"Let us increase the not less than 40 billion pesos in additional funds that go

to education, health, social services, and many others because of the right and
more efficient collection of taxes."
This was one of the promises President Benigno Aquino III spoke of during his fo
urth State of the Nation Address (SONA). National budget has indeed been one of
the hottest issues of this country. In fact, anything that speaks of money is a
big concern for Filipinos especially that the constant problem here in the Phil
ippines throughout generations is no other than corruption. For the past decades
, the increases in the national budget goes mostly to the national defense or mi
litary services. Since poverty is a very visible issue as well, there have been
many programs made by past presidents up to the present just to alleviate the st
ate of poor Filipinos. In fact, the budget has initially increased in 2012 and i
s continually increased in the present giving social services the biggest share
in the national budget.
This promise to increase the funds allocated for education, health, and social s
ervices would be a big help to the social sectors and is favorable to the poor p
eople. This is a good reply to the issues last year regarding the budget cuts in
the education and health department. It was really something the Filipinos were
not happy about. I, as a student would also not be happy if educational budgets
will be cut again since it means less budget for state universities and college
s. That would be a very big burden for us for tuition fees may also increase. I
also agree that health services should be given a bigger budget such that medici
nes will be cheaper and more affordable for the mass.
Let us move on to the social welfare programs made possible through this budget.
Though the 4P's program as well as the housing programs were all helpful to the
poor. Still for me, I find this social welfare program rather disadvantageous f
or it can possibly make the poor Filipinos dependent on the government rather th
an putting their hopes in their efforts. More jobs would be a batter program. As
the saying goes, "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day, but teach hi
m how to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime."
All in all, the increase to the budget of social sectors is a positive move to b
e made by PNoy administration.
In addition to this, let me scrutenize the last part of this promise he made. He
said that all these will be made possible through the right and more efficient
collection of tazes. This is something I agree and hope that will be realized. F
or the past decades, with corruption tagging along, tax collection has been a va
gue issue as always. Transparacy is quite questionable. The people strictly coll
ected with taxes are the minor mass who do hard labor to earn a living. On the o
ther hand, people and business who earn millions and even billions have been rum
ored as exemptions to tax collection rigidity. This issue is otherwise known as
tax evation. While the contractuals do a tedious job each day to pay their taxes
well, those big-earners hide behind their desks. What a shame to those companie
s and even those artists rumored as tax evators. Mya their conscience be flooded
with the cries of the hungry Filipinos. Hopefully, tax evation will no longer b
e existent thia year especially for government workers and officials and the big
business tycoons in the country. Of course, we shouldn't exempt our foreign inv
estors for they are one of the biggest contributors in this countries profit. If
only this last statement will be proven true, then, monetary problems of the co
untry will e slowly taken cared of.