DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — "We will campaign for a civil disobedience by not paying our taxes, if the pork barrel issue is not resolved according to the clamor of taxpayers," according to lawyer Joel Obar who was one of those who rallied for public support for the protest action against pork barrel last Monday in this city.
Obar, however, said government should be given a chance to remove the pork barrel altogether so that congressmen and senators will go back to their real job of lawmaking.
Obar urged the public to sustain the protest action in small and peaceful ways in the barangays because they are the most affected by the loss of billions of pesos in public funds that went to the pockets of corrupt officials.
Among the solutions that the lawyer proposed was to increase the salaries of congressmen, who are voted to be lawmakers and not as executive officers. He believed that raising the legislators' salaries up to P250,000 a month will be fair and reasonable. "Such increase is a small amount compared to billions of pesos that went down the drain due to corruption every year," he said.
Obar foresaw an evolution of new and genuine political parties in the absence of the pork barrel, which is the source of evils in government. He further proposed to convert the pork barrel and include this into the internal revenue allotment of LGUs, which in turn will be the ones to identify and fund the projects.
The Monday rally against pork rally was participated also by withholding taxpayers in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental who expressed their disgust over the misuse of public funds.
Gary Rosales, president of the Bankers Club of Negros Oriental, said millions of government and private employees pay the correct taxes through the withholding tax, only to be squandered by corrupt officials in government. Taxpayers have more reasons to be wary this time after ghost projects and recipients were exposed. — (FREEMAN)