BONBON'S MAGAZINE

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Where do our taxes go?

Publishers and WritersLuigi Son

Rocco EnriquezCedric Bata

Anton Cotaoco

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In light of recent events such as the Zambo MNLF war,multiple typhoons,earthquake and the recently highlighted event which has gone through numer-ous media the so called "Napoles 10Billion piso Pork Barrel Scam" Our writers here cant stop from think-ing that the Philippines is not going to get any bet-ter and we will sooner or later lose our unity as a country and may even end up with a revolution or worse, a war. As a group we decided that in the wake of the most famous topic in our opinion which is the one pertaining to Janet Napoles and the abuse of our tax money we will write about how even if this has caused mostly trouble we found hope that this will help us as a country realize something and help avoid this from happening again and hopefully will help us become a leading asian country that we once were.

Impact on our Society

As a society People will lose their trust on the gov-ernment because some of the government officials cheated them from their hard earned money. Janet Napoles property is worth to be 3 million pesos ac-cording to ABS CBN news. With Napoles having this much money how about the other government offi-

cials that benefit from the pork barrel, how much money do they have.Their has been a steady in-crease due to the abuse of tax money "pork" more and More Filipinos are in poverty. It also helps makes you think who to vote in the future. These people doing the scam gives a bad example to the kids. If this continues it might influence the kids to do the same.

Impact on our Economy

The effects of this on our economy would be that the salary of workers would be lowered because the money we pay for taxes would go to the political fig-ures' pockets, instead of being used to improve the Philippines. Therefore our country would remain the same and as we know some of the provinces are not developed yet. Using the 10 billion that was taken, we could improve a lot of things in our country like roads, buildings, houses, help the poor, malls, police cars, ambulance, etc. According to abs-cbn news, Janet Napoles owns more than 50 houses, lots and condominium units. If we can get these back we can help more people living in poverty.

Philippine Traditions Basically the effect of the Pork Barrel Scam on the culture or tradition of the Philippine govern-ment would be that there will be a huge change in

the traditions of our government. Usually the gov-ernment would give $4.5m and $1.6m respectively to each of the senators and congressmen so they can accomplish their desired projects and plans to help the Philippines develop. However because some of the senators especially one of the master-minds Janet Lim Napoles, formulated a scam to take advantage of the funds for their own personal gain like getting luxury and expensive cars etc, the peo-ple are protesting that their hard earned money (the budget includes some of the taxes paid by the peo-ple) is going for another's personal uses. So now the government is planning and debating to change this tradition and completely abolish the funds so this will never happen again. As the youth it is our re-sponsibility to learn how to handle money and be honest when getting money for a certain purpose. We should also already know how to vote properly and for the right government official who we truly believe capable and not how popular or rich they are. This to prepare us for the future when we start voting and one of us just may be the next senator or even president.

Impact in Politics The pork barrel issue has been an issue that has been addressed recently even since the “Napoles 10billion pork barrel scam” went viral through nu-merous social media sites.Since then there have been numerous political figures being called for the

abuse of their budget which is known as pork bar-rel.Since then numerous rallies have occurred for filipinos who were affected by the abuse of officials who use tax money for their own good showing their hate for pork barrel and the abusing political fig-ures. These protestors who are against these cor-rupt officials and wish to imprison them should first think. Who put them there in the first place? I be-lieve this will not benefit the relationship of the po-litical officials and their people whom they are sup-posed to serve. These voters should first rethink with who they vote in the upcoming election to hopefully avoid this issue from happening again therefore getting td of abusing officials with ones who will help the country grow.I also believe be-cause of this the people will want a new form of government or law against this crime. This will not help the country grow and due to that the people will just continue protesting. I feel that this has a major effect on the youth. Just imagine, growing up in a country with corrupt politics and as one of the top 10 corrupt government and has had 2 presi-dents in the top 5 corrupt of all time. I think as young as they are they will not appreciate growing up and living in a country that their government abuse their money. This surely will not be a good example for the youth who may think that pocketing funds or stealing is good due to them seeing politi-cal figures which they may look up to do so. They may also want to run for office not to serve the peo-ple but to earn money through corruption.

Writers Opin-ion

And RoleIn here we ask our writ-ers questions and how they will help with the

pork barrel issue.

