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President Gloria Arroyo on Monday turned down appeals
to scrap an unpopular sales tax because of surging inflation,
warning that food and fuel prices would likely remain high.
In her annual State of the Nation
Address (SONA), she expressed support, though, for calls to extend
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program for another five years.
The program expired in June.
President Arroyo also asked
Congress to pass bills on easier housing loans to private-sector
workers, renewable energy, anti-corruption and consumer protection.
As a few thousand protesters
squared off with police outside the Batasang Pambansa, home to the
Philippine Congress, the President admitted that Filipinos were
suffering under the global financial crunch.
But she said her government would
maintain the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on oil, the proceeds
of which, she added, go to funding projects for the poor.
“Take away VAT and you and I
abdicate our responsibility as leaders and pull the rug from [under]
our present and future progress,” Mrs. Arroyo added.
“We have come too far and made
too many sacrifices to turn back now on fiscal reforms,” she said.
A big business group agreed.
“We at the Philippine Chamber
of Commerce and Industry [are one] with the President [on her firm
stand on maintaining the collection of the sales tax],” said
Donald Dee, the group’s chairman emeritus.
Dee added that Mrs. Arroyo has
put “a lot of funds [for] and efforts behind social projects
[using collections from VAT].”
In an earlier statement, chamber
president Edgardo Lacson called the oil tax as “an important tool
to manage the country’s long-term fiscal position, thus, making
the country competitive and attractive to investors.”
In her SONA, the President said
the P6 billion earned from the oil tax went to scholarships for poor
students, improvement of health facilities, support for the elderly
and assistance to victims of calamities.
The financial crunch, fueled in
part by surging oil prices, has triggered soaring inflation across
Asia, Mrs. Arroyo noted.
“The price of food and fuel
will likely remain high. Nothing will be easy, the government cannot
solve these problems overnight, but we can work to ease the
near-term pain while investing in long-term solutions,” the
President said.
To address the global challenges
brought about by exorbitant oil and food prices, Mrs. Arroyo spoke
of “building and buttressing bridges to allies around the world to
bring in the rice to feed our people, investments to create jobs and
to keep the peace and maintain stability in our country and the rest
of the world.”
At the same time, the President
said, the Philippines and its people must “strive for greater
self-reliance.”
According to her, her
government’s economic policies have successfully slowed down the
worse effects of the global crisis and that the government already
has the money to pay for food and oil subsidies.
Outside the Batasang Pambansa,
police battled the few thousand anti-Arroyo activists demanding
greater governmental accountability and action over skyrocketing
food prices.
Minor scuffles between the
activists estimated to number 15,000 and baton-wielding police were
quickly contained, with no reports of arrests or injuries.
Riot police blocked several hundreds
of other protesters marching on the legislature hours ahead of Mrs.
Arroyo’s speech and closed off traffic.
The demonstrators, including
members of leftist groups, carried effigies of the President, whom
they blame for costlier oil and rice.
In the southern city of Zamboanga,
police said they broke up a similar but smaller anti-Arroyo protest
by a group of Muslims.
An opinion poll released also on
Monday gave the President an approval rating of just 22 percent,
with a third of respondents believing she is using rice subsidies
for the poor to boost administration candidates for the 2010 general
elections.
In her report to the nation, Mrs
Arroyo said she would continue to bear with her dipping popularity,
the price she paid for making “tough choices” that she said had
“saved the nation.” Because of such choices, she added, the
global crisis did not catch the country helpless and unprepared.
She promised Filipinos that she
will stay by their side.
”As your President, I care too
much about this nation. I will let no one, and no one’s political
plans, get in the way of the well-being of the people. I will let no
one hinder our people’s progress and prosperity. I will let no one
threaten our nation’s survival. This is my commitment,” Mrs.
Arroyo said.
”Our country and our people
have never failed to be there for us. Let us be there for them,
now.”
--Angelo S. Samonte, Ben Arnold O. De Vera, Ruben D. Manahan 4th
And AFP
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