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Sunday, January 08, 2006
Speak out: Dishonorable debts
By Freedom from Debt Coalition-Cebu
Appropriation for debt service in the proposed 2006 national budget would eat up over 80 percent of the projected tax revenues for the year, even with the Expanded Value-Added Tax.
This means that for every peso paid by a taxpayer, 80 centavos go to the creditors and only 20 centavos remain for the government to finance its operations and for the people to receive much-needed services.
In the face of such dire circumstances, it is incomprehensible why the government refuses even to entertain the possibility of reducing the debt and debt servicing.
Its declaration to religiously pay the national debt as the “honorable thing to do” reeks of callous audacity, gross insensitivity, and delusional pretense.
Government’s stubborn stance regarding the debt is made more inexcusable by the fact that much of the country’s debt has been incurred through fraudulent means, spent with taints of corruption, attached with onerous provisions, and financed projects that have not redounded to the people’s benefit and in fact served to their detriment.
Government, for instance, continues to pay the debts incurred in building the anomalous Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
Yet the government pretends not to see the facts and deludes itself with notions of honor if only to avoid the daunting task of standing up to the creditors.
Government should muster the heart and the will--–and, yes, the honor--–to uphold the people’s interest above all else.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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