FRANCE said Philippines must tax Text Messaging : Malacañang said NO WAY

No Tax On Text messaging in the Philippines. Photo: ticklethewire.com

No Tax On Text

MANILA, Philippines --- Mobile phone users should not fret about a purported looming tax on text messages for now after Malacañang appeared reluctant to consider such tax proposal made by the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said yesterday the government is "preoccupied" with seeking the swift approval of the sin tax bill in Congress for the year.

Certified as urgent by President Benigno S. Aquino III, the sin tax measure seeks to generate at least P40 billion a year to help upgrade healthcare services in the country.

"We are presently preoccupied with the sin tax," Lacierda said in a Palace press briefing when asked if the Palace is open to impose tax on text messages.

"We have not discussed in the highest level on the text tax. That was not something that we have anticipated so we have no discussions on that," he said.

Asked if the sin tax bill will be the first and last tax proposal for the year, Lacierda said: "For this year, the sin tax measure is in the budget in terms of fiscal policies are concerned. That's the thing we are looking at right now."

Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) also frowned on the tax on text proposal by IMF to generate more revenues.

"Sin taxes should be "enough for now," Carandang said.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde earlier said the government can shore up revenues if mobile phone messages are taxed.

Lagarde, who visited Manila last week, said Vice President Jejomar Binay told her telephone coverage in the Philippines has reached 112 percent given the popularity of sending text messages. "This clearly satisfies one of the two criteria for what we call a good taxation," she said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Escudero balked yesterday at the proposal to increase the tax on text messaging to boost government revenues which came at the heels of the IMF chief's visit to the Philippines.

Escudero, who chairs the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said he finds it inappropriate for an institution or any foreign entities to dictate on any other government like the Philippine government "what to and not to tax."

"The IMF and its chief has no business in even suggesting that we impose tax on text. The power to tax is inherent in Congress and any external intervention is already meddling with our sovereignty," Escudero said.

Lagarde, in a meeting with Malacanang officials, had also pushed for the passage of the sin tax bill which is now pending approval at the Senate, saying it would be a "great progress for the revenue collection of the country."

At the same venue, Lagarde suggested that telecommunication services are mines for new source of taxation because of its wide base of 102 million subscriptions.

She said if the government is keen on revving up its revenues, then telecommunication would satisfy those two criterias: text messaging and calls.

But Escudero said Lagarde's suggestion is skewed, if not so unfeeling, "granting that it has a place in our economic affairs."

"I strongly oppose this foreign meddling and even the idea behind it. Ms. Lagarde is better off making suggestions to her fellow Europeans who can perhaps learn a thing or two from us," he said.

Taxation, Escudero said, should be based on the ability of taxpayers to pay.

"Text messaging is so ingrained among the lower socio-economic strata with about 90 percent of mobile phone users have pre-paid lines. Instead of providing relief for the Filipino public, this twisted idea of taxing text is an additional burden to the masses," he pointed out.

Escudero said he would block any bill proposing for higher tax on text and calls when it reaches the Senate.

On the other hand, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. said he is open to the proposition made by the IMF chief.

"If at all, why not set our sights on taxing luxury goods such as motor vehicles and jewelry instead of taxing text messages?" Escudero said. (With a report from Hannah L. Torregoza) (http://is.gd/krr1NN)

Manila Bulletin 

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Pilot in Saipan crash being airlifted to Philippines

Saipan's international airport is shown. The airport's aircraft rescue and firefighting team responded to the crash of a Star Marianas Air plane yesterday. / By Jerick Sablan/Pacific Daily News

SAIPAN -- The 26-year-old man who was one of six survivors in the crash of a commuter plane yesterday morning in Saipan is being airlifted today for further medical treatment to a Philippine hospital.

The crash's lone fatality, a female, was among a group of Chinese visitors on the seven-seat commuter plane.

The Piper Cherokee aircraft crashed near the Saipan International Airport terminal shortly after departing for a flight to Tinian Island, which is several flight minutes away.

The commuter plane, operated by Star Marianas Air, is one of seven Piper Cherokee planes on the airline's fleet that's being used to transport passengers to the Tinian Dynasty and Casino.

Federal investigators are expected to arrive in Saipan later today.

Star Marianas Air operations continue today. Flights took off earlier today for Tinian and Rota, the two smaller populated islands of the Northern Marianas.

Juan Babauta, CEO of the health center, said updates were being provided to NTSB officials. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are expected to arrive in Saipan tonight, Babauta said.

He confirmed the critically injured passenger would be airlifted to the Philippines around 1 p.m. today.

Four Chinese tourists were injured in the crash, and they are in stable condition at the health center. They are able to talk and they're receiving care in a shared room with a Chinese translator, health center management confirmed.

