Syndicate

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You can now syndicate my weblog, but the RSS feed gets uppity whenever special characters come into it. Don’t know why.

Pque-NAIA Row 3

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Rosanna of PEX clears up some of my misconceptions on the airport taxation row. It turns out that it’s not a matter of the airport being a government establishment; it’s the land the airport is on. And, um, the case is currently pending at the Court of Appeals. Boy is my face red.

I still find it uncouth of the local government to threaten auctioning off airport property — and the airport itself! — and closing down runways while the case with the Court of Appeals is still pending. Fund-raising for infrastructure projects should not be an excuse — this is a question of legality, not of the city’s need for money. Laws on taxation should stand whether the city is raising funds or not.

(Why am I so fixated on this airport issue anyway? I rarely comment on local news like this. Maybe it’s the fact that I might be using that airport soon to get out of here? ;)

Pque-NAIA Row 2

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Airport auction stopped. Yay. Note that last paragraph: the Para˜aque local government is still trumpeting out loud how the hullabaloo over tax liabilities is aimed at “generating one billion pesos for infrastructure projects.”

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! If the local government is doing this for the sole reason of fund-raising, then it doesn’t have a leg to stand on! The primary motivation should be lawfulness of taxation, and standard procedure on this should be a lawsuit, right? This is blackmail, plain and simple. I wonder why the government isn’t doing something to censure Parañaque for it?

Camping and Heb 10:25

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Via Wayne: Funny, how Harold Camping is calling people to leave their “dying” churches because the end times are approaching. The Bible tells us otherwise:

“…Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” – Hebrew 10:25, italics mine.

We are called to congregate together in worship all the more because the end of days is upon us. To leave our established local churches based on the doomsayings of a false prophet is to disobey the admonishment of Scripture.

(And it certainly won’t be the first time that some “Christian” mass media outfit raises itself as sole purveyor of the “True Faith” over and above our local churches. ;)

Erna’s Ate Liza

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Deepest, deepest condolences go out to Erna of Siraulo. Her Ate (Big Sister) Liza passed away yesterday, after a month-long bout with cancer.

Please pray for peace for Erna and her family in this time of grief.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8.28

Wayne Redesigns

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I was hoping to hit Index 50 before Wayne redesigned, but I was too slow on the draw. Darn.

Anyway, I’m thinking of making Index 49 a manga/anime layout, and I’m torn between graphics from the following titles:

– Appleseed (by Masamune Shirow)

– Urusei Yatsura

– Fushigi Yuugi

– Akazukin Cha-Cha

Which one should I go for?

Pque-NAIA Row

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Is a government establishment (oh, say, an International Airport) obliged by law to pay property taxes to the municipality upon whose borders it sits?

The City of Parañaque seems to think so, and is even ready to forcibly close down the airport’s runways and auction off airport property to get their hands on those taxes.

The truly laughable thing about all this comes up in this quote from Parañaque Public Info Officer Mar Jimenez: “This is part of our campaign to raise funds with a minimum target of P1 billion to finance various infrastructure projects of the city government. They (NAIA) cannot blame us because we are doing this for our constituents.” He’s saying, in effect, “We’re doing this because we need to money for our city projects.” Not because the law requires payment of those taxes or because the airport has been delinquent in paying (if indeed those taxes are lawful), but because they need the money.

Well, aye aye, sir! Never mind ironing out the legality of this economic farce; what’s important is that this virtual extortion from the airport is going to fund city projects for the good of your constituents! Can’t argue against that with a niggling little thing like lawfulness or constitutionality, can we? I suppose dubious ends do justify dubious means after all, right?

I sure hope Richard Gordon can talk some sense into these people. I think this situation calls for his trademark ruthlesness.

(By the way, I live in Parañaque City, and under Chronic Mayor Joey “Alma” Marquez, it’s a complete dump. Garbage problems, air pollution, towing syndicates, squatter colonies, corruption, crime, and heavy traffic. Terrible. The real reason for this property tax row are pretty clear, and I don’t think altruistic motives come into it.)