Senator Erwin Tulfo recently proposed a one-month tax holiday, supposedly to ease the financial burden brought about by massive corruption in government. On the surface, it may sound like a kind gesture to help ordinary citizens. But dig a little deeper, and the cracks in this idea become too glaring to ignore.
For one, such a measure would only benefit those earning regular monthly salaries—employees who are taxed through payroll deductions. But how about the millions of Filipinos who don’t enjoy such formal employment? The jeepney and bus drivers working on commission, the conductors and vendors who earn by the day, the laborers paid on a pakyawan basis—these sectors will gain nothing from this so-called “relief.”
It’s tone-deaf, to say the least. Instead of offering short-term palliatives, a truly sensible move would be to demand swift accountability: investigate, prosecute, and jail those who bled public coffers dry. That’s the kind of relief the people need—the kind that restores trust and justice, not the kind that simply distracts from outrage.
Senator Tulfo once said, “we have to bend the law.” Now, it seems he’s bending reason as well. This tax holiday proposal isn’t a solution—it’s a smokescreen. A pampalubag-loob dressed up as policy.
And for that, the taxpayers—whose money pays the senator’s salary—deserve far better than hollow sympathy from a lawmaker who should know the difference between governance and gimmickry.