Photo from Inquirer.net
The labor group
Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that Sen. Padilla does not deserve the name
Robinhood since he opposes the wealth tax proposal. Earlier Sen. Sherwin
Gatchalian declared that he is open to studying a wealth tax as a means of
raising funds for the government. The labor coalition Nagkaisa had first
advocated for a wealth tax in the latter of half of 2020 to finance its call
for a robust package of ayuda or assistance amidst the covid-19 pandemic.
“For refusing to
tax the rich in order to give to the poor, Sen. Padilla is better called the Sheriff
of Nottingham instead of Robinhood. He should be renamed Falsehood instead of
Robinhood since he dishes out fake news to denigrate the wealth tax,” argued Rene
Magtubo, PM national chair and an incumbent Marikina councilor.
He added that “For
calling the wealth tax a lunacy, Robin Padilla needs literacy in this proposal.
His arguments against the wealth tax betrays his utter lack of knowledge of the
proposal and his absolute embrace of oligarchs.”
The wealth tax is among
the set of demands including regular jobs and a living wage being put forward
by PM and other groups ahead of the SONA on Monday. PM will join an assembly of
rights defenders and social movements at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani on July 25,
2:30 pm. Later, the groups will hold a torch parade and march to Quezon City Hall.
The next day, July 28, the human rights alliance IDefend will hold a presscon about
its analysis of the SONA.
Magtubo emphasized that
Nagkaisa’s wealth tax proposal can raise P252-272 billion by imposing a 1% tax on
the P25.2-27.2 trillion assets stored in the form of stocks, foreign currency, savings
and time deposits and other securities. This amount of money is enough to fund support
for micro and small enterprises, and employment guarantees for the unemployed
and underemployed according to Nagkaisa’s calculations.
“This ball park computation
reveals the feasibility of the wealth tax proposal as a revenue generation
scheme in the face of the economic crisis. The actual mechanics can be further
worked out as we do not want to tax wage earners holding bank accounts. Instead
we should only tax the filthy rich, say those with P2 billion in wealth, and
adjust the tax rate to raise the same amount of P252-272 billion. Thus, the wealth tax is
only for the super billionaires, not even for wealthy action stars. But imposing
a wealth tax on the richest 50 Filipinos won't even make these families poorer
than Manny Pacquiao.” explained Magtubo.
He asserted that “In
any case, the wealth tax is not even revolutionary. Sober governments in Luxembourg, France,
Switzerland already implement wealth
taxes. In form, a wealth tax is no different from the real property tax imposed
by local governments which hardly anybody finds lunatic.”
July 23, 2022
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