PRESIDENT Arroyo’s tough defense of the expanded value-added tax (E-VAT) in her 8th State of the Nation Address is expected. The government’s varied programs on providing popular but band-aid solutions to rising fuel, power and food prices largely depends on it, thus she cannot compromise the future of the country, lest her administration which is facing a hard and uphill battle come national and local elections in 2010.

While the good news is that this fiscal policy was implemented at the time when single-digit inflation rate was recorded prior to the abnormal rise of fuel cost and the looming recession of the US economy. These have indeed helped government shore up the much needed money to finance ongoing programs and projects for the masses.

The bad news is that majority of the people can no longer afford to shell out the 12 percent VAT for basic goods and services. Even the lowly ants gather food during sunny days while taking a break when storms come. One needs not be a degree-holder of economics to know what is out there.

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THIS is classic doublespeak. [Raul] Gonzalez telling us that he doesn’t want foreigners dictating him to intervene in the release of
Beltran is exactly the opposite of what he did during the trial of Smith.

Now he speaks of rules of court, while in Smith’s case he brazenly disregarded those very same rules when he manipulated and schemed with the US government to violate the status quo thus rendering the pending case of Smith moot and academic.

I hope Gonzalez runs for an elective office in 2010. Let’s see if the people would still heed his callous remarks and trapo attitude.

– Rene Delorino, Diliman, Quezon City (via e-mail)