MANILA, (PNA) — Bank workers yesterday demanded that they be given economic relief by way of granting tax exemption on their 13th month pay this year.
The demand of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) comes on the heels of the paltry P10 wage hike granted to private sector minimum wage earners in Metro Manila and the continuing people’s fury over the scam on the “pork barrel system.”
“As a way of atoning for this nearly fatal blow to our welfare and as a way of restoring some of our lost purchasing power, we demand that, at the very least, bank workers be exempted from paying taxes on their 13th month pay this year.
Not having to pay taxes on our 13th month salary is a ‘token gesture of goodwill’ on the part of our government leaders. It is a start that can easily be done but is very meaningful to the working person who experiences increased expenses during the Christmas season,” NUBE National President Jose P. Umali, Jr. emphasized.
Such move, according to Umali, “will demonstrate that the government is sincere when they beat their breasts over the massive fraud that has been pulled off. Actions speak louder than words.”
Umali said NUBE is urging both chambers of Congress to pass a Joint Resolution that will pave the way for the removal of taxes on bank workers’ 13th month pay this year.
Umali deplored that billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money have been lost or stolen over the years due to a non-transparent system of discretionary expenditure through the “pork barrel,” involving both the executive and legislative branches of government.
“These taxpayers’ monies have been earned by the sweat of our brows and the toil of our hands.
We are in despair over the ability of the government to remedy the problem while we continue to experience a never ending increase in prices of basic commodities and services which erode the purchasing power of workers’ salaries and wages more than the measly increases in minimum wages that have been given,” Umali bewailed.
He said NUBE and the rest of organized labor are all clamoring for the abolition of the pork barrel in both the executive and legislative branches and the corresponding amount be collected among the relevant agencies whose jobs are to service our needs.
“We also demand that those responsible for the loss of the amount that should have gone to services to the people be held accountable and punished, from those in the executive and legislative branches of government and from those in non-government organizations (NGOs), fake and real, involved in the scam.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave due course to a petition questioning the constitutionality of lump sum allocations of State funds and stopped their releases for the rest of the year from the congressional pork barrel and the Malampaya gas field.