Disobedience school (of thought)  

Do our actors have the right idea?

Newly launched this election season - their “Bayad Buwis Movement” or “Buwis Bayaran Movement” (news reports have different accounts of the name, but it means “pay your taxes movement”). Which pretty much sums up their entire philosophy: Pay your taxes.

Of course, that movement did call to mind the issue written about previously in this column, which are the gargantuan sums owed by Marcos et famille to our national coffers for unpaid taxes. According to actress Vivian Velez, actresses pay taxes, so why don’t the Marcos heirs? Why have their unpaid taxes of ?23 billion ballooned to ?200B, with nary a squeal by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, when the rest of us slave away supporting this bureaucracy?

I’m not sure how actors paying the right amount of moolah to will pressure the Marcos Family to settle their taxes, considering there’s absolutely no pain inflicted. Nope, they won’t feel it. No effect on the family fortune. If at all, that largesse pouring into the pockets of our treasury might even spur the Marcoses to unleash even more spectacular tactics to win the presidency, if only to be able to access the remittances. And deploy them the right way, of course.

Maybe, the Marcoses might take the extraordinary step of revealing all they’ve paid endorsers and celebrities to wage their election campaign --and then deduct the correct amount of withholding taxes. They can start with Toni Gonzaga, who must have earned a fair bit from her apologist interview (imaginary thought bubble from the Marcos camp to all those noisy actors: You want to pay taxes? Here’s what will be withheld from your paycheck!).

This pay-your-taxes movement is exactly the opposite of what the civic-minded did in the early ‘80’s, when they were protesting against dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Back then, the citizenry called for “civil disobedience” --meaning, peacefully dissent from government by --gasp-- not paying taxes!

It wasn’t just peaceful protests and yellow rallies at that time. There were boycotts of crony businesses, and students congregating in Rustan’s department store to dissuade shoppers from purchasing. And yes, there was the bright idea of simply draining the already debt-ridden Marcos government of the funds needed to pay its machinery.

That’s what the anti-Marcos forces were advocating at the time, the idea being to stop the flow of blood to the dictator and his evil forces. And so ordinary people began not filing their tax returns, and not turning over hard-earned wages to Marcos’ minions.

How does that compare to what actors are now doing? Do actors think their martyr’s stance will sway Duterte’s government? Do they think Duterte will feel some stirrings of conscience after seeing all them poor actors pay taxes they’re legally obliged to pay?

Or would it be better for actors to just follow the example led by protesters during the yellow revolution? Will depriving Duterte’s administration of precious pesos work better? A scenario where, with no funds trickling in, it might as well take the perfectly legitimate step of seizing all the assets it can find from the Marcoses?

Ruben Carranza, former commissioner of the PCGG, that agency tasked with sniffing out and hunting down Marcos assets, proposed this simple solution: Since there is a court decision already of non-payment by the Marcoses of estate taxes, then the government can simply ask all the banks within its jurisdiction for information on where the Marcos funds are.

Yup! That’s the wonderful exception to the Bank Secrecy Law --which applies so squarely in Marcos’ case. With this in hand, the BIR can trace all those wonderful flows of Marcos assets. Voila, problem solved.

Maybe, with all those billions they successfully collect, we ordinary plebes can even enjoy a tax holiday. Much better than paying taxes.