To My Beloved Government,
I have a few hours to kill until I wave
farewell to 2013, and here I am smoking my last cigarette for the year.
Welcoming the New Year has always been a blast for me, but now it has to come
with so much anguish as it is now no longer just goodbyes to the year departing,
but also a farewell to my hard earned cash. It’s the second New Year’s
Eve that I am feeling this twinge of regret for once again failing to stock up by going on a cigarette hoard spree before the due price hike. Nevertheless,
the bitterness in this letter is rooted from reasons beyond my
starving wallet’s inability to provide for my nicotine desires. I am writing
you this letter in behalf of all the affected consumers who have been bullied
by your money-grabbing scumbag policy.
I will not even bring up how you stepped
on our right to choose our own lifestyle. That argument is crass and I have no
qualms with that at all. Smoking has always been a problem with rising urgency, yielding countless detriments to both smokers and non-smokers--and it is your job as government to minimize this incident as much as possible.
This isn’t even a point of dispute, as I find this completely right and
acceptable. But that is still beside the point. I still have so much to say.
First of all, thank you for masking your
money making desires through the façade of ratifying a law with principal
urgency, which are, in accordance to your bill: to be able to look out for the
health of these consumers by discouraging them from purchasing these “sin”
products, and to garner more funds needed to cater to our country’s developing
needs--which your fictional Daang Matuwid platform labels as “ key development
areas.” Indeed, there is nothing wrong with trying to achieve both goals.
I just can’t help but wonder, how do you expect us to believe that this extra
amount we spend for our vices really do contribute to the development of these areas? With
countless tax thieving issues emerging left and right (With Napoles’ famous
Pork Barrel Scam as only one of the many) how are we to see the earnestness
behind the goal points of your Sin Tax policy implementation?
There have been multiple times when I have
witnessed the front page of our papers lamenting over the missing revenue
garnered from the SINTAX bill. For some reason, I can’t seem to find any of
these articles online. I’m not accusing anyone of manipulating media, but I am
sure that I saw what I saw—and what I saw, I saw more than once. Thank you for
using our vice as another excuse to extort citizens. There is a proper place
and time to levy taxes, and that is only when the extra revenue would truly end
up in key development areas, as oppose to landing in the obese pockets of our
very sympathetic politicians. If you would tell me that our nation’s wellbeing
always remained at the core of this policy, and that vast corruption was just
another inevitable side effect in this means towards a healthier end, then I’m
sorry but you are a terrible government. And if you are terrible as
a government, you have no right to milk out the opportunity of having a
vice-inclined populace by taxing them heavily for it.
I
am very tired of all these seemingly sincere and flawless frameworks that offer
endless loopholes for government officials. When opportunities for taxation and
extortion arise, the government is omnipresent. All Pacquiao needed to do was opt
against joining the administration’s party, and presto, another impetus for you guys to tax him a hefty amount of 2 Billion (which is, take note,
almost greater than what he earns per fight. Regardless of all his
sponsorships, how again could that great amount make up his taxes? If I am not
mistaken, income tax only comprises more or less 30% of total earnings. The
moment citizens noticed how questionable 30 Billion is, BIR presented their
facts, admitting that 50% of the amount was purely supplement collections disguised
as due interest. Wonderful.) But then again, I digress. Back to my point: When
opportunity for revenue arises, government is ubiquitous, but during the times
that really matter (case in point: Yolanda, and a million more) our beloved
government suddenly goes missing.
Since we have brought up Yolanda, it is about
time we point out how your bill’s credibility vastly decreased after this massive
tragedy. I find the feasibility of your statement declaring that “the funds garnered from the levied taxes
would likewise be used to bolster our national healthcare” to be very
questionable, seeing how you cannot even manage to provide for your affected areas.
How much donations, both cash and in kind, did you squander while your citizens
from Tacloban starved and died? Let’s stop the fooling. I know you have
enough funds to at least make better the situation. But if during a very urgent
tragedy, you cannot even provide ample health services, how do you expect us to
believe that PhilHealth and all your crass health care plans will be bolstered
by Sin Tax? Insofar as your officials will continue to pocket a massive chunk
of the national budget, no amount of taxation would ever alleviate our poor
country’s condition.
We haven’t quit at all.
I think I have smuggling to thank for that.
It’s been pretty clear how this policy has
done nothing more than lower the sales of the higher bracket cigarettes. It
doesn’t take a genius to figure out that cigarettes are inelastic needs, at
least for those of us whose wellbeing are really on the line. In the same
light, most market actors are wise enough to maneuver their way around your
policy. All we need to do is to acquaint our taste to a downgraded brand, and
we are good to go. Even the poorest of smokers have yet to quit, or even
decrease at all. As of the inception of this bill, cheaper and cheaper cigarettes
have flooded our market. Smuggled cigarettes (costing about P1.00/stick) have
been patronized instead. And you do know that when we spend less, we tend to
smoke more? Right?
Whereas I am very certain that a lot of
you would question my knowledge and opinions regarding this matter, as I would
not know more than a nineteen year old who has invested several months
following whatever is released regarding the bill, please please please do not shun my
opinions. I believe my thoughts matter, as I have only garnered what I know
from public documents and the press and media statements made available. My thoughts, therefore, represent what
most of the affected consumers believe, based on the raw information you have
left us to process.
Now that I have said my piece, I will now spend what’s left of
this year to hoard whatever sari-sari store remains open at this time.
Have a Happy New Year and enjoy smoking all the expensive tobaccos
that only you could afford!
With love,
B
