Click here for photos of the 3-day caravan and protest rallies in Bicol as Bicolanos oppose the continuing Balikatan military exercises and want the Visiting Forces Agreement scrapped. The caravan was held from Feb. 23 to 25. Partylist representatives like Rep. Satur Ocampo, Rep. Liza Maza and Rep. Rafael Mariano and Senator Jamby Madrigal were speakers at the grand rally in Legazpi City on February 25.

Aklat ng Bayan, Inc. held a book launching of  Volumes 1 and 2 in a 4-volume series of the selected writings of Jose Ma. Sison from 1991 to 2008 on February 19, 2009 at the Isabelo de los Reyes Auditorium, School of Labor and Industrial Relations) Bonifacio Hall, UP Diliman.

■ Click here for photos, video and text of the launching by  Aklat ng Bayan of volumes I and II of the Selected Writings of Jose Ma. Sison (1991-2009), UP Diliman campus, Feb. 19, 2009

Senator Miriam Santiago and Rep. Mark Cojuango have filed bills that seek to rehabilitate and operate the 23-year old mothballed Bataan Nuclear power plant in Morong Bataan.

It will be recalled that Marcos started the construction of the plant in 1976 and completed it in 1984. But the Cory administration did not see it fit to operate it although it continued to pay the bill, which totalled $2.3 billion when finally paid up in 2997.

For photos and various articles on the BNPP, go to

Morong, Bataan – Rushing to reopen the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Jan. 22, 2009o

Ayala Avenue in Makati City was filled with rallyists protesting the plan of the Arroyo government to amend the Constitution, which is seen as simply a pretext to continue in power beyond 2010.

For photos and statements, go to the Arkibong Bayan website.

Bloggers Kapihan has designated today, Oct. 15,  as Blog Action Day 2008 and invited bloggers to discuss the issue of poverty in their blogs.

So we present here a video clip from the 1976 film SAKADA by Behn Cervantes. We like this clip because it conveys well the message that all of us already know: that poverty in this country is an example of the wrong application of the mathematics of division to the distribution of wealth produced by the workers and the farmers.

Click here for the link to the video clip

Click here for the page of the above photo

The 110th birth anniversary of the great nationalist Sen. Lorenzo Tanada was commemorated last August 10 by BAYAN, his family and friends.

To see the photos at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, please visit this link:

http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2008-08Aug10-tanada110th/tanada110th.htm

Napasakay kami ng taxi dahil marami kaming karga.

LPGas-driven ang naflagged down namin na taxi at binibida nga ng driver
na mas mura ang gastos niya. Nagpakarga siya sa LGP-gas station sa
Visayas ng 10 litro,  P31.33 per liter. Mga
kalahati ito ng gastos kung gasoline o diesel.

Nang tumatakbo na, tinanong ko siya kung ilang litro sa isang araw ang gamit niya. 40 litro daw. Kaya mga 1,200 pesos. Mga 8-10 km bawat litro.

Tinanong ko kung magkano ang VAT na binayad niya. Sagot ay 12%. Nag
mental arithmetic at dinagdag na mga P140 pala ang binibigay niiya sa
gobyerno bilang VAT.

Sa isang buwan, magkano yun?, tanong ko. Sagot niya:”Aba, mga apat na
libo din yun!” at medyo napamura pa. Laki daw pala ang nakakaltas sa
kanya ng @#$%^& gobyerno ni Gloria.

Eh, baka uminit pa ang ulo at mabangga kami, binalita ko na may mga
grupo at mga congressmen naman ang gumagawa ng mga paraan para maalis
ang VAT sa oil na bago 2006 ay wala naman noon. Pwede rin siyang sumali
sa PISTON para makasama siya sa mga pagkilos nito laban sa VAT.

Nang medyo ayos na, tinanong ko uli kung magkano naman ang bayad niya sa kuryente…..at umandar ang usapan tulad ng sa LPGas.

