Now, this guy approves of the NLEx toll increase!

I said earlier that there is no one I know who approve of the NLEx toll increase. And yet it seems that the press is bent on telling us that there are people who approve.

Indeed, here is one person, Mr. Raul Pagalagan who has a column at the Inquirer, who approves, and has the passion to write about it in his column (Passion For Reason : Invisible costs of low toll rates). However, I cannot really be sure if he approves of the toll hike or he approves of the improvements. In justifying the toll hike, he lists the improvements and the advantages, but did not actually justify the toll hike. Well who would not approve of the improvements?

Meanwhile, Mr. Pagalagan repeated the misleading information that the toll at NLEx is just PhP2.91/km., which is cheaper than in the South (SLEX) which stands at PhP4.17/km. He did not show the computation that if you are going from Balintawak to Malinta, you are actually paying about PhP10/km!

Now let us say that Mr. Pagalagan really approves of the toll hike of 400% - 2,000%, or let us just say for simplicity plainly 400%, would he haved approve also if the hike was 410%, or 420%, or 430%, or 440% - get the drift?

Mr. Pagalagan did not explain why he thought that the specific percentage increase is justified. He just wrote about the features and benefits.. much like reading from a sales brochure.

Any additional taxes will affect the poor.

Government officials still don't get it. We all know that any additional taxes will affect the poor. Well, may I correct myself, they actually know. But knowing so don't make nice news coverage. The government just want to make a pretty picture of itself, at the expense of the poor, again. It would not be that way had our media did not let it be.

Of course, conversely, we know that reducing taxes will benefit the poor. This story from Inq7.net (Gov't works to spare the poor from taxes) started out seemingly nice with a news report that says "...The DOF and the Senate committee are now looking at a proposal to lift the tax burden on households with at least six members earning an annual income of P120,000 and below." This is apparently to lighten the impact of the pending VAT increase on the poor. Good news?

However, the same proposal is also looking at increasing high income and corporate taxes from 32 to 35%. So there are actually two tax increase measures being proposed: The Vat increase and Income Tax Increase. And there is only one tax lowering measure: The zero-tax at P120,000 if you have a family of six threshold.

I am not sure what effect this would have on the budget deficit, but I am sure what effect this would have on the poor and to those who religiously pay their taxes, the middle class that is - additional burden.

I wonder how the DOF determined that P120,000 makes a decent living for a family of six. Would they actually know what is decent? Is living with less than P55 per day per person decent? To think that at present, those earning P120,000 are taxed about P10,000, so their actual take home income is only about P110,000. And they are still the lucky ones, for a big number of our people are not earning even that!

If you are living alone, and you assume that you can get free healthcare and education (of course you won't), what do you think the smallest daily income you can live by? What would your expenses on food and shelter be? What amount do you think could be decent? Certainly not P55. And certainly if you are earning just that, government has no right taxing you.

The problem with our country is that there are a lot of noise but issues are not tackled in depth. We do not even have any understanding and agreement on what living decently is all about. We do not even realize that our tax system and thus our government is not anymore treating us as normal human beings, the heck they're taxing even your daily P55!

But we do not hear that from RP Media. What we hear are news like today's: "Govt works to spare poor from Taxes".

RP Media Twitted

"They are not travel advisories. They are public announcements and we have that on any country in the world. The difference is that the Philippine media make [them] headlines. No other country in the world makes it a headline so it is not a big deal," Mussomeli said.

Mussomeli is a US Embassy officer, and he observed correctly that RP media make headlines out of nothing, just to sell papers and airtime (Inq7.net article: US diplomat twits RP media over 'travel advisory' ). Worse, he says that "there is no other country in the world" like us!

Why should the press make big out of US' warning to their citizens to exercise caution when in the Philippines? Why do they think that they'd sell more papers and airtime if they cover such stories? There is one possible reason: RP media believes that Filipinos still have this thing called "colonial mentality" and that anything coming out from an American official about the country will generate interest and deserves headline treatment.

