Where have all the taxes gone?

That is the question being asked by the Bureau of Internal Revenue when it discovered that world boxing champion and Sarangani Congressman Manny Pacquiao’s taxes for 2009 has dropped to just a meager P7.41 million from a high of P125 million in 2008. With the tax agency seriously intent on increasing its revenue collections, it’s not surprising for them to keep a close watch on the earnings of individuals especially big businessmen, showbiz people and global celebrities like the Pacman whose two fights in 2009 against Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto reportedly earned him a combined $34 million including pay-per-view cuts and other income sources. That doesn’t even include his talent fee for endorsing San Miguel products, a pain reliever and a sports product line, among many others.

It turns out the Pacquiaos are also becoming quite savvy in business, with Manny and Jinkee having put up several businesses like a gasoline station, a coffee shop, fashion boutiques, a water station plus a franchise from a popular beauty clinic. Which is why when the BIR saw the shocking tax drop, red flags immediately popped up.

Our sources told us Pacquiao reportedly hired the services of a top US financial adviser investing substantially in real estate and corporate bonds in the US, and that the P7.41 million only reflects earnings from his local business ventures. From what we understand, the pound-for-pound king has also hired a topnotch CPA-lawyer who is helping Pacquiao with his finances and the tax shelters that would work to the Pacman’s advantage.

Strip-stamping the habit

Still on the issue of taxes, at the recent Congressional hearing by the oversight subcommittee on the House Committee on Ways and Means, Swiss-based Sicpa Security Solutions said its cutting-edge security project will enable President Noy’s administration to run after tobacco smugglers and expand the country’s revenue base by more than P100 billion in just seven years without having to impose new taxes. Sicpa director Jean Francois de Saussure spelled out the project’s benefits to the country such as more jobs and livelihood opportunities, more funds for public health spending and other basic services that would improve the lives of impoverished Filipinos.

Obviously, the cutting edge security project being proposed by the company will enable government to properly monitor domestic cigar and cigarette production through the use of strip stamps employing state-of-the-art technology that will make it difficult for counterfeiters to fake – which is probably why some manufacturers and tobacco smugglers are allegedly trying to undermine the project.

Other than plugging tax leakages, one important point that was emphasized to the House subcommittee headed by Isabela Congressman Giorgidi Aggabao is the Philippine’s compliance – being a signatory country – to its commitment to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to reduce tobacco consumption by implementing effective legislative measures to ensure the proper documentation and monitoring of cigarette and tobacco products and curb the illicit trade of such. It’s bad enough if people contract lung diseases due to air pollution brought about by carbon monoxide-spewing buses and jeeps, but it’s even worse if they acquire it due to secondhand smoke from their loved ones who just can’t kick the habit.

Jessica Alfaro now the hunted

According to information we received, Vizconde massacre star witness Jessica Alfaro who reportedly settled in California with a former bodyguard with whom she has a child, has abruptly left her home with no one knowing where she went. An informal survey conducted yesterday among office employees regarding the acquittal of Hubert Webb and five others clearly shows that opinion is almost equally divided between those who believe that Hubert et. al. are guilty and those who think otherwise, questioning the credibility and the motive of the star witness.

Alfaro surfaced four years after the 1991 Vizconde murders and eventually left the country and has since been “on the run” going from one place to another, but has maintained contact with Lauro Vizconde using pre-paid phone cards which she periodically changes to avoid being located. Now that the Webb family is thinking of filing a case against her, it is possible the Philippine government may be forced to request for her extradition if found guilty of perjury. She has now become the “hunted one.”

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