Licking fake stamps

Some G-Men are going to Europe to learn more about stamps, particularly about “fake tax stamps” like the ones that are being used on cigarette packs sold in many provinces outside the NCR. One of the team members told me that the government is intent on beating a particular group that specializes in producing and using fake tax stamps on low-end cigarettes. That is why his team is braving the European winter to learn as much as they can on the new technology to make tax stamps counterfeit proof.

Unfortunately the government is still playing the same game with the same bunch of tax evaders. If Secretary Sonny Dominguez really wants to put a stop to the tax evaders and people manufacturing and using fake tax stamps on cigarettes, then he should adopt the same tactics used against DVD pirates and vendors. Secretary Dominguez should form his posse of deputies or deputized DOF enforcers and raid each and every store selling cigarettes and check them for fake stamps. Confiscate the merchandise and force the sellers to point to their source and then file charges for every count. 

I believe in continuing education and adapting new technology, but until and unless the DOF conducts raids and disturbs the conduct of illegal business, manufacturers, tax evaders and vendors will have no motivation to stop. The fact that these groups have enough clout to influence Congress to change proposed laws on taxation on cigarettes makes it clear that they are not ashamed to show their power and influence.

The DOF should stop treating the problem as a simple act of tax evasion. Crooks are making and printing counterfeit tax stamps, which is equivalent to printing counterfeit money and allows them to evade paying taxes in the hundreds of millions a year. That is economic sabotage and plunder. It is bad enough that they sell cancer-causing, low-end cigarettes to the poor segment of society, but when they make and use fake tax stamps and fearlessly rob the government of legal revenues, then it is clear that they neither respect nor fear the law. One case of plunder ought to fix the problem!

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God repeats himself when it is important.

Many of my spiritual mentors and pastors often say that when God, Jesus or the Bible writers repeat a phrase or message – two or especially three times, they are not being repetitive, they are being emphatic about the importance of the message or the lesson.

One such lesson is about being careful on how we treat orphans and widows especially those in dire need or those who are victimized. God always warns us to be careful lest those people cry out to God who has vowed to hear them and do something particularly to us who are being the thorn in the flesh of orphans and widows. Apparently God has been hearing a lot of those prayers from the widows and orphans as well as the blood of the SAF 44 crying out from the ground asking for justice.

When President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at officials of the past administration during the recent commemoration of the Mamasapano Massacre, I immediately remembered the often repeated warnings of the Lord particularly in Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right. Seek Justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow.”

Very recently one of my friends posted on Facebook the alleged statement made by a Marine officer saying that soldiers go to war assuming they will die and they do so unconditionally. It reminded me of an Army general who died too young from natural causes who also said that dying in combat or being maimed is part of the soldier’s reality and it comes with the job. But to me being a soldier especially a Marine means you can count on your buddy to watch your back and not abandon you. You can rely on your commanders in the field and in the Palace to know what they are doing and that they are doing the right thing.

As a soldier you assume rightfully that you will get all the support and back up when you need it either from your unit or your brothers in arms. Failing to get all that, Every soldier or Marine expects that his life and especially his death would not be in vain. That to me is where the SAF 44 were betrayed by their leaders, their brothers in arms, by the military and by civilian leaders because up to today they remain 44 men killed in action by the collective blunder of those who plotted or agreed to the plan as well as each and every officer and government official who did nothing or said nothing when the plan was going horribly wrong while the SAF 44 were sent to hell!

As far as the Mamasapano Massacre or mass murder is concerned, the big difference is that no one has been made accountable. Someone has been made a scapegoat but no one wants to open the can of worms that contains an ex-President washing his hands of responsibility and accountability, a disgraced PNP Chief who denies knowing or doing anything, military officials hiding in anonymity and excuses for not giving help while the SAF-44 were being BUTCHERED and their wives being told by the murderers who are nothing more than cold blooded killers claiming to be rebels, and a bunch of White boys in Hawaiian shirts chilling a chopped finger in a helicopter while “site seeing.” Judas Iscariot had the decency to repent betraying an innocent man and throwing away his reward. No one among the organizers of the Mamasapano Massacre has been “Man” enough to say what happened to their multi-million dollar reward money!

I cannot say that the SAF-44 died in vain. They were sent to their deaths. We owe it to them to take down each and every officer and official refusing to tell the truth and take responsibility. Because that is the worst form of cowardice; to run away from the truth – that you let 44 loyal uniformed officers die as they were denied help that YOU could have given!

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