All shall be exempted

QUEZON City, Philippines (December 21) – Everyone’s happy right now,  after receiving their well-earned bonuses.Some are thinking of how to spend it in good ways, either for their own luxuries or their family’s. The higher tax exemption to 13^th month pay also took effect this year, namely Republic Act 10653. Formerly 30, 000 pesos, as long as the pay stays below 82,000 pesos, there will be no obligation to pay for the ‘lifeblood’ of the country, and politicians.

Well, the measure is good. But it took many years before it got signed, making the cap inappropriate for the current inflation. And the government gave a bitter and nagging statement – hello, Department of Finance – about the sweet gift, saying that they will lose a revenue of 61.7 billion pesos just because of the higher cap. Sounds like they’re granting the act with a curse.

The bonus is granted to all, and so should also be the exemption. That should be granted as a gift, for the government has more resources to ransack other than the workers’ and employees’. So what if they will lose a lot, when it comes to their services, the masses are clearly more in a disadvantage. No well-maintained roads and edifices, poor service at their agencies anywhere; in Social Security System, National Statistics Office, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, name it all. Our taxes aren’t worth their amenities. A large fragment of our income is legally stolen, in broad daylight, and known by all.

Will there be a time when we’ll get satisfied with the job of our administrators? If there is, then that is also the time where our we can also get the true bonus: good governance and a respected Philippines.

(written by Rex Felix Salvador, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)