Powerful talaga ang science of mathematics sa pagunawa sa mga isyu.
Subukan ninyo next time na mag-jeep o taxi kayo pero imoderate lang
ninyo at baka mabangga kayo

Photos and documents on the People’s SONA in Metro Manila, Mindanao, Canada and the USA can be viewed by clicking here:

]]> http://monram.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/peoples-sona-2008-in-manila-mindanao-usa-canada/feed/ 0 monram Burning Arroyos effigy at the Peoples SONA, July 28, 2008 http://monram.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/public-not-the-rich-pays-90-of-vat-on-power-oil/ http://monram.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/public-not-the-rich-pays-90-of-vat-on-power-oil/#comments Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:31:41 +0000 monram http://monram.wordpress.com/?p=102 ]]>

“”It’s easy to understand why many would want to see taxes on oil and electricity removed. [But] if [the] VAT on oil and power is lifted, how do we replace about P80 billion in revenues, mostly used for the poor?

“Won’t scrapping the VAT on energy benefit mainly the well-to-do, who consume 84 percent of oil and 90 percent of power, while depriving the poor of billions [of pesos] in programs now funded by VAT?”

—GMArroyo, Inquirer, July 18, 2008

Although not new, still It is a clever  idea: tax the rich and the well-to-do since they allegedly use most of the oil and power, and then use the billions  to subsidize the  poor. That is why Arroyo bandies it around as “Katas ng VAT para sa mahirap”.

What does the hard data from the Dept of Energy (DOE) tell us?. In 2007, electricity sales by sectors were as follows:

Industrial       – 34.41%
Commercial  – 28.02%
Others          – 3.42% (street lighting, public buildings and the like)
Residential   – 34.11%

The industrial and commercial sectors consumed 62.4% of the electricity. The companies promptly passed on the VAT on power to the buyers of their products and services  — the consumers, which include the poor and the vast majority of the people. Thus, the consumers themselves, not the owners of the companies, ultimately paid the VAT on power

The 3.4% consumed by street lighting, public buildings and the like and the VAT paid for them came from the people’s taxes. Therefore, the VAT on the total of the three items, 66%, were paid indirectly by the people, not the rich.

That leaves us the 34% residential consumption. What percentage of this was used by the well-to-do and the rich?

DOE has no breakdown of the residential customers but Meralco has. We can take Meralco’s latest data since it is indicative of the figure for the whole Philippines.

The well-to-do are presumably those consuming more than 500 kwh.  This group consumed 28% of the total power delivered to homes.  That means that relative to the nation-wide power consumption in the DOE data only about 10% of the VAT on power were paid for by the well-to-do and the rich, i.e., 0.28 x 34%.

We can now say that the vast majority of the people, which includes the poor, pay 90% of the VAT on power.  Only a fraction of the collected VAT is doled out to the poor as subsidies under the signboard “Katas ng VAT para sa mahirap”. Correct math on hard data tells us that the people are better helped by removing the VAT on power, and with the bonus that they have their dignity intact.

As for Arroyo’s claim that 84% of the VAT on oil is paid for by the well-to-do and the rich — I would leave that as a homework for Arroyo and her economic advisers. I could give them a tip though: check out how much of the oil is consumed by the commercial and industrial groups whose VAT on oil are passed on to consumers. Check out also the oil consumption by government.

Arroyo will deliver her SONA tomorrow. She still has time to go over her data if she intends to repeat her claim and justify the VAT on power and oil. Otherwise people will say that her claim does not reflect the reality of concrete data. People call it as not being truthful, or lying, or pagsoSONAngaling.

————————

The poor subsidizing themselves

From Dec.2005 to June July 2008, the Meralco lifeliners (costumers using 100 kwh or below) paid VAT as follows:

50 kwh lifeliners      -      P337 Million
70 kwh lifeliners      -      P383 Million
100 kwh lifeliners    -   P1.080 Billion

TOTAL      –    P1.8 Billion

From the collected VAT on power, Arroyo is giving out P852 million for the P500/lifeliner subsidy.. Thus, the lifeliners subsidized themselves and they still have P1 billion with Arroyo.

There must be a name for this kind of give-and-take where the poor shell out P1.8 billion to the Arroyo government, Arroyo comes around to say she would like to help them in these difficult times by giving P852 million to them, and keeping silent about the remaining P1 billion.