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WHILE some candidates from both camps
are content with avoiding the real issues and hurling brickbats at
each other, at least Team Unity senatorial candidate and former
presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor has sought to keep on the
high road and offer voters some legislative fodder to chew over as
they make their important electoral choices.
If elected
Defensor promises to work for the establishment of a new Science and
Technology (S&T) Fund to be backed by revenues from a special
tax on casino winnings. He is proposing the reinstatement of the
S&T Fund that was put up in 1968 but abolished in 1975.
To bankroll the
new fund, the budding senator is suggesting that the new revenues
should be tapped from sources such as a 10-percent tax on casino
winnings; 20-percent share of the annual net income of the
state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.; 20-percent share
of the yearly gross revenue from travel tax collections; and
20-percent share of the annual net profit of the state-run Duty-Free
Philippines Inc.
According to
Defensor, these sources could easily provide at least P1.2 billion
annually to the new S&T Fund—and provide the means for the
Philippines to compete with India and China for a piece of the
multibillion-dollar IT pie.
“We definitely
need bolder public spending for S&T to build up economic
productivity and purposely address the advanced technological
requirements of major sectors,” he said.
He added: “The
next Congress has to create a durable supplemental fund to sustain
new S&T programs and projects. We cannot just rely on the meager
annual budget of the Department of Science and Technology.”
In 1968 Republic
Act 5448 created the S&T Fund that was supported by revenues
from a “science tax” on privately owned passenger cars and a
“science levy” on tax clearance certificates.
However, R.A.
5548 was repealed in 1975 by Presidential Decree 711, which
established the one-fund concept.
The one-fund
concept abolished all special funds and required that all national
government revenues go directly to the National Treasury.
Under
Defensor’s proposal, the new S&T Fund will finance the
modernization of production sectors through massive technology
transfers and strong linkages with industry and academe, the
upgrading of research and development capability via intensified
activities in high-priority sectors and S&T infrastructure
development, including institution-building, manpower training and
the cultivation of an S&T culture.
While he was at
it, the Team Unity senatorial candidate has also rejected totally
the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s plan to remove the tax-exempt
privilege of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), calling the scheme
“foolish and counterproductive.”
“OFWs, whether
lowly paid domestic helpers or construction laborers, or highly paid
sailors, nurses or engineers, definitely deserve to continue to
enjoy their tax-exempt benefit, insofar as their foreign-sourced
earnings are concerned,” said Defensor.
He was reacting
to Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag’s declaration that the BIR plans
to eliminate the tax-exempt status enjoyed by OFWs, particularly the
highly skilled ones such as bank officers and physicians that are
earning a lot.
Defensor went on:
“OFWs and their families already get taxed indirectly when they
spend for consumption or investments here. When a Filipino nurse
working in the US comes home and buys a residential condominium unit
here, Philippine taxes get paid. When the nurse sends money here
that gets spent at Jollibee or SM, consumption taxes get paid.”
Defensor pointed
out that, thanks to the OFWs, instead of the peso plunging as
previously warned by a group of UP economists, the local currency is
now hovering at six-year highs.
E-mail:
bizzfizz_98@yahoo.com
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