Opposition

This believes that non-income taxes must be allowed to vote

Why did I say this? Its because every single body living in our country,
citizens of the Republic of the Philippines has the right to vote. If we are
about to look and to rummage what the Philippine Constitution says in the
Article 5 Section 1, it was clearly stated here that The Right of Suffrage is
the right of the people to choose their officials as their representatives, for a
definite and fixed periods, to whom they entrust the exercise of the powers
of government.
Suffrage may be exercised by all citizens of the Philippines not
otherwise qualified by law, who are at least eighteen years of age and who
shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year and in the place
wherein they purpose to vote for at least six months immediately preceding
the election. No literacy, property, or other substantive requirement shall be
imposed on the exercise of suffrage .
So we heard the word there are no literacy, property, or other substantive
requirement. Substantive requirements like what? Your sex, education level,
or taxpaying ability. In this exercise, it is not stated that non-income tax
payers must not and should not vote. No.
It was also written in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Article 2;
Article 2, paragraph 1: Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes
to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to
its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political
or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

And on the Article 25;

Article 25: Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any
of the distinctions mentioned in Article 2 and without unreasonable
restrictions.
And it is also clearly stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 21 of 1948
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his/her country,
directly or through freely chosen representatives.
Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this
will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by
universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot or by
equivalent free voting procedures.
These facts are all written to answer the impunity and freedom of the
Filipinos in terms of voting.
Lets remember the Katipunan Times, when you are not paying taxes, you
are not allowed to vote. But the question is, if we will do this again, will the
right to vote or suffrage will evolve or not? Remember, that time, this
exercise did not work, and if we are going to compare this today, this time,
people have the mouth.
If ever we will do this kind of exercise, we would not allow the non-income
tax payers to vote, then I can clearly say that half of the population will not
vote because of underemployment(sign of they have to work, but theres no
work available for them).
In case if you are wondering what paying taxes role in our economy is.
The Productivity declines as the tax rate increases, as people choose to work
less. The higher the tax rate, the more time people spend evading taxes and
the less time they spend on more productive activity.
I know that one of what youre thinking is about bribery. Bribery in the
Philippines of those who are not paying for income taxes.
I just wanted to ask everybody, because a person already had asked me this
question, are those people who are not paying for income taxes are burden
of our economic growth?
I actually answered no. Simply because, who gave them that money?
Isnt it the politicians? So if they are given by the politicians, which is
supposedly really given by them, then the politicians are the ones who are
burden of our economic growth.
Why?
Because they already know what the consequence is when they give that
money to them; and one of those powerful outcomes is preparing Philippines
to fall especially our economy.
Of course, the person would bite it.
I am not here to say that this is right, this is not. No. I am just here to speak
in behalf with all the people who have the right to vote without doing this.
Why our country is called democratic, if first and foremost, we are concealing
the voice of the people, which is, supposedly, is the voice of our country?
Remember, we are leaving in a democratic country, where you can do
anything, you have the freedom, and the people are the voice of nation, and
we must not forget this. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms
and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal
suffrage are essential elements of democracy.
If there are some returns in case of voting, like all the non-income tax payers
are not allowed to vote, then, we are not living in a democratic countrywe
are then again squeezed-neck, because we are controlled by people.
The right to suffrage is a basic human right, as it affords the citizens to freely
participate directly and indirectly in public affairs
Before I conclude, I just wanted to say, that if we are living in a democratic
country, then lets be democratic, lets follow the law of the Philippines
Constitution, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and etc., without anything in return
when it comes to voting.
We must be fair when it comes to voting. And that is the essence of
democracy.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/studyguides/votingrights.html
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http://economics.about.com/cs/taxpolicy/a/taxing_growth.htm
Affirmative
This house believes that non-income tax payers would not be allowed to
vote.
Why do we need to do this? How does paying taxes affect our economy?
Paying taxes can help us so much. There are lots of scenarios that we can set
in this motion.
First suppose that we lived in a society without taxation. We'll worry about
how the government finances its programs later on, but for now we'll assume
that they have enough money to finance all the programs we have today. If
there are no taxes, then the government does not earn any income from
taxation and citizens do not spend any time worrying about how to evade
taxes.
Taxes give the government money it needs to fund schools and libraries,
roads and infrastructure, civil services and some utilities, and almost
everything that a government does for its citizens.
We are not doing this just for the situation of other people, we can say
frankly for the government, but it is for us. It is superbly beneficial to us,
citizens of the Philippines.
Just try to imagine, how these people who are not paying income taxes, they
are actually the subject of the bribery.
They are oppressed by the people called politicians, because they are given
money for them to right their names in their ballots.
In this case, I love what Koko said in his commercial on television, Patay
nanaman ang Pilipinas for this incoming election, not about how they vote,
but about who theyve voted.
Yes, we are in democratic country, its democracy. But it doesnt mean that
we can do anything in accordance with its own meaning.
Actually, in what I have set as an example a while ago, the bribery, these
people are going to be burden in our economic growth. Instead of up surging
or hoisting our economic status, we are actually decreasing it in case of
these dummies or people who receives the bribe.
If they are for example given a bribe, then its their responsibility about the
consequence. Because they are not even going to take a second doubt on
who to vote, and they will not even think of what will be the result if they are
going to vote this person or these persons.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we are about to think of our country right now, can
we say that our economic status is up surging or lifting or hoisting? I dont
think so.
You know, when I was a first grader, I always hear my teacher uttering or
saying that our country is now at its best, or in tagalog, ang pilipinas ay
isang umaasensong bansa.
And then, ladies and gentlemen, now that I am graduating in high school,
meaning now that I am a senior, I still remember my teacher saying Ang
Pilipinas ay isang umaasensong bansa. It is now sort of clich. And what is
the root of this?
I think the people who are being corrupted and polluted by the politicians,
because they have chosen this kind of result or sum or consequence of who
they have voted for they are not paying income taxes.
in People v. Corral, 62 Phil. 947 (1936), which stated: "In the Philippines,
suffrage
is not a natural right but a privilege which may be enlarged or restricted,
so we heard that suffrage is not a natural right, but it is always the
government who decides on it.
However, if we will do this again, the non-income tax payers will be victims
of the vote buying, and we are not going to be sure about a clean, and fair
election.