As a student I believe that we should start by voting responsible leaders in our school body and to judge them not by their looks,fame nor popularity but based on their commitment,abilities and character-istics of becoming a good leader. I believe if we start voting responsibly and intelligently as young

as we are once we become a legal voter we will know how to choose a good leader instead of one who would tend to abuse their funds and power. In my opinion Our government body should not only analyze their fellow politicians but themselves first. They should ask themselves. Have they done every-thing they can to help serve their people who voted them in the first place? Have they rightfully used all their allotted funds for the intended project instead of pocketing them? They should also be able to for-mulate new laws with strict rules on how to spend their “pork barrel” and the punishment should show no mercy to the offending party.As for fellow citi-zens I believe they should start thinking of how to choose good leaders. Just like for the youth they should know how to choose good leaders who will actually work hard to help the people instead of a leader who is all talk and no show and is likely to pocket funds. Just like students they should know if the leader is committed to serving the people and is not one who will just keep their tax money. In the end, all I'm trying to say is that as a democratic country should be able to choose our leaders well and make sure they all pledge to uphold their oath which is to serve the people and improve their coun-try before taking office.Maybe if this becomes a tra-dition in the Filipino Government it may cause civil war. This has happened during the reign of former president Marcos. He supposedly abused the Philip-pines’ in many ways one of which is our money which resulted him to becoming very rich. In the

end, it was resolved thru a revolution, a peaceful one but a revolution nonetheless. Hopefully this will not happen again seeing that there have already been multiple protest and rallies with the pork bar-rel scam. Although this process will not work overnight in the long run I truly believe if everyone votes right our country will once again be united and shall prosper. - Luigi Son

I am in favor of abolishing pork barrel because it is unfair to the people who earned the money. They work so hard just to improve this country then all their efforts were wasted because of one's wants and desires. Like Janet Napoles has many expensive items and money but all that should belong to the Philippines. I mean if their was no corruption by now we would have paid of all our debts by now. Changing the name and system doesn't matter be-cause corruption is still there people will get smarter and find a loop hole to the new system. We also need to develop how to vote for good and just leaders because people are blaming the leaders we'll in fact they are the ones who voted for them. When you vote a leader you must know what their capable of, why they want to be leader, what are their motives, and etc. when a leader who you voted for and won didn't help the problems your society is experiencing DON'T FOR THEM AGAIN THE NEXT TIME. find another leader who will help our county progress more than the last time. As a young citizen I should practice how to choose good leaders in or-

der to make our country progress further. We just cannot allow ourselves to repeat the same mistake over and over again. It an endless cycle of some candidates making promises that that they cannot make. People who believe in their promises voting for them. Them winning then corruption came, they did not help the people they make the promises to. End of the term and the whole cycle starts again. We should vote leaders who keep the promises they make, care for the needs of the people and one who doesn't get affected by corruption. If we do this our country would truly be great. - Cedric Bata

For me, I think we should abolish pork barrel be-cause it is unfair for the people who pay the taxes to the government. It is unfair because the people earned the money themselves and some government officials just "steal" their money and use it for them-selves instead of using it for the improvement of the country and that is one of the reasons why our country has not been improving that much com-pared to other countries. To abolish this, we could start while we are still young and practice good vot-ing. Like in school, we can start there by voting peo-ple you think that will really do the job and not vote for people that are just popular. If we practice that, when we get older we would already 'vote wisely' and not just vote for the corrupt and famous people to lead our country. To vote for a good leader we should know their capabilities and reasons why they

want to be in the government. Also I think the gov-ernment officials should ask themselves if they are helping the country improve instead of thinking for themselves because if they put the country ahead of them, then our government will most likely succeed, rather than it being corrupt. To sum it up, I think we should be able to choose good leaders that will serve the country well and do good for the country instead of themselves. They should not be corrupt people so that we can improve our country. If we manage to accomplish that, then our country will improve and we will benefit from that. -Rafael Enriquez

There are a lot of ways we the citizens of the Philippines can rebuild the nation. We the citizens should vote properly for the right leaders and offi-cials so the government will function how it is sup-posed to function. We should vote for the people we believe can run the country better instead of the ones who win with empty promises and bribing. If this happens then the government will be able to work well and have the support of the people too, we should also pay our taxes so the government will have funds to make our country better. Just voting properly and paying taxes isn't enough to make the nation successful. The government and the ones in it, should learn to handle the budget and taxes properly so our money goes to the right purposes. They should also not be corrupt and they should fight the temptation to take the money for their own

purposes like in the Pork Barrel Scam. Something like the Counter Reformation Act, where the Church of the past reformed and stopped taking the peo-ple's money, should be done in the government to-day. As a student I can, number one learn at an early age to vote properly, spend and use money/budget properly and use it for the right things. This can prepare me when the time comes that I can vote and I might even become a government official and I should have practice with money. Number two, I can respect the other religions and the people who believe in them like the Muslims. I should also influence others to do the same and maybe this can help prevent another tragedy of religious war in the country. Like what happened during the Crusades, the Jihad and most recently the issue in Zamboanga. I believe the first step to a successful nation is to teach students and kids at an early age to spend a budget and to respect or treat other people properly regardless of religion etc, so they can be prepared. The second step is to first put this into action in your own family. If a lot of us citizens would follow this it could potentially make our nation and country much more successful. - Anton Cotaoco

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