THE decision by the City Council last week to defer the passage of the proposed 2011 Comprehensive Revenue Code should not be misconstrued as an admission of fault by its members. On the contrary, the move is a manifestation of our councilors’ sensitivity to the people’s pulse.
It’s a given that any increase in taxes is an unpopular move, but that doesn’t make the Revenue Code anathema to public interest as what its critics succeeded in painting, no thanks to the publicity they generated in cooperation with media outlets identified with the opposition.
Though not perfect, the Revenue Code is a thoroughly studied and well-crafted piece of legislation. Still, it is open for improvements that were sought at the public hearing. While the procedure managed to solicit helpful inputs, some participants succeeded in drowning the Code’s well-meaning intentions by twisting facts to make it unpalatable to public opinion.
What was supposed to be a tool that would help keep Ormoc in its growth path has been politicized by personalities whose motives are highly dubious (they’re the same characters who contributed to discrediting the administration in the last election). And they just happen to be the noisiest at the public hearing which they ironically denounced as undemocratic.
Now that the Code’s implementation is deferred, you won’t hear them give credit to the Council for yielding to their wish. What is seen from them is an overbearing smugness for beating the Council to submission. The consultation process has been reduced into a propaganda war which they won – or so they thought.
Their plot to sabotage the Code is apparent by their unreasonable demands and shallow arguments like when they insisted that tax breaks provided by all Philippine laws be put in the Code even if it would be impossible to keep track of tax exemptions in all Republic Acts, Executive Orders and memorandum circulars of every government agency. This will also entail constant amendment of the Code whenever a tax exemption is repealed or newly enforced .
A position paper submitted by private sector leaders hinted that the policy environment in Ormoc is not conducive for business and economic activities, reason why many investors have bypassed the city in favor of Baybay. Now why does that sound familiar? Oh, it’s a rehashed election issue against the administration.
But let’s indulge them on their argument. By investors, they must be referring to the two oil mills and pulp plant in Baybay. Of course those industries will bypass Ormoc because copra and abaca are in abundance in Baybay. Whereas it’s sugarcane for Ormoc, reason why we have the country’s first bio-fuel plant here. But they didn’t they mention that.
We are constantly bombarded by the disinformation that Ormoc is not business-friendly, as if there is a synchronized effort to direct the people’s mindset to that direction, maybe to provide Richard Gomez an excuse for failing to fulfill his electoral promise of bringing big-ticket investments to Ormoc like Teletech.
It is every Ormocanon’s wish to see their place improve and keep up with bigger cities. What we don’t consider is the fact that residents pay bigger taxes in big cities. Now that Ormoc is growing at an unprecedented pace, the LGU needs more resources to respond to the expanding needs and new challenges brought about by progress.
Otherwise, it will be us Ormocanons who will bear the brunt of inadequate social services, aging infrastructure, public fiscal deficit and a breakdown in peace and order. It’s as simple as that. No need to wrack our brains on unreasonable demands and shallow arguments.
(Jan. 3-9, 2011)
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