CPA to Senate: Scrap TRAIN2

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY -- The Cordillera Peoples Alliance, added its voice to many sectors calling for the scrapping of TRAIN 2 saying it will worsen indigenous peoples' plight. On Sept. 10, the Lower House approved on final reading TRAIN 2, or House Bill 8083 also known as “Tax reform for attracting better and high quality opportunities (TRABAHO Bill).”

TRAIN 2 proponents said it will bring down corporate income taxes from 30 percent to 20%, grant additional benefits to corporations and reward tax  incentives to potential investors.

“Duterte’s TRAIN 2 will only benefit the oligarchs and foreign corporations while bleeding the poor people dry with more taxes and turning the plight of indigenous peoples from bad to worse,” the militant groups said in a statement.

The CPA assailed approval of TRAIN 2 in what it called the “Duterte-controlled House of Representatives led by the newly-installed House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.” calling it a “ruthless attempt to worsen the plight of indigenous peoples and poor majority of the Filipino population.”

According to CPA chairperson Windel Bolinget, "this is an outright treachery to the poor majority of Filipinos who have been devastated by the TRAIN 1 implementation and will only benefit oligarchs and  foreign corporations.

“As the first two instalments of Duterte’s tax reforms, TRAIN 1 and 2 is a twin attack against poor and marginalized indigenous peoples while serving the wealthy few, with additional perks and benefits given to them on a silver platter. It is a means to generate massive government income through peoples' taxes to fund the ambitious build-build-build program of the administration, the   modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other military and defence spending, and to pay ballooning foreign loans.

"Indigenous peoples bear the brunt of Duterte's tax reform program. The  sky-high prices of prime commodities such as rice and other food products, rising costs of transportation brought about by the excise 

taxes on petroleum products was a result of the TRAIN 1 implementation. 

Inflation rose to 6.4 %, the highest in almost a decade, while wages of ordinary workers (P320-PhP330 in the Cordillera region) remain constantly way below the family living wage of P1,175.”

 Research group IBON estimates that one in every four Filipinos (25%) remain unemployed or underemployed. The country’s foreign debts rose to more than P7 trillion as a result,” Bolinget said.

"TRAIN will not bring food on the tables of ordinary Filipinos,  especially the marginalized indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands, natural resources and livelihood sources are constantly threatened by 

destructive projects and militarization of communities. It will not solve the country's chronic poverty brought about by joblessness, low wages, contractualization and unfair labor practices, and insufficient or lack of access to basic social services. Instead, it will make situations worse by further opening-up our country to plunderous and 

greedy corporations who make profits out of our natural resources and the desperate conditions of workers,” said Bolinget.

Bolinget also said that large foreign-owned corporations already enjoy tax holidays and similar incentives in so-called export processing zones or special economic zones and mining projects but Filipino workers  remain hostage to slave-wages and unsafe conditions of work.

He said TRAIN 2 is a go-signal to large mining and energy corporations to  further plunder our natural resources and our people.

“With TRAIN 2, more private companies and transnational corporations will target the Cordillera and other ancestral lands of indigenous peoples for resource extraction and plunder.”

At present, more than 100 various mining applications are reportedly under process in the Cordillera including AFTA 008 of CEXCI-Nickel Asia which covers 43,000 hectares of ancestral lands.

There are also 87 hydro-power projects reportedly awarded by Dept. of Energy, the majority of which are owned by energy giant SN Aboitiz which has Norwegian investment thru Statkraft and the Norwegian 

Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund).

“Instead of bleeding the people dry from massive taxation, the  government should seriously pursue a program of national  industrialization founded on genuine agrarian reform to create jobs and maintain a self-sufficient and sustainable local economy.

“The prevailing  neoliberal policies on the economy favoring large, private and foreign corporations will only worsen the condition of ordinary Filipinos who  are desperately seeking jobs and are being forced to get employment  abroad. But the Duterte regime has proven itself to be a lapdog of foreign corporations and local oligarchs which is why it continues to inflict misery to ordinary people and heightened national oppression of 

indigenous peoples.”

The CPA urged the Senate to junk the TRAIN law.