Lower the tax rate

The Aquino presidency has endorsed a  bill that  would increase the salaries of government employees. This is welcome news to thousands of foot-soldier workers in government service. While I am happy with the president’s proposal, in my experience as a teacher in a Cebu  university any increase in salary is negated by the fact that  the Bureau of Internal Revenue gets a huge chunk from our earnings as withholding tax. Our tax system is progressive which means that  your tax base is commensurate with any increase in your income.
So what should be done? I firmly believe that reducing the income tax rate is a  better option because it increases the worker’s take-home pay.

In the hearing in Congress it was revealed that the president, the vice president and the legislators got  hefty salary increases while public school teachers only got a P2,000 pay hike.

Those in the higher echelon of government with their already sizable salaries get heftier salary increases while those in the lower rungs  make do with minimal increases  under the new proposal certified as urgent by the Office of the President.

I humbly support the proposal by some members of Congress to reduce the income tax bracket. This is  more practical as it answers the needs of  lowly government employees by increasing their take-home pay.

I hope President Aquino is  sensitive to the needs of  overburdened government workers. The perception is that he  is imposing on the people to financially support the government and generously granting salary increases to legislators as a way to to court their support for his programs through the DAP (the Disbursement Acceleration Program) and  PDAF (Priority Development Assistance).

Talk about scratching each other’s backs!

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Many could not understand why the president and former Interior Secretary  Mar Roxas failed to attend activities that commemorated  supertyphoon Yolanda. Malacañang immediately said  the president did not go because he was not invited. The  office of the Tacloban City  mayor refuted this by showing the invitation sent to Malacañang, which insists no   such letter was received.

Lame excuse notwithstanding,  the president should have reached out to the people of Tacloban if only to show his sympathy for their suffering.   His absence and that of a high ranking official from his administration was insensitive  and may result in the people of Leyte and Samar rejecting candidates of the administration in the May 2016 election.

Now I can only surmise that Aquino and his officials deliberately absented themselves because they felt guilty about their slow action  with evacuees and were afraid people would  vent their anger and disappointment on whoever shows up.

The way I look at it, Roxas as the  administration candidate for president may have a hard time winning this election because of many issues  stacked against him like the MRT/LRT  and traffic problems in Metro Manila, slow action of the administration in helping storm  victims in Leyte, Samar, northern Cebu and Western Visayas and the Basic Bangsamoro Law, not to mention  Makati City where the Binays are being persecuted by the administration through the Ombudsman.