Sin Tax Bill

I am so glad of the very purpose of passing the sin tax bill which is to protect the health and save the lives of the countrymen. This simply means that the government officials are concern about the good health of all Filipinos but this doesn’t mean that I am into this bill; for some reasons that the government or most of the senate themselves failed to look unto. Firstly, I would like to agree with Sen. Marcos who said that 18,000 farmers stand to lose their livelihood because of the measure. This is very true, we all know of the fact that Philippines’ one trademark in the field of import and export of raw materials is the tobacco; there have been a lot of Filipino families who are dependent on their incomes from tobacco industries and wine manufactories. And here comes this bill passed without proposing alternatives that would help these people; it should be taken an account in the first place. It is even harder for the government to generate jobs for thousands of jobless Filipinos who have finished their degrees how much more to these people.

Is the government expecting them to easily shift to another source of income? What kind of income would that be? Smuggling? Second, given the proposed prices of alcohol and cigarettes, I see it as so illogical for the government to risk their time and effort on this issue, giving the people-friendly prices at the end of the day! Tinatakot ang mga tao sa presyo? I suggest this is not supporting to their proposal, because for the people who have been addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, like the need of rice no matter how you increase the price since it is what they needed and wanted they’d rather take the risk to get a source of money just to buy those. Lastly, if health is the main target, why not eliminate all these sources of illnesses?

I know this is a kind of hard thing to make but I believe the possibility is there, only that the government is afraid to lose these big industries which have been big tax payers; meaning the totality of their vision and what not is unclear, complicated. We need total cleansing; why not sweep them all? Or are there even big reasons behind this? That the government have been blind and deaf of what the people are aware about? About corruption. See, they are making themselves as if concern but not at all. To the government, please stop making bills! Aren’t your pockets full yet? Focus on what is the most necessary. People know you’re fooling us, you might as well pass the RH Bill which is very contradictory to this (saving the lives vs reducing lives) [lol].