patrick.net

@tanked - by chance are you in the camp that thinks things improved after Marcos ouster ? It does not matter one iota who is president - the power is concentrated in the hands of too few and they are not keen to share or cede power.

Not even trickle down - just live with it. We don't mind and you don't matter.

Philippines: More pain, no gain

In a statement printed in the Philippine Star newspaper on September 21, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged her fellow citizens to "suffer the pain now and experience the gains two years hence [rather] than postpone the pain and die a painful economic death two years from now".

The pain hapless, ordinary Filipinos are told to suffer comes in the form of new tax measures to the tune of P80 billion (about US$1.43 billion) a year Arroyo has asked Congress to enact posthaste. The sum amounts to 1.8% of the country's 2003 gross domestic product (GDP). The promised gain is uncertain at best: passage of the...