WITH LESS than two months to go before the elections, two very important questions to the nation must be the main thrust of well-meaning, honest-to-goodness surveys, commissioned or not. The fate of the nation partly hangs on these twin questions that are intertwined like horse and carriage.
The recurring results of who’s leading the recent polls have become boring talking points . They gloss over what really matter to the Filipino electorate in the real sense. In other words, the surveys must bridge the gap between political inconsistencies or moral confusion. Feeling may belie what the soul says or vice versa. The surveys could function as a soul-searching tool: a light to guide the dumb, and not a lamppost to support the drunk.
Question 1: Should former Sen. Bongbong Marcos or BBM and his running mate, Mayor Sara Duterte ,take part in the public debates of the presidential and vice presidential aspirants, respectively?
Question 2: Should BBM pay the P203 billion tax payment due the Philippine government from the family estate?
The two leading candidates have purposely made themselves unavailable for the debates, especially the recent ones last Saturday and Sunday where some aspirants already felt being insulted by their convenient absence. The Commission on Election (COMELEC) has announced some kind of a penalty for those who don’t show up their sponsored debates. But, Vice Presidential bet Walden Bello deplored it as a joke.
Coming at the heels of the recent debate was the order by the Department of Finance to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to collect the P203 billion tax due from the Marcoses that had been declared payable by the Supreme Court in 1997 or thereabouts. It’s a mystery that the tax obligation, which was pegged at P23 billion but presumably has ballooned to its current amount because of corresponding penalties, has remained uncollected.
BBM and his lawyer have complained about ‘fake news’ surrounding the tax obligation ,avoiding addressing the issue directly and convincingly. The DOF directive to the BIR is a response to the BBM camp’s blaming fake news. Presidential aspirant Isko Moreno, who got a confirmation letter from the BIR about BBM’s tax obligation, ended any speculation: the tax non-payment is no fake news.
Presidential wannabe Ping Lacson said two nights ago that the P203 billion tax due is a lot more than the total funds allotted for the Bayanihan laws passed to alleviate people’s suffering from the pandemic. It is certainly a quantum leap from the projected cost of ayuda of P200 a month for each Filipino family reeling under the burden of rising fuel and food prices.
The estate tax due also inevitably raises the question of BMM’s faithfulness to his civic duty as a taxpayer. He has been convicted already for tax evasion, a crime, when he was governor and vice governor. Cases for his disqualification are still pending in the COMELEC, and eventually will end up in the SC, in view of this tax issue. For a nation largely viewed as religious, the issue of whether a presidential candidate has both given to Ceazar what is due to him, and to God what is due Him, should resonate.
The surveys can trigger much-needed critical thinking.
How the survey respondents will answer the two questions, be it an aye or a nay plus the explanations as to why should reveal at least two two things. 1) It should explain why BBM is still leading in the survey 2) what kind of leadership do Filipino voters prefer to take the Philippines into the next six years of uncertainties and existential threats.
Or, it could be a game changer. It could force the “professional absentees” to join the debates and make themselves more accessible, or vulnerable, by being opened to confrontational issues that they have so far avoided. Intellectual honesty, or the lack of it, will be a potential political Waterloo. Obviously, this is why not facing up to these issues squarely during debates has become the political strategy so far.
Survey firms, for all their professionalism, have been criticized by no less than the COMELEC for not contributing to a more intelligent assessment of the political candidates. It reinforces more , the poll body said, the bandwagon mentality. Surveys on these two questions, preferably before the next COMELEC sponsored debates in April, could be an eye-opener not just to the aspirants but to the electorate. Apparently, a snowball has kicked in.
BBM’s description of his father’s time during martial law as “ a golden age” can best be defended during the debates. He may have evidence to this effect but so many have their own to refute that such a “paradise” existed during those dark days in Philippine history to support his position . Or he could simply say he was wrong and make an apology for the historic mess that his father –, his family for that matter—has created for the country, whatever the good intentions were supposed to have been at the root of his quest.
Former SC associated justice Antonio Carpio is worried of at least two things if BBM wins on May 9: 1) The P203 billion tax due will be lost for the simple reason that government under him will no longer collect it, and by a provision of law, can be forfeited after a given period of time. 2) The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCCG), which has been hunting all stolen wealth during the Marcos regime, will go the way of the dodo. It is coterminous with good governance and another Marcos government is not viewed in the same breath or inspiration.
“Thousand people, thousand hearts, thousand opinions. One truth. ”, wrote a philosopher.
Surveys for the two questions should solve the riddle for a nation at a crucial crossroads.
