ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) has called on the Aquino administration yesterday to take the straight path into alleviating poverty with government savings by primarily calling for the slashing of the 12 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) by half.
Ruperto Cruz, PGKM chair, also said President Aquino should call for a substantial cut in members’ contributions to the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Pag-Ibig Fund and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Phil-Health) in the light of the billions of pesos savings from the national budget to help eradicate poverty and give the citizens a feel of the much ballyhooed economic gains of the Aquino administration.
Cruz said Mr. Aquino should have opted to announce these to the Filipino people instead of saying he is not a thief which nobody accuses him of. President Aquino went on primetime national TV last Wednesday saying, “we are not thieves.”
But critics quickly doused cold water on Aquino’s primetime television appearance saying the real issue is the constitutionality or legality of the Priority Development Allocation Fund (PDAF) or more notoriously known as “pork barrel” as well as the little known Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the bloated Presidential Social Fund.
Cruz said President Aquino should commit all his resources to the eradication of poverty by whatever means including the immediate uplift of the lives of the Filipino people by lowering public utility rates like electricity which can be offset by government savings instead of coursing these to favored legislators.
The PGKM also said the national budget should be lowered so that there will be no surplus left and more importantly nothing will be left for greedy politicians to steal. “Budget Secretary (Florencio) Abad is really a bad precedent (no pun intended),” said Cruz who added that “the PGKM believes PNoy is honest but we don’t trust the persons in his circle.”
If at all, Cruz said, the DAP is only meant to open the floodgatefor another anomaly. No wonder, he said, even the barangay captains are now buying votes for P1,000 plus one cavan of rice.
