Qualified theft by Congress and gov’t?

Albay Congressman Joey Salceda is determined to pass a bill that will increase Road Users Tax by 300 percent on all vehicles, from tricycles, private cars, and commercial vehicles. The Department of Finance fully supports the proposal claiming that it will give the government the much-needed funds for their “Build, Build, Build” projects. If you are a vehicle owner, you should express your opposition to this idea in the loudest and strongest way possible because it is “highway robbery” figuratively and literally speaking.

To begin with, what have vehicle owners receive in exchange for the Road Users Tax that’s been slapped on them? Any one who drives, whether in Metro Manila or in the provinces, can attest to the fact that many roads in the country are poorly built, of shitty quality and constantly in need of repairs or are constantly being destroyed by local officials in order to spend money that goes to favored contractors. In Metro Manila alone, the EDSA and C5 are constantly being repaired or re-blocked because many parts collapse, sink or break apart in six months time, end up with pot holes due to below par construction and quality. The DPWH engineers and contractors cannot even maintain level surfaces so many of our cars and trucks all need to have their shock absorbers, suspensions and tires replaced every two years or less.

The authorities always mention the fact that there are several hundred thousand cars if not a million cars that are added to the streets but little or no new streets are built. Whatever is new comes by way of San Miguel Corp. or the MVP group that develop toll roads. So we are paying Road Users Tax as well as toll fees. Many streets in Metro Manila and the Philippines have very poor or no street lighting. The government does not even spend money to refresh or repaint the lines on the road that we call lane dividers. As road users we are left at the merciless charges of accredited tow truck operators, one of whom rammed my Mitsubishi Montero leaving a P40,000 repair bill that I can’t charge because the driver fled the scene! Considering the billions they’ve collected, we can’t even get professional service from real professional operators such as the AAP or Automobile Association of the Philippines.

Given the absence of any real and direct benefits to the actual taxpayers, another reason why we should scrap the Road Users Tax instead of allowing Congressman Salceda and Secretary Dominguez to increase the tax by 300 percent is the plain and simple fact that the money for the Road Users Tax was “immorally” if not “illegally” realigned and distributed to members of Congress in the past years. The Road Users Tax was expressly collected to go to the Road Board which in turn was suppose to allocate or distribute it to various projects related to road development or improvement. Unfortunately, Congress back then pressured or threatened officers of the Road Board, while other officials of the Road Board reportedly manipulated the allocations to benefit congressional districts for a certain percentage. Months before the last election members of Congress were in a panic when they heard that the money from the Road board would be protected and preserved by the DBM from being raided and turned into campaign funds! This became a very serious bone of contention between former DBM Secretary Ben Diokno and Congress when Sec. Diokno intervened to stop the racket and misappropriation of the Road Users Tax. As we all know, no less than President Rodrigo Duterte acted decisively on the matter by abolishing the Road Board.

So here we are, the Road Board was abolished, the “qualified theft” was exposed, and now we have a Congressman, the chairman of the ways and means committee, trying to find ways and means to pass a 300 percent increase in the previously misappropriated tax by enlisting Sonny Dominguez to support the discriminatory piece of legislation that will place a burden on a select community to fund the Duterte administration’s infrastructure programs. Forgive my ignorance, but what “infrastructure programs” are we talking about? Just about any infrastructure project I read or hear about is being proposed, funded and constructed by private developers and investors and all of it comes with a price in terms of tolls, fares or fees charged to the public for the next 20 to 30 years! If the intended “Build Build Build” projects are meant to benefit “All” and not just vehicle owners, then shouldn’t the tax burden be spread out and not unjustly strapped on the backs and pockets of vehicle owners?

It would help if Secretary Sonny Dominguez and Congressman Joey Salceda made a little effort to send out their PR people to list down and publish the specific infrastructure projects they plan to fund related to road use and road development. This will at least give Filipinos a heads up on whether an infrastructure project makes sense or not. Otherwise, they should simply come out in the open with a fair and equitable basket of tax burdens for all Filipinos who will directly benefit from the “Build Build Build”. While the government can certainly use all the funds they can get for projects, taxpayers must have firm reassurance that the funds will not be raided by politicians for their own political benefit which is “qualified theft” or placed in the government’s “piggy bank” to create or simulate the impression that the administration is loaded and have the best economic managers in the world. That would be so egotistical and so fake!

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