Lawmaker: One Voice owes government P38 million in taxes

"One Voice," which groups prominent personalities opposed to Charter change, allegedly owes the government nearly P38 million in taxes, a House leader and Cha-cha advocate claimed yesterday.

In a statement, deputy majority leader and Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino said the anti-Cha-cha group has amassed P252 million in advertising funds from its "benefactors."

He said based on a donor’s tax of 15 percent, One Voice or its donors should have paid P37.8 million in taxes.

Antonino could not say who the group’s donors are and how he arrived at the whopping amount of P252 million. He was not sure if taxes were paid on the alleged donations.

He said it was the job of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to find out.

Among the personalities who formed One Voice are Christian Monsod and Alfredo Benipayo, who have held the post of chairman of the Commission on Elections. Benipayo is also formerly solicitor general.

According to Monsod, the country does not need Cha-cha at this time. What it needs are genuine political, electoral and social reforms, he has said.

For his part, Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez said the protectionist economic provisions of the Constitution are the key selling point of One Voice in soliciting donations from business.

"They are awash with funds because they enjoy the financial backing of corporations and businessmen wary of tougher competition under an open economy. This is the reason why these businesses are moving heaven and earth to stop Cha-cha," he said.

Antonino also said One Voice is peddling the "falsehood" that Cha-cha proponents want the May 2007 congressional and local elections scrapped and their terms extended up to 2010.

"They are claiming that our people will be denied the right to choose their leaders once Charter change takes place," he said.

The "no-el" (no elections in 2007) scenario has been up in the air since the presidential consultative commission (con-com) on Cha-cha recommended that the elections be scrapped ostensibly to allow for an orderly transition to the planned parliamentary system in 2010.

But former University of the Philippines president Jose Abueva, who was con-com chairman, later admitted that the real objective was to entice congressmen, governors, mayors, and other local officials to support Cha-cha to ensure its success.

No-el is still possible under the latest Cha-cha proposals of the administration allies in the House of Representatives.

While the old recommendations specifically set the next elections for May next year, the latest proposals were silent on the date and would leave to the interim parliament the matter of scheduling the elections.

The envisioned interim parliament would be composed of the present members of Congress, several Cabinet members to be appointed by President Arroyo, plus Vice President Noli de Castro.

In De Castro’s case, he would no longer be the nation’s No. 2 official and would be an ordinary member of the Cabinet and parliament. There is no vice president in a parliamentary system. — Jess Diaz