Well it did. If only candies (easy to digest, chewing not even required) interests us, Filipinos... RP media will all so willingly feed us only that, three times a day. Now, don't ask me why we suffer from tooth cavities and malnutrition!

Media knows what's wrong with them

Funny to note that media knows what's wrong with them.

There was a Media Summit 2 (2nd already, and I haven't known the first one or its results?) sometime before Valentine's Day, which was said to be attended by 3 top media honchos. I learned of this through the Inquirer's Sylvia Mayuga's column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (dated Feb. 13, sorry I cannot find the link). I also read about the same from Samira Gutoc's feature dated Feb. 11 also from the Inquirer (and I also cannot find the link now).

I just wonder why Sylvia Mayuga did not name the so called "3 top media honchos" who were said to be on the hot seat in that event? Is Mayuga afraid, embarrassed or protective of something? Even on her column today which continued the first one, she still did not name the honchos. How can she be that timid when the title of her column is "Hope in a Media Summit"? Has she actually felt hopeless?

Gutoc though, named one of the honchos as GMA chairman Felipe Gozon.

And yes, funny how media knows whats wrong. I wonder how in their face they discussed words and phrases like...

"AC-DC (Attack/Collect-Defend/Collect) 'journalists' are back like cockroaches in the newsroom..."
"...ongoing rampant comercialization .... dominant crime-showbiz-entertaintment... virtual tabloidization..angled to violence and self-pity"
"...media is dumbed down ... by the whip of a ratings game dictating more of the same, day after dumbed-down day"
"mental garbage packaged in glitz, gloss and fake tears is regularly passed off as “news” in ceaseless race for higher ratings (and more profit)"
"sensationalized crime as garbage pure and simple..."
"everyone really needed to go back to Journalism 101..."
"Press freedom is a myth. Media is as free as the owner wants it to be..."

Hmmm, is there something good coming out of this?

I think not, not as long as media think that "power is in the advertisers", for power is in the people.

I think not as long as "top Honcho number 2 saw nothing wrong with the practice" (referring to product endorsement by news anchors and media celebrities in companion commercials). BTW, top Honcho Number 2 is named by Gutoc as GMA 7 Chairman Gozon.

I think not as long as top Honcho number 1, 2, 3 are named as such and their views are hidden from the public by media themselves...

Filipinos actually doing something...

These are what we need. Filipinos helping other Filipinos.

I applaud the Inquirer, this time, for featuring this news piece (Path to brighter future opens for poor, deserving students) . I just hope that this will be a daily feature, and that the features provide more in-depth details.

This is the story about Harvey Key, a young Filipino (of Chinese descent), 25, who at 22 has helped found Pathways to Higher Education. Pathways finds "schools, foundations, business groups and individuals that can support a public school student's education. It also trains a student for college entrance examinations, and tutors him/her to qualify for a scholarship.", as the Inquirer puts it.

Wow, this is heavy and one good idea, an organization who finds help for poor young Filipinos get good education. This organization is investing on the future of the country. And they were able to get support from the Ford Foundation to the tune of US$400,000!

I didn't know that the Ford Foundation has an office in Manila (they still do?). I never realize that you can write them and possibly get some grant, albeit a small one, and compete for bigger ones. The media should be disseminating these kinds of information. This could inspire more people to help more people. One small wave of good deed could turn into a Tsunami of good deeds if media covers them well. That is the power of mass media.

Congratulation to the Inquirer, and hope to see more of the same soon!

Do you approve of NLEX Toll Increase?

I have not seen nor talked to anybody who approve of the North Luzon Express Way toll increase. I asked people I know who regularly pass there, and almost everyone say that the increase is too much, even with the improvement. Even the people who do not go there says that it is too much. Yet, amazingly, when you listen/watch TV/Radio where there are texting surveys or where comments are read, it seems that the number o fthose who approve are almost the same as to those who disapprove! The increase is indeed too much. A friend who lived in Meycauayan said the toll now is P40+ from PhP6 only the other day! That is at least 600% increase! I have heard somewhere that the average increase is 400%, still huge! And the press seem bent on telling us that half, nay many, or even just some of the people approve of it?