Res Gestae
aggR-VATing life
R-VAT could give one enough reason to settle for something less. With the prices of almost everything soar heaven's high since the beginning of February, we can't do otherwise but stretch our budget to last until the next payday. We need to be cautious in our spending. If you have gone to the store with only P1,000.00 on hand, you know what I mean.
When I joined my wife at the grocery store last Sunday (Feb 12), I understood how R-VAT limits our priorities. In fact, I no longer bothered asking my wife why fabric conditioner, olive oil, hair lotion, etc. were not in the grocery basket when we queued to the counter. There, I realized that a thousand peso bill can barely gets you a handful of groceries nowadays. Seeing what we got after an hour inside the store, I confirmed to myself what the leaflet on R-VAT means of "short pain". It means that we won't break our shoulder carrying a half-filled of what used to be a fully loaded grocery bag.
Aware of how R-VAT works in our life, I won't be surprised if one of these days, I find myself renting a CD of my favorite movie instead of inviting my wife to watch it on a big screen. Or, worse, I would opt for a pirated copy available at stalls along Valeria Street. No, I wont! Buying pirated CD is stealing! And, mind you, selling is even worst; it is killing our movie industry!
Life has changed drastically after February 1. And, everyone, I mean the 85% of Filipinos, will find it really hard to gain momentum against our plunging economy. I hope this situation will only be temporary!
R-VAT promises better services for the public - building of classrooms, constructions of farm-to-market roads, payments for premium of health insurance for indigents, etc. Though I have difficulty to comprehend how these services be realized when a lion's share of R-VAT proceeds will be paid to our foreign debts? I can only have my fingers crossed on the thought that the promises of R-VAT will lead us to disillusionment.
Corruption in government is always considered as the major cause of severe poverty in this country. Since corruption remains unabated, I can't help but doubt on the noble intentions behind the R-VAT. Will not this be another innovation to satisfy the greed of bloodsuckers in the government? Or, to enrich the pockets of the few? With all the taxes we pay on anything and everything today, can we really hope for to seeing concrete farm-to-market roads, at least a thousand additional classrooms, free health care for indigents, etc. in a couple of years or so? We hope so!
I am a kind who is not bothered of shelling out my last P10.00 to help even if doing so would end me up walking a kilometer from school to the boarding house. It won't make me feel guilty of tolerating the kid from begging to have something to eat. What makes me worry about is that he can't fully enjoy the P10.00 I've given him. R-VAT does not make exception. It does not distinguish a P10.00 that was hard-earned from a whole day of begging from a P10.00 that is part of the proceeds of trading illegal drugs.
What R-VAT can really do in the lives of millions of Filipinos remains uncertain. The only thing we can be sure of is that life won't be easy. That we can't do otherwise but settle for something less.
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