STARTING this year, you won’t see the city councilors of Angeles wetting their fingers to aide in turning pages of their thick documents during session. Beginning this month, the city’s legislators will use laptops instead of papers at the Sangguniang Panlungsod building. Yes, the Angeles City Local Government is now adapting electronic stage out from the traditional.
Routinely, a legislator presents agendum in a systematic written form to his fellow council members. The session traditionally reproduces draft proposals and ordinances to be distributed to the legislative members for further study and scrutiny. The old system has been believed to require much resources, time and effort for preparation and operation.
By practicing the new method, soft copies shall now be uploaded into the councilors’ respective laptop units, eliminating the need for reproduction and this result to saving time and cost. Based on the old records of the first paperless Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the country, Agusan del Sur, an average of 4,758 sheets of bond paper have been used per session, 15 sets of which have been included in deliberations were then produced.
With the preamble of the electronic session, the discussion will not only save the cost and time but also will help save the environment by phasing out the use of bond paper. Studies also show that paperless sessions are faster in terms of retrieval of documents. It would also be easier for staff and members to manage their data, not to mention that this high tech approach will create or save a lot of storage space.
Winnings minus the tax
Betting and gambling has been a part of civilization since time immemorial and is believed to have gained popularity of the centuries in broad majority of countries around the globe. In our country and even in Pampanga, betting, both legal and illegal, has long been a piece of Filipino and perhaps a part as well of Kapampangan culture. Many consider gambling as a famous pastime among folks here. In 2005, the SWS conducted a survey which revealed that 53% of Filipinos of whom 62% of these were males, admitted that they engaged themselves in some form of gambling.
I had a rare lunch meeting with some officers of Widus Hotel and Casino inside Clark recently. I actually arrived late but early for merienda. I later found out during our brief chit-chat that a certain prominent man who played in their casino has won a jackpot prize. I’m not sure if he’s a regular player but the issue now is that he was complaining that his winnings of more than a million pesos got slashed because of 20% tax.
For some reason, the officers of the casino did not divulge the name of the player. I’m no expert in casino operations. I don’t even know how to bet on the table. I only play some solitaire and ‘pekwa.’ But according to one lawyer that I’m acquainted with, the withholding of 20% from the winnings is valid. This attorney even cited section 24B of the National Internal Revenue Code which states that a final tax with a rate of 20% shall be imposed on winnings with the exemption of PCSO and lottery winnings. It seemed like a win-win scenario. The player wins, the government gets a portion. ‘Balato naman diyan!’