OFWs wage anti-text tax drive online

MANILA, Philippines – Overseas Filipino workers have started an online protest against the plan to impose a 5-centavo tax on every text message.

At the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Hotel forum, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile vowed yesterday to block the passage of the bill.

“We will kill that bill,” he said.

Leading the protest on the social networking site Facebook are Susan Ople, president of the Ople Policy Center; Jun Aguilar, a representative from the Filipino Migrant Workers’ Group; and Lito Soriano of LBS e-Recruitment Solutions.

They branded the proposal as “untimely, unjust and unreasonable.”

Ople said the protesters must reach out to other sectors and use every medium available to build a strong coalition against the text tax to stop Congress from passing the bill.

“The No to Text Tax! online campaign has more than a thousand supporters since its creation three days ago,” she said.

Ople urged the public to join the protest and sign up and post their comment on the Facebook wall.

OFWs also intend to use live blogging, Twitter, and other Internet tools to inform the public about the status of the bill especially on the day of the plenary vote, she added.

Aguilar, a former OFW and founder of Partido Pandaigdigang Pilipino, said the public does not know where billions in documentary stamp tax paid by OFWs go.

“Now they want to impose a new tax that will hit the OFWs the hardest,” he said.

Aguilar said the government collects a 15-centavo documentary stamp tax every time an OFW remits money to the government. “Multiplied by millions of OFWs, the amount could have been used to provide quality legal and welfare services to Filipinos overseas,” he said.

“Even if the remittance is sent electronically, we still have to pay the DST and yet onsite services for our OFWs remain woefully inadequate.”

“A tax on text is an added burden to many OFW families who are still hoping that their relatives abroad will not be displaced or sent home due to unforeseen circumstances.”

A tax on text is an added burden to many OFW families, Soriano said.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said the government will slowly kill OFWs and their families if it imposes a tax on text messaging.

“This is just another burden to OFWs and their families who are already bleeding due to numerous government fees and imposition of charges by recruitment agencies,” he said. – Mayen Jaymalin, Helen Flores, Jose Rodel Clapano, Philippine Star