TextThe left-leaning Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted Malacanang for its use of psychological warfare tricks and mind games on the people concerning the fiscal crisis. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group, “the incessant pronouncements of the Palace that the fiscal crisis is inevitable and that the only way to stop it is through the imposition of new taxes, is just a psy-war trick for the people to accept this repressive measure. Rep. Salceda it seems is a willing accomplice to this dastardly act, by conducting studies which are way off the mark and only suggests band-aid cure for a full-blown cancer,”

“There is indeed a way out of this fiscal crisis, and that is by legislating a debt moratorium, reviewing all the previous debts and not paying the onerous ones, heightening revenue collection to at least 17% and by going after tax evaders, those are the immediate measures that can be taken to stop the crisis. Salaries of workers and employees should also be raised and relief measures should be given to peasants that are the primary ones suffering from this crisis. In the long term government’s fiscal as well as over-all policy should be reoriented to be more nationalist and pro-people and not overly dependent on foreign loans and investments,” added the peasant leader.

The farmer’s group is reacting on Rep. Joey Salceda’s statement that there is no avoiding his proposed “pain package” of new taxes and power rate adjustments that he sees as the only immediate remedy to a threatening fiscal crisis.

As for his part Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP “These mind games of the regime will not work on the public because they know who is primarily responsible for this crisis, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself. In fact 78% of the populace is against these tax measures and the figure will only get higher, as the regime always exposes its own hypocrisy in dealing with the crisis,”

“All this talk of the inevitability of the new tax measures will only fall on deaf ears and hungry stomachs. If the regime still plans to pursue this so-called road map to recovery then it will have to contend with a citizenry with clenched fists,” ended Ala. # # # 
 

KMP - 19 September 2004