Group uses COA report on SSS status to back demand to cut workers’ tax

CEBU, Philippines – A militant labor group said that the recent disclosure by the Commission on Audit on the financial status of the Social Security System in 2014 “adds justification” to their demands for the reduction of workers’ withholding taxes.

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) in a statement said that it was found out by COA that SSS had almost P18 billion worth of idle assets.

Among the idle properties, as included in the COA report, are 102 condominium units in seven condominium buildings, 44,000 square meters of store or office spaces, 16 houses and 169 parking slots.

“The tax exemption would directly benefit the workers’ families and will ultimately spur development for it will increase their disposable income,” the statement reads.

Earlier, Malacañang claims that around P30 billion will be lost  from its tax base  if the proposed measures of Representative Miro Quimbo and Senator Sonny Angara are enacted.

“The government has deceitfully and incessantly bled us dry only to accommodate and offset the incentives it grants to foreign multinational corporations investing in the country. We demand nothing less of an abatement from an unjust and regressive taxation,” said BMP chairman Leody de Guzman.

In a statement, De Guzman said that with the COA report out in the public, Aquino and his finance cluster can no longer stonewall the worker’s demands to reduce tax rates.

“The COA report and the behemoth real estate properties owned by the SSS only confirms what we have long alleged as early as 2013, the funds of SSS members are being mismanaged besides the fact that it is also being plundered through self-rewarding bonuses by its Commissioners,” the statement reads.

The group accused both President Benign Aquino and SSS officials, led by Emilio de Quiros, of willfully misleading the pensioners by using scare-tactics into agreeing to shell out additional contributions.

De Guzman added that not only they do demand justice for deceiving the lowly wage-earners, the most tax-compliant sector but they firmly believe that Malacañang’s refusal to give in to the workers’ demands for tax exemptions no longer holds weight.

“For Aquino to continuously deny us of what we have already labored for coupled with outright excesses of its agencies illustrates the indifference of his Tuwid na Daan program to the plight of ordinary workers,” he added.

The group is likewise waiting for news reports citing the status of other SSS investments in the mining, power, telecommunication and banking industries as well as its investments in the stock market.

BMP and allied partylist group Sanlakas are now considering the filing of an injunction against the increase and anti-graft suits against the SSS Board and other government officials who approved the .6% contribution increase. —/ATO (FREEMAN)