Anyone who had taken up the subject of taxation in his studies, whether in the pursuit of a college diploma or to satisfy one's craving for learning, must have come across the theory that the power of taxation is sometimes called the power to destroy. Many text and reference books cite a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that mentioned about this taxation being a power to destroy. But, that case does not even take an effort to explain this concept in a more understandable manner.
His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, in all probability, might have also come across this principle. And because what we are told is that he took up Agricultural Economics in a Mindanao school, there is likelihood that his reading on the theory might be just as cursory as that of every college kid trying to breeze thru college.
It would be probably true that his understanding of taxation as a power to destroy is as skimpy as mine because his application of this theory does not seem to heed the caveat of Justice Jose P. Bengzon. The eminent jurist said that "it should be exercised with caution to minimize injury to the proprietary rights of a taxpayer x x x lest the tax collector kill the hen that lays the golden egg".
I am referring to the high-handed ways city hall, under the administration of Mayor Osmeña, treats the schools and hospitals within the city. It has issued tax assessments against these establishments. Well, the demand to pay, on the assumption that the impost is anchored upon legal grounds, is, of course, inherent in the power to tax. So, probably such assessments come within the legitimate purview. (The ordinance upon which they are based is being contested in court now).
But, if the demand were backed up by the threat that should the owners of the concerned schools and hospitals be unable to come across, their assets would be levied, then the taxation power as a power to destroy is unquestionably invoked. If that should happen, the city will have killed the hen that lays the golden egg.
Here is why it is so. Education is a government duty. That is why elementary, as well as secondary education, is, as mandated by our constitution, supposed to be free. Our country, or any nation for that matter, will never grow if its people were illiterate. It is, however, not enough that we only have high school graduates because then learning will just be little. Such education will not be enough to run the bureaucracy and the engines of growth, as well.
We need to have college education. And government should have made certain that we have enough universities and colleges for our high school graduates to go and learn obtain higher learning. Unfortunately, our government is unable to provide sufficient higher education. State universities and public colleges cannot accommodate our high school graduates.
This void is being filled by private schools. Owners of private universities and colleges provide the service where government has miserably failed or is unable to give. (In the process, they employ thousands of professionals and ignite multiplier economies). If the national government and Cebu City, only thought that they had the inescapable duty to educate our people, they should have established universities here in the city. And the Aznars, the Escarios, the Gos, the Gullases, the Larrazabals, the Velezes and others too many to mention, would not have even thought of opening any school.
These private schools are the hen that lays the golden egg. It happens that education is the golden egg. Most of us Cebu City residents enroll our children here to get this golden egg because we cannot afford to send them to University of California, at Los Angeles, where the mayor's son was reported to have graduated. If people from nearby provinces come to our city in search of this golden egg, it is because these owners of private schools have long decided to give the kind of service our city has failed to provide and in all likelihood, will be unable to render.
We know the temper of the mayor. What he wants, he gets. He has threatened to levy the assets of most of the city private universities if they do not pay the kind of tax the mayor thinks is due. It is, thus, imminent that these universities and colleges be closed. Then, what mayor?