I ASKED the other day for a copy of my pay slip from our accounting department at GMA 7 to check if I have received my talent fees from the national products I endorsed in my radio program. GMA 7 news anchors and public affairs personalities are allowed to endorse products.
My blood pressure rose when I found out that ten percent was deducted from my talent fees as tax. This was outside the tax deduction from my regular salary. The GMA 7 management is religious in remitting its employees’ tax deductions to the government.
I am just an ordinary worker and only contribute that much to the national coffers.
But it's already a big loss of income if we get deductions from our pay for tax purposes.
And it’s not only working groups that are being taxed. Anybody who buys and consumes goods already pays taxes to the government through the value added tax imposed on goods. And yet these taxes ended up in the pocket of some corrupt government officials.
The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel of our lawmakers has been misused. Some sectors consider this as the root cause of our problems. Imagine some lawmakers treating the money like it was their own.
The influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), in a pastoral
letter, condemned as immoral the legislators' pork barrel and the politics of patronage that it promoted.
The Church reminded the lawmakers of the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.” Pero madala kaha nag warning og “Thou shall not steal” nga kining pork barrel mao man ang gihimong gatasan sa mga kurakot nga mga magbabalaod?
Mao ni tinubdan sa kickbacks, SOP ug commission nga maoy ilang igasto sa eleksiyon.
This reminds me of a joke. A congressman was held up and the holdupper said: “Give me your money!” The congressman then introduced himself, saying “I am a congressman.” The holdupper retorted: “Ah okay, so give us our money.”
As the Commission on Audit (COA) continues to audit the use of the pork barrel, more and more legislators have been exposed as having extended financial assistance to questionable non-government organizations (NGOs) not connected with Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Even some Cebu legislators were mentioned. They owe Cebuanos an explanation.
I am not pointing an accusing finger at Cebuano legislators. It just happened that, based on COA findings, they were the benefactors of the fake NGOs through the National Agri-business Corp. (Nabcor), a government-owned and controlled corporation.
There are only two possible reasons why their names cropped up. First, that they were really fooled by those behind these NGOs. Second, that they were part of the grand scenario to defraud the government.
I challenge the Ombudsman-Visayas to initiate an investigation against the congressmen involved.
But as of this time, no charges have been filed against the legislators linked to Napoles’s NGOs and to other bogus NGOs. I doubt if these legislators will be included in the filing of charges. Can they charge in court Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Gringo Honasan, Bongbong Marcos and Loren Legarda?
I am sure everything will be blamed on Napoles. Poor woman. She is being made as a shock absorber.
Like those congressional investigations in the past, I foresee that the probe by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the pork barrel scam will go nowhere.
Can they have the guts to recommend the filing of charges against their colleagues? In Congress, the policy is, “you scratch my back and I will scratch your back.” Ingna kog bakakon.
(bobby.nalzaro@yahoo.com)