Provincial taxpayers not subsidizing MRT, LRT

Question: WHY did 100 policemen from Quezon City accompany the alleged landgrabbers who tried to take over subdivision lots, a school, a seminary, and other properties along Visayas Avenue? Who ordered them to provide muscle to the landgrabbing syndicate? Policemen are being paid by taxpayers to protect them and their properties, not to assist syndicates trying to grab their homes.

Obviously, Wilfredo Torres, the alleged leader of the syndicate, is so influential with City Hall as to be able to get 100 of its policemen to accompany his men in trying to take over the homes of legitimate homeowners and taxpayers. There is something very anomalous here, but I have not heard either the Philippine National Police (PNP) or city officials order an investigation. Nobody even asked the policemen who ordered them to accompany the landgrabbers.

Note that QC policemen also accompanied the raiders of the privately run computer offices of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) sometime ago who tried to take over the offices. What is happening to the QC police?  Have they become mercenaries?

The policemen in the recent land-grabbing incident and their commanders did not get a slap on the wrist. Neither were they even asked to explain what they were doing there.

When legitimate property owners ask the police for help against squatters in the act of erecting their shanties on private property, they get no help. The police reply that the homeowners must first file ejectment cases against the squatters, but when landgrabbers ask for their help, they come in force. Who is paying the policemen’s salaries anyway?

Squatters and landgrabbers really prefer property owners to file cases in court because they will take many years to settle, considering that some judges are also in cahoots with landgrabbers. And during all the time that a case is pending in court, the squatters cannot be evicted without a court order. In the words of former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez, what’s happening to our country?

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In justifying the proposed increase in fares of the MRT and LRT, the government says that the taxpayers in the provinces should not be made to subsidize the elevated rails which benefit only Metro Manila residents. Yet Metro Manila taxpayers subsidize assistance to the provinces during calamities, to agriculture and other needs. For example, where do the billions of pesos for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) given mostly to the poor in the provinces come from? Most from Metro Manila taxpayers.

Sen. Ralph Recto is correct when he said that the MRT and LRT fare subsidies came mostly from Metro Manila taxpayers, not the provinces. For example, he said that last year, taxes collected in Quezon City, Makati and Caloocan—just three of the cities comprising Metro Manila—amounted to P281 billion out of the total collection of P337 billion of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 19 regions. He added that the P75.8 billion collected from QC taxpayers easily dwarfed the total P56.2 billion collected from Bicol to Tawi-Tawi.

Officers and members of the League of Provinces of the Philippines parroted the government line that the provincial taxpayers should not be made to subsidize Metro Manila residents. They don’t know what they are talking about. If they want tax revenue to be spent only in places where they were collected, let’s see what will happen. Metro Manila taxpayers pay the highest tax rates in the form of real estate taxes, income taxes, business taxes, etc. Metro Manilans pay the highest tax rates per capita in the Philippines.

And as for subsidizing the MRT and LRT fares, all mass transit systems in the world are subsidized by their governments. That is the service expected of the government in exchange for the taxes they pay. What are the people paying taxes for?

The elevated rails are supposed to decongest the streets below by attracting commuters to use them instead of the motor vehicles below. In fact, the original plan was to have parking lots at every station so that car owners could leave their cars there and take the elevated rails. But the private companies that built and ran the rail systems did not fulfill their end of the bargain.

Besides, the subsidies would decrease and even vanish if more trains and coaches were bought to service the people. Everybody can see that passengers in the elevated rails are packed like sardines. With more trains and coaches, the rails will be able to transport more passengers, hence more fare collection and the subsidies will be lower because of economies of scale. It is as simple as that, but the bright boys in government don’t see that.

With a faster and more comfortable and efficient rail system, the streets below will be decongested, working hours will not be wasted in the traffic jams, business will flourish, new investors will come to the Philippines, there will be more jobs, and the economy will prosper. The government gets back much more than what it paid for subsidies.

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Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes will face the Commission on Appointments for the second time today, with hopes of finally getting his confirmation. He should be able to confidently face his critics and air his side.

Unknown to many, Brillantes has been quietly instituting reforms in the electoral body. He has been consulting with various election-watch groups in the process of formulating reforms. He should be given the opportunity to implement these reforms.

One of these reforms is the creation of a Campaign Finance Unit that will regulate campaign expenditures and enforce existing laws on election spending and donations.

Brillantes is serving the unexpired term of Jose Melo which is until 2015, a year before the next presidential election.