Info campaign on EVAT set in Nabas
An information campaign on the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT) will be conducted on February 17 in the municipality of Nabas, Aklan.
This activity is aimed at correcting misconceptions due to disinformation efforts of some sectors denouncing this latest government tax reform.
The information campaign is initiated by the Philippine Information Agency here in coordination with the Aklan Public Information Officers Association (APIOA) and the Local Government Unit of Nabas.
The EVAT info campaign will be held in the municipal hall in time with the first quarterly meeting of the APIOA sponsored by Nabas LGU.
Revenue District Officer Lilivic Gatdula of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Provincial Director Ermelinda Pollentes of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had been invited to talk on EVAT in this activity. They would discuss what EVAT is all about, how it is being implemented, and the advantages and benefits that will go down to the people with its implementation which would be felt and seen in the years to come.
The respective roles of these major government agencies on EVAT's implementation will also be taken up.
Nabas barangay officials, civic groups, heads of offices, non-government organizations and the town's constituents as well as the officers and members of the APIOA will be the participants/audience in the campaign.
Aklan Vice Governor Ronquillo C. Tolentino will also grace the activity, and he will talk on Charter Change.
In accepting the invitation, Tolentino, a lawyer-journalist, said that while the Congress has as yet to totally agree as a constituent assembly to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution, discussions should now be made as part of informing the people.
Ely Arensol of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), on the other hand, will talk on the Aklan Rivers Conservation and Rehabilitation. Arensol is the current treasurer of the APIOA.
The meeting proper of the APIOA will be held in the afternoon and after this, the group will visit the Unidos Power Plant in Brgy. Unidos, Nabas, Aklan.
The APIOA's practice of holding out-of-town meetings hosted by the different local government units was started in 2004, seen as one way of promoting Aklan's other tourist potentials. Incidentally, Nabas is one of the three municipalities being pushed by Aklan officials as ecotourism zones of the province.
Nabas, now under the new leadership of Mayor Romeo Dalisay, hosted the first-ever out-of-town meeting of the APIOA in 2004. (PIA/Venus G. Villanueva)