Opposition senator Chiz Escudero today said, "there is no need to spy on the people to know what they feel during these hard times for their pain is palpable, and their discontent is evident”.

This after the palace has included the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) in a super body that will monitor the food and energy situation in the country.

Advances from corporate taxpayers may have nudged up the revenue haul of the Bureau of Customs in 2006 – and thus allowed its personnel to claim a half-a-billion-peso bonus under the Lateral Attrition Law, but it was government’s own tax payments which amplified the Custom’s P198.1 billion tax take that year.

“The tipping point may have been provided by tax payments advanced by companies but the major push was given by the government, through the duties and taxes it paid for its own imports, mostly rice, therefore it is not covered by the lateral attrition law” Sen. Chiz Escudero today said.

Of the BoC’s P198.1 billion collection in 2006, P20.6 billion came from the Tax Expenditure Fund (TEF), a “non-cash transaction that simply records in the books that duties arising from government imports have been settled,” he said

While motorists continue to pay the inevitable VAT at the pump, the rise in oil taxes has yet to reflect on Bureau of Customs collections, prompting opposition senator Chiz Escudero to suspect the much-vaunted VAT oil dividends “a mirage.”

Escudero, who has long been espousing for the scrapping of the VAT on oil said there is a “disconnect” between a supposed windfall in oil VAT collection , on the one hand, and actual Customs collections , on the other.

“If the expected hike in fuel tax collection has not materialized then where will government “squeeze its ‘katas ng VAT’ from which is reportedly being used to lubricate its rice and power subsidy program?” Escudero asked.

For workers to cope with inflation, opposition senator Chiz Escudero today said the government should see to it that wages which should have been remitted as taxes are retained in pay envelopes on account of the new law exempting minimum wage earners from income tax and increasing tax exemptions for other employees .

Senator Chiz Escudero today asked President Arroyo to free billions of pesos in impounded funds in the national budget which can be used to help people and places hit by Typhoon 'Frank.'

Escudero identified at least P6.6 billion worth of funds which if added to the Calamity Fund of P2 billion for the year can aid typhoon victims and repair damaged public infrastructure.

"There is no reason why aid should come in trickles to flood-hit areas when there are certain segments in the national budget, other than the Calamity Fund, which can be tapped for disaster work, "Escudero said.

These funds, he said, are:
• P2- billion Kilos Asenso Fund
• P3.6 -billion Financial Subsidy to Local Government Units
• P1- billion Kalayaan Barangay Fund

Amid the sea tragedy that struck the country, opposition senator Chiz Escudero today said all help is needed and should be welcomed for victims of the ill-fated Princess of the Stars. This he said as individuals, groups and fellow members of the Congress signified intention to help in the midst of the crisis.

Kaugnay ng paglubog ng Princess of the Stars, dapat ipasa na ang Coast Guard bill at i-review na ng Coast Guard ang mga policy nila sa kabila ng global warming at pagbabago ng panahon at dapat ding i-modenize natin ang PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration). Ang kailangan ng PAGASA ay P1.6 bilyon. Mura ito kung ititimbang sa pinsala dulot ng sakuna dahil sa kawalan ng paghahanda. Darating ang panahon ng pagpapanagot kaugnay ng nangyari subalit sa ngayon ang dapat nating pagtuunan ng panahon ay search and rescue para magligtas ng buhay. Wala munang bangayan.

Even if the present minimum wage will be increased, there will be no need to pass a new law increasing personal income tax exemptions as the newly-signed tax relief bill automatically confers a no-tax status on future minimum wages whatever their amounts are.

Opposition senator Chiz Escudero issued the dare to Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines, which operates the Caltex brand, a week after Seaoil launched the industry-first prepaid card which locks the price of gas for a given time.

Escudero said if a "small player in a small country " can offer a product that shields consumers from price spikes " then there's no reason why this can't be done by energy giants whose mother companies have been recording super profits".

Senator Chiz Escudero today said the P2 billion refunds to electricity consumers are better than nothing but it is far from electrifying.

For one, the amount is 1/6th of the P12.3 billion that government intends to collect in VAT from the power industry this year.

With the seemingly unabated rise of oil price in the world market, the government is urged to save on its oil and gas expenditures to cope with the present oil shock, Senator Chiz Escudero today said.

Escudero said that the government needs to work within its budget allocation for oil and gas even if the projected budget does not anymore correspond to the present oil price in the international market.

"How on earth can you teach effectively if you're given P2.50 a day for these things? And Malacanang has the gall to prod teachers to do powerpoints? " he said.

Escudero said government should increase the chalk allowance to P2,000, if not in one time, then in phases, "beginning to P1, 000 next year."

Opposition Senator Chiz Escudero today said the recent tug-of-war over the control of Meralco should bring to the fore the need to bring light to eight million Filipinos.

Escudero said that at present 1.8 million households or 8 million people, mostly in rural areas , are without electricity , citing the 2004 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) conducted by the National Statistics Office.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee reported out its version of the tax exemption bill for minimum wage earners yesterday. Committee chairman senator Chiz Escudero has filed Senate Committee Report No. 53 (CR No. 53) recommending the approval of Senate Bill No. 2293 which specifically aims to exempt minimum wage earners from paying income tax and to render relief to all individual taxpayers by adjusting their personal and additional exemptions in order to approximate the increase in inflation since 1997.

Escudero said it would be difficult for Esperon and the public to reconcile his previous role as a combatant with his new-found position in the peace negotiation. “How can he advise GMA on peace if all he did throughout his career is search and destroy the enemy?”

Opposition senator Chiz Escudero has drawn up plans to insure every classroom in areas where disaster usually strikes. In the said plan, Escudero has tapped the Government Insurance System (GSIS) as the insurance's underwriter as it is already the agency in-charge of handling government's insurance policies.

Escudero has asked the GSIS to immediately release the details of policy and claims procedures as the onset of the rainy season already began in the country.

For its utter failure to accomplish the objective it was created for, Senator Chiz Escudero is urgently calling for the review of the oil deregulation law to either repeal it or amend it.

Today’s Joint Congressional Power Commission inquiry into the high power rates prevailing in the country should not go the route of a fight between Napocor or Meralco, or who earns more money from what, but rather it should be an inquiry to answer the question of what will benefit the electric consumers.

Escudero said one of the primary reasons for the country’s expensive power cost is the slapping of value added tax (VAT) on systems loss. However, the senator said there is no provision in the RVAT law that this should be. “It is bad enough that we end up paying for electricity that is lost to illegal connections “and to heat”, but coughing up an additional 12% tax to phantom power is too much”. He said VAT is supposed to be a levy on goods and services, on tangibles one receives and enjoys, not on imaginary things like electricity which has vaporized or vandalized.

Senator Chiz Escudero today expressed relief with the passing of the cheaper medicines bill yesterday, saying that this act provides Filipinos with a window of opportunity for medicines that are already within well their means. In supporting the passage of the bill, he at the same time called on his fellow lawmakers and all the bill’s stakeholders to be vigilant in seeing through the bill’s mandate.