Water Tax

As I See It : Solon wants to tax drinking water

Neal H. Cruz
Inquirer News Service

PEOPLE are talking about "The Great Raid" and "The Great Escape." Not the new movie with Cesar Montano in its cast or the old one starring Steve McQueen. They are talking about the raid conducted by police and military intelligence agents on a house in San Mateo, Rizal, where they seized important evidence on cheating in the last elections; and the escape of former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano who is said to have been caught in the "Hello Garci" tapes as one of the prominent personalities involved in a plot to cheat in the elections.

The speculation is that both capers-the raid and the escape-could not have been successfully accomplished without the knowledge, approval and help of Malacañang. The squatter there, after all, would be the one to benefit from the seizure of evidence on poll cheating and from the escape of Garci.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the police (CIDG) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) would not have conducted the illegal raid if it had not been ordered by somebody very high up in the government. There was no search warrant, no complaint against the caretaker of the poll evidence. Until now, the CIDG and Isafp cannot explain the basis for the raid and for the seizure of the election returns. The ERs legally belong to the opposition party which, under the law, is entitled to one of the seven copies of every ER. The police should return them immediately. Their caretaker, Segundo Tabayoyong, an expert on questioned documents, has not committed any crime.

The excuse given by the CIDG and Isafp for the raid was that the owner of the house asked for their help. If that was the only reason, wouldn't the local police have been enough? Why was the CIDG involved? And the Isafp, too? Really, only somebody very powerful could have ordered the raid.

Similarly, Garcillano could not have escaped without the help, financial and otherwise, of Malacañang. He could not have afforded the fee for the charter of the Learjet to Singapore. And he could not have gotten through immigration without the help of somebody very influential who must have opened the right doors for him and greased the right hands.

Everybody was looking for Garci. There was an alert for him. There had been talk for quite some time that he would escape to another country. Yet, he was still able to escape. He could not have done that, not unless some government officials were incompetent or were part of a conspiracy.

The consensus is that Malacañang is getting so desperate as to resort to illegal acts to cover its tracks. For the web of accumulating circumstantial evidence and testimony from witnesses is tightening the noose around the neck of its illegal occupant.

The tampered election returns, although meant only as evidence in the election protest of former Sen. Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro, would also show that the votes for the presidential candidates were altered or manufactured to make GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) win. And Garcillano, if found and forced to tell the truth, could mean the end of the GMA regime. No wonder, GMA's minions are risking criminal prosecution to cover Malacañang's tracks. In fact, Garci risks being murdered because of what he knows. He knows too much. But dead men tell no tales.

The lesson here once more is that "the truth will always out." "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time." The more you lie and commit illegal acts to cover your tracks, the more you are caught in the web of your lies. Lies are like a trap. The more you try to wiggle out of them by lying some more, the more the noose tightens. Even experienced and habitual liars are caught. GMA is no exception. The most powerful man in the world, President Richard Nixon, trying to cover up the Watergate burglary, was finally caught in the web of his lies that were exposed in the secret tapes of his conversations in the White House. GMA was caught by secret tapes of her phone conversations with Garci. Nixon resigned the presidency rather than face an impeachment trial. Would that GMA be as statesmanlike as Nixon and do the same thing-resign.

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As if the expanded value-added tax is not enough to squeeze the life out of the people, a congressman has filed a bill to tax-would you believe-drinking water. Yes, House Bill 2899 of Samar Rep. Catalino Figueroa (Lakas-NP) proposes to impose a 10-percent excise tax on bottled water. The excise tax would be in addition to the EVAT. And the House ways and means committee, instead of throwing the stupid bill into the waste basket, has actually started hearings on it last Aug. 16.

Drinking water is a basic necessity. Nobody can continue to live without safe drinking water. In a country where more than one-third of the population has no access to safe drinking water, it is criminal to tax it. Entire communities have fallen ill from drinking contaminated tap water. By his own admission, Figueroa said that bottled water has become a necessity, that it is essential to life. Yet, he wants to put it beyond the reach of the people by imposing an additional tax on it. All for what? So the government will have more money that government officials can steal and use to bribe witnesses and legislators. Perhaps, Figueroa was thinking of the pork barrel of congressmen when he filed the bill.

An excise tax is imposed to curb the consumption of products harmful to health, such as alcohol and tobacco. By slapping such tax on drinking water, is Figueroa saying that people should be taxed for wanting to survive? A tax on drinking water, bottled or not, is a tax on a person's right to life.