“Anti-poor and unreasonable.”         

This was the strong-worded message of Sanggunian Resolution No. 388-2009  authored by Board Member Alan M. Famador sent to Congress expressing the province of Agusan del Norte ’s disgust over the proposed bill seeking to impose tax on text messages.

This was in reaction to a proposed tax law authored by Congressman Danilo Suarez of Quezon City which seeks to charge P0.05 tax on every text message which was unanimously approved by the House of Representative’s  Committee on Ways and Means.         

But the provincial officials labeled the proposal as anti-poor owing to the fact that most cellular phone users in the country can only afford sending text messages when communicating instead of calling.         

 “The proposal to impose P0.05 per text message will only aggravate the financial crisis already suffered by our countrymen,” Hon. Famador said.                                             

In the country today, millions of Filipinos are using mobile phones to communicate with loved ones and friends. Mostly are poor children, students, daily wage earners and non-earners who could only afford of text messages which is much cheaper compared to calls which mostly the high earners in society can afford.         

Governor Erlpe John M. Amante for his part said that he hopes that the province’s opposition will kill the proposal before it even reaches the Senate in support to the countless resolutions from different local government units all over the country expressing the same sentiment to the proposed measure since mobile users are already paying value added tax for every text message. “Every pre-paid cards purchased and other indirect taxes paid by telecommunication companies that are included in the production cost are ultimately passed on to consumers,” he added.(agnor,jay Vincent demain)