A health center nursing supervisor confirmed on Monday that the critically injured patient is the plane's pilot.

The sixth survivor was released from the health center after he was treated for minor injuries. (http://is.gd/1rJmYZ)

Guampdn.com 

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Ireland Priest Father Cullen will block the US Entry to Subic Philippines

Anti-US crusader Father Shay Cullen, and a US submarine in Subic Bay. Photo: Reuters

Philippines divided over US return to Subic Bay

China, dollars and human rights are on the agenda as Filipino society awaits American forces.

The anti-child sex crusading priest Shay Cullen plans to mobilize Filipinos to protest against the return of United States forces to the former home of the US 7th Fleet at Subic Bay, north of Manila, 20 years after the Philippine Senate ordered them to leave.

''They are coming back and civil society will not tolerate it,'' said Father Cullen, a Columban priest from Ireland who helped whip up anti-American sentiment across the Philippines that forced the US from its two largest overseas military installations at Subic Bay and nearby Clark air base in 1992 and 1991.

''We are more organized than we were 20 years … there is now a much stronger network built up to fight for human rights and children's rights that will be able to mobilize the masses,'' he said from his sprawling offices overlooking Subic Bay, where a US navy ship was loading supplies.

US and Philippine officials have confirmed that Subic Bay, which has a port and airfield now known as Subic Bay Freeport Zone, will play a much larger role in US Pacific Fleet deployments as the US military shifts its focus towards Asia and the Pacific.

While officials insist there are no plans to reopen any bases in the Philippines, which would violate Philippine law, Subic Bay is set to host US ships, marines and aircraft on a semi-permanent basis, officials say.

This time the anti-US campaigners will encounter stronger opposition amid heightened tensions over China's territorial claims in the South China Sea after a stand-off between Chinese and Philippine ships at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippine coast, earlier this year, analysts say.

''We're open for business,'' said James ''Bong'' Gordon, the mayor of Olongapo, a city of 240,000 people next to Subic Bay. ''No matter what you call it … a base or semi-permanent hosting or whatever, the US is back and its great news for Olongapo.''

Mr. Gordon said residents of his city are gearing up for the arrival of thousands of US marines who will flood bars, restaurants, craft shops and sporting facilities.

Father Cullen has crusaded against the sexual exploitation of under-age Filipinos since 1974. He says 90 per cent of the sex bars in Olongapo were closed after the US forces left in 1992.

But he said new bars are already opening as US ships dock more frequently at Subic Bay's wharf. ''We will mobilize. We will say no, no, no … we cannot return to the past.''

But Mr. Gordon said the returning forces would greatly boost his city's economy and bring the Philippines closer to the US at a time many Filipinos are fearful of the future.

Also, US personnel coming off the ships are now better behaved than they were 20 years ago, he said, mainly because many of them are women.

''Before they were all men … it's still a reality that some US personnel will get involved in prostitution. It happens everywhere in the world,'' he said. ''We try to minimize it.''

Twenty years ago Mr. Gordon's elder brother, Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines Red Cross and a former senator, led the pro-US campaign to retain the bases, bitterly clashing with Father Cullen.

''It was a tragic mistake to shut out the world's most important country at that time,'' Richard Gordon said in his Manila office. ''But people who didn't listen to me then are now running around panicking, saying there's a genuine threat from China and we need a strong alliance with the US.''

Analysts say that moving back to Subic Bay on a semi-permanent basis will give the US a strategically important force posture for its shift in emphasis to the Pacific.

Richard Gordon, who was mayor of Olongapo in the 1980s and became head of the Subic Bay Authority which oversaw development of the area when the US forces left in 1992, becomes angry when asked about US personnel attracting prostitutes.

''How dare you people come here and call them prostitutes,'' he says. ''They just want to survive … they don't have anything. They don't have a choice.''

Mr. Gordon said the ''noisy minority'' would make a fuss about the US forces returning.

''But the majority of Filipinos want the Americans here … we have to do what is in our interests as a nation,'' he said.

Father Cullen, 69, who founded the People's Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance organization, operates a squad to rescue sexually abused children, some of them babies found with sexually transmitted diseases.

He has twice been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, and often leads the squad, which was involved this month in rescuing an eight-year-old girl.

''You are never going to wipe out the abuse completely,'' he said. ''But with economic development that brings jobs and a lot of effort we can reduce it by 60 per cent.''

Father Cullen estimates there are still 10,000 to 15,000 sex workers in Olongapo and up to 100,000 in red light areas of Angeles City, which is popular with Australian sex tourists.

''We see victims as young as eight sucked from their impoverished home into the sex industry. The abuse … will only get worse if the Americans return,'' he said. (http://is.gd/dtyXeb)

The Sydney Morning Herald 

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