Oro sign drive vs. Train starts today

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

ACTIVISTS would launch the so-called “Black Friday Protest” here today even as it starts a signature campaign for the repeal the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law.

Wildon Barros, spokesman of Bayan Muna and Kilusang Mayo Uno in northern Mindanao, said various groups would be doing the rounds in workplaces, farms and urban poor communities to gather signatures against RA 10963, otherwise known as the Train Law.

Barros said the campaign of the “Stop Train Network” is aimed at showing the Duterte administration that most citizens don’t want the Train Law and they want to get rid of it because it has made prices of basic commodities to shoot up to astronomical levels.

“Ang among pirma nga  matigom dinhi,  among ipadala sa Bayan Muna sa Manila, aron sila na didto magpadala niini sa Malacañang,” Barros said.

Reads part of the Stop Train Network: “Target sa grupo nga tuyokon ang bul-og sa katawhan diha sa mga merkado, mga pabrika sa mamumuo, mga komunidad sa kabus sa kasyudaran, mga paradahan ug terminal sa mga pampublikong sakyanan, mga eskwelahan, mga umahan sa mag-uuma, mga opisina sa empleyado sa gobyerno, mga simbahan ug uban pa aron aghaton ang katawhan ug mga apektado nga mao mismo ang mopadagan sa petisyon tungod kay kita man tanan ang nagpas-an sa maong kalisud.”

Aside from Bayan, the “Black Friday Protest” and signature campaign would be carried out by Kadamay and other urban poor groups and labor organizations, among others.

Kadamay, for its part, called for public support for House Bill 7653 that is being pushed by the Makabayan bloc in the Lower House.

The proposal seeks the following:

• restoration of the previous excise tax base in the National Internal Revenue Code in order so that there would be “zero tax” on fuel other petroleum products;
• scrapping of excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages;
• removal of provisions on the distribution of incremental income, specifically, the 70 percent for the “Build, Build, Build” program, and 30 percent for social measures;
• scrapping of the personal exemption amounting to P50 thousand, and P25 thousand for the dependent;
• restoration of the value-added tax exemption on selling of electricity from power-generation companies, transmission by any entity, and distribution companies, including electric cooperatives;
• restoration of the value-added tax exemption for low-cost housing even beyond January 2021; and
• restoration of the three-percent tax exemption for cooperatives, self-employed and professionals with gross receipts of P2 million or lower.

“Nabati ug nasaksihan na nato unsa ka kontra kabus ug kontra katawhan kining Train law sa gobyernong Duterte diin Package 1 pa gani kini niabot na sa 4.5% ang inflation rate sa nasud, ug kung molahutay pa kini, unsa kahay atong dangatan ani?” Franscisco Pagayaman, regional chairperson of Kadamay-Northern Mindanao, asked rhetorically.

The Kilusang Mayo Uno in northern Mindanao called for an increase the minimum daily wage to P750. It also called for the scrapping of the regional wage standards.

The group also called on the government to punish firms that continue to engage in “labor-only contracting” especially in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.

“Karun nato sukdon ang kaisog sa gobyernong Duterte nga mobarug sa interes sa mga mamumuo. Kung isog kunuhay siya sa kampanya kontra droga, kontra terorismo, kontra korapsyon tan-awon nato ang iyang kaisog batok sa mga ‘Endo’ violators,” said Barros, KMU regional spokesperson.