“No one is untouchable,” says the Inquirer in today’s story about tax evasion charges being filed against former presidential son Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ Arroyo and his lovely wife Angela. This is in reference of course to 20th-century gangster Al Capone, who went to jail not for his actual crimes of murder but for having evaded taxes.
This notion of no one being above the law is supposed to be a good thing ― except that what is being enforced is an unjust law: the internal revenue code. It’s a cop-out for the administration, via the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), to file tax evasion raps (for at least P73.85 million) with the Department of Justice (DoJ), due to an inability to trace or retrieve money that can be shown to actually be defrauded off taxpayers.
Even the Inquirer joins in calling tax evasion a “defrauding” of the government, perpetuating the delusion that people’s private property is “pera ng bayan” (i.e. money for politicians to redistribute). Also in today’s paper is another story on tax evasion raps being filed against businessman Macario Lim Gaw, Jr. for a record amount of P5.5 billion. Goes to show that the harassment of political foes can just as easily be done to us ‘regular’ citizens, rich or poor.
Mikey Arroyo is a scumbag, but is totally right about the political motives behind the filing of this case against him. This oblique manner of attacking the previous administration of Gloria Arroyo (GMA) is similar to the impeachment case against Ombudsman Merceditas ‘Merci’ Gutierrez. And so the political circus goes. Contrary to what some may think, political back-scratching remains the status quo, and we can be sure that whoever takes the reins from Noynoy! Noynoy! Noynoy! in 2016 will continue the tradition.
Hell, for all we know, if the present opposition wins in 2016, our beloved Kris Aquino might be prosecuted [insert lewd joke here for what offense she is to be charged with]. Heaven forbid this happens!... Right, guys?
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