Delicate

Pope Francis is now in Myanmar in what has been described as the most delicate foreign visit he has undertaken. From Myanmar, he will visit Bangladesh and spend time in a Rohingya refugee camp.

The Rohingya crisis is at its worst. Over 600,000 have fled across the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, have been killed in a brutal campaign mounted by the Myanmar armed forces. The campaign is ostensibly to crush an armed insurgency by members of the ethnic minority.

The two countries, a few days ago, reached an agreement to repatriate the Rohingya refugees. The horrified refugees, for their part, appear reluctant to return. Over the past few weeks, they watched their villages burned and their menfolk massacred. Widespread rape of Rohingya women occurred.

Myanmar is over 90 percent Buddhist. The Rohingya, constituting less than one percent of the population, is Muslim. They are ethnically closer to the Bengali populations of Bangladesh and Northeastern India. They are technically stateless.

Since Myanmar, formerly the British holding of Burma, won independence, the government at Yangon denied the Rohingya citizenship. Their communities in Rakhine state, do not receive social services. Over the past few months, militant Buddhist monks and ranking officers in the military have expressed increasingly militant opinions against the Rohingya.

The Rohingya endured extreme persecution for generations, since the political boundaries were drawn and they found themselves an unwanted minority in a newborn nation. They were a forgotten people.

A few years ago, the Rohingya gained regional attention when they took the ocean to flee persecution. Many of them died in the effort. Those rescued were invariably starved and exhausted. When captured by Myanmar authorities, they were routinely beaten up.

The Buddhist majority in Myanmar rejects them, not only because of their darker skin, but also because they are Muslim. The anti-Muslim prejudice is particularly strong in the army, an influential pillar of the Myanmar state. This is the reason Aung San Suu Kyi tread on the matter softly, leading to widespread criticism of the Nobel laureate who now sits as Myanmar’s leader – by the tolerance of the army.

Pope Francis visits a country where Catholics constitute a tiny minority and enjoy no political power. He steps into the worsening crisis between a Buddhist majority and a tiny Muslim minority.

It is not his task to solve the communal and political problems of a country, problems that even the ASEAN (where Myanmar is a member) would not touch. But it will be a test of his moral persuasiveness to attract global attention to the plight of the Rohingya and convince the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh about the urgency of solving what the UN no less described a case of ethnic cleansing.

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In the final stages of deliberation on the provisions of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), most of the other lobby groups have scored pretty well. Low cost housing, investments in the export processing zones and a few others have succeeded keeping their VAT exemptions.

Among the last lobby groups frantically trying to be heard at the Senate deliberations on the proposed tax package is the Philippine Association of Sari-sari Store and Carinderia Owners (PASCO). The group is fighting the proposed excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB).

The existing proposal is for excise taxes ranging from P10 to P20 per liter. The current Senate version reduced this to P5. These excise taxes are justified as a public health measure in the face of growing incidence of obