Nakasakay na po ba kayo ng eroplano domestic flight? Tumingin po kayo sa baba, napaka-luwang pa po ng Pilipinas. Oh di kaya, naka long travel ka na ba by bus? Tumingin po kayo sa view sa labas ng bus, napaka-luwang pa po ng Pilipinas. Teka teka, hindi mo yata ako ma gets; I'll give another example.
Nakapasok ka na ba sa mga bahay ng mayayaman? Mansion na walang nakatira (kung meron man eh konti lang). Kahit maganda ang lahi nila, maraming resources, mataas ang pinag-aralan, mapapansin mo na ang may-ari ng bahay ay napakatipid manganak. Makapag-isip ka, yumaman kaya etong mga eto dahil kontilang ang anak nila?
Naka-punta ka na ba sa squatter's area? Sikipan ang mga bahay at mga tao. Napakaraming bata ang tumatakbong naglalarong nakahubad, may mga galis sa katawan, payat, parating gutom na pala-hingi ng pera. Humirap kaya etong mga eto dahil marami ang anak nila? O kahit isa lang ang anak nila eh mahirap pa rin etong mga eto?
Sa malawak kong pag-iisip, sa tingin ko, meron po tayong Room A and Room B.
Room A -- 90% of our nation's wealth are idle lands and held by the rich who is only 10% of the population.
Room B - 10% of our resources are being shared by 90% of the population who are generally poor.
Talagang mag-sisikipan sa Room B.
SOLUTION: Gradually redistribute the idle lands of Room A and transfer it to Room B. I am not saying we redistribute in a "hostile" bloody revolutionary manner.
We can smoothly do it my merely implementing the Local Real Property Tax -- big land owners are generally real property tax evaders.
Government has to foreclose those tax-evasive lands so that government will have more land to auction to the public. The more land government has in its inventory to auction, the lower the prices of land will become, thus making it affordable to most wage earners.
Please don't get me wrong. I don't like redistribution by land reform and baseless communistic seizures. We don't need that because the idea, even if supported by laws, is a dead-end wall ahead, impossible to implement, not workable.
I also don't like government subsidy on private venture on land. It is sheer avenue of corruption. However, probably I will support this idea, if the source of fund is Printing of New Money.
What I believe is simple implementation of Real Estate Tax that we already have under the Local Government Code. Whoever owns the land, rich or poor, haciendero or ordinary citizen, individual or corporation, if it fails to pay real estate taxes up to the allowable period, it has to be foreclosed by the government so that it will be added to the supply instead of getting it stucked in the hoarded inventory.
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