandest schemes of collusion and compromise among the country's elite since Aquino came into power.

According to Gie Relova, Secretary-General of the National Capital Region and Rizal chapter of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP-NCRR),"The Senate has time and again shed its true colors, it has proven that the Senate as an institution will remain to be blind, deaf and mute to the interests of the toiling masses and at the same time it devotedly kisses the feet of the local elite and the multinational investors".

"With the passage of the sin tax law, the Senate played its role in the massacre of jobs and livelihoods of millions of workers and farmers by acting as the gravediggers that placed the final nail in the coffin as the Department of Finance acted as the butcher and Senator Franklin as their designated hitman and the President Aquino as the mastermind" the BMP leader alleged. 

For Rodel Atienza, Union President of the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation, "As the senators wine and dine and congratulate each other, we pledge that the workers, the vendors, the farmers shall have the last laugh on the matter. We shall mobilize our numbers and networks to launch a massive negative campaign and make them pay heavily in the coming elections".

The BMP and its allied organizations vowed to continue the struggle to fight for a progressive system of taxation in the country.

pr - Pag-aprubado sa Sin Tax Law, Kinondena

PRESS RELEASE

21 November 2012

Tuloy ang laban! -- PCART

PAG-AAPRUBA NG SIN TAX LAW SA SENADO KINONDENA

KAMING mga mahihirap na manggagawa't magsasaka ang nagtanim, mga pulitiko at kapitalista ang aani! Ito ang pagkondena ng grupong Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation o PCART sa naging resulta ng botohan sa Senado hinggil sa isinulong na Sin Tax Reform Law kung saan 15 senador ang pumabor habang dalawa ang tumutol.

Giit ng PCART, milyong manggagawang Pilipino, magsasaka at maralitang taga-lungsod ang tanging papasan sa hirap na idudulot ng dagdag-buwis sa alak at sigarilyo habang ang mga pulitiko ang makikinabang sa bilyong makokolektang buwis at ang mga kapitalista naman ang magpapakasasa sa trilyong halaga ng tutubuin sa mga nasabing produkto.

Anila,  malinaw na may sabwatang naganap sa pagitan ng mga pulitiko at mayayamang negosyante kung saan ang pag-apruba sa Sin Tax Reform Law ang pinakamatindi kuntsabahan mula nang maupo sa puwesto si Pangulong Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III.

Ayon kay Gie Relova, Secretary-General ng National Capital Region at Rizal chapter ng Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP-NCRR), "Lumabas uli ang tunay na kulay ng Senado at pinatunayan lamang nila na bulag, pipi at bingi sila sa tunay na kalagayan at kapakanan ng taumbayan. Habang hinahalikan naman nila sa paa ng mga elitista at dayuhang kapitalista."

"Kasabay ng pag-apruba sa nasabing panukala, maraming trabaho at kabuhayan ang naging biktima ng masaker kung saan ang Senado ang nagsilbing sepulturero, ang Department of Finance ang berdugo habang nagsilbing hitman si Senator Franklin Drilon at ang mastermind walang iba kundi si Pagulong Aquino," dagdag pa ni Relova.

Ayon naman kay Rodel Atienza, pangulo ng unyon ng Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation, "Habang nagdiriwang at nagbabatian sa isa't isa ang mga senador, isinusumpa naming mga manggagawa, magsasaka at maralitang tagalungsod na sa amin pa rin ang huling halakhak."

"Tuloy ang laban, mas malaking puwersa ang nakahanda at sisiguraduhin  namin ang kampanya laban sa mga nagsabwatang pulitiko at kapitalista sa Sin Tax Reform Bill at pagbabayaran nila ito sa darating na eleksyon." ani Atienza.

Kaugnay nito, nangangako ang BMP at mga kaalyadong organisasyon nito na ipagpapatuloy nila ang laban tungo sa isang ganap na progresibong sistema ng pagbubuwis.