Putting public interest last

The last shall be first, Vice President Tito Guingona quotes the Bible about his odds of becoming President in 2004 despite polls showing him last among senatorial possibilities. That may be so but, on another plane, why must the first also be last? I’m talking of public interest, which should be the priority in government policy, yet is always the least.

Take, for instance, that revived plan to tax cellphone texting. Modern technology has made Short Message Sending the cheapest way of distance communication. For only a peso per SMS or "txt," a house maid can wish the folks back home a merry Christmas. Or a kid can assure mom that he’ll be safe even if late from school. Or two million Filipinos can laugh at the same Erap joke within two hours after it’s first sent.

The finance department will spoil the fun. Taking the cue from the International Monetary Fund that’s saying tsk-tsk about the government’s P223-billion spending deficit by yearend, it will tax text messages about 10 centavos each. It’s like US authorities attempting for the past three years to tax each e-mail five cents supposedly to save the Federal Postal Service.

Soak the poor is the message behind tax-n-txt. Cellphone companies naturally will pass on the tax to their 14 million subscribers, who each text about 10 messages a day. That’d also be P14 million a day, or P5 billion a year, in taxes - a paltry sum compared to what government loses to graft (P175 billion) and tax cheats (P105 billion). Government would rather give up the big bucks it could make from cleaning up its act or running after untaxed incomes of doctors, lawyers and movie stars. It would settle for a small percentage that won’t bridge the deficit anyway or change things for the better.

There’s a plan, too, to raise SSS members’ contributions from 16 to 18 percent of their monthly salaries. So far, big companies have agreed to pay the increase instead of exacting it from employees during these hard times. But SSS bigwigs say that would be good only for two years. To keep the mutual provident fund afloat, the 22 million members themselves must put up the cash or else forget their past contributions forever.

But why is the fund going under, in the first place? Certainly not because of members’ failure to contribute. They can’t escape automatic monthly deductions from their take-home pay. It’s their bosses who fail to transmit the deductions to the SSS, playing these in the money market the same way local officials put GSIS deductions in get-rich-quick schemes of relatives. They invariably miss remittance deadlines, but the SSS and GSIS don’t run after them. They also don’t run after former fund officials who used members’ money to prop up their Malacañang appointers. Joseph Estrada’s SSS president and GSIS general manager had confessed to diverting billions of pesos into crony Dante Tan’s failed gambling resort. Justice Secretary Hernando Perez granted them immunity from suit, after which the SSS and GSIS declared that their worst crime was to misjudge the investment climate. End of story. Members are holding the empty bag and being made to pay more to cover for the lost billions.

Public interest was the least priority too in passing the Omnibus Power Act. Staff economists in Congress and state colleges had foreseen the danger in passing on to taxpayers and consumers, respectively, the multibillion-peso loans and operating losses of the soon-to-be-privatized Napocor. Electricity rates, they warned, would rise skyhigh because of Napocor’s sweetheart deals - innocuously called PPAs or purchased power adjustments - with private generators. They proposed instead that buyers of Napocor plants absorb the corresponding loans and losses, but issue shares of stock to bigger customers who would be paying for these in the end. The new shareholders would then be able to earn dividends in the long run, when the plants are able to run efficiently.

Congress did not listen. Malacañang raised the specter of renewed ten-hour blackouts if the law was not passed post-haste. Less than a year later, consumers were reeling from tripled electricity bills. Government’s solution was to cut Napocor’s PPA charges - which meant increasing its losses all the more, still to be passed on to taxpayers and consumers when the long-delayed privatization happens.

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Shoot not only two but three birds with one stone: (1) spread good values, (2) promote Filipino music, (3) enjoy compositions of some of the best artists. Give copies of Pagbabago CD album to friends this Christmas and after. Available at all Odyssey outlets or [email protected].

The album has 12 cuts, all original recordings made specially for it: "Ako Na" featuring Regine Velasquez, "Count on Me" by Jaya, "Eleksyon na Naman" by Grace Nono, "Idol" featuring Anya Santos with Da Pulis, "Kaduda-Duda Ka" by Renz Verano, "Hindi Mo Ako Mabibili" by Aegis, "Walang Takit, Walang Tinatago" by Mystica, "Tanggapin Mo Kung Gusto Mo" by APO, "Owe U Nothin’" by Radha, "Ako Pa" by Jolina Magdangal, "Walk with Good" by South Border, and "Magbabago Ako" by The CompanY.

Two bonus tracks: minus-one versions of "Ako Na" and "Magbabago Ako," with the background choruses.

Put together by Katha leader Trina Belamide ("Tell the World of His Love" for World Youth Day), Pagbabago album is a project of the pagbabago@pilipinas movement.

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Catch Linawin Natin, Mondays at 11 p.m., on IBC-13.

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You can e-mail comments to: [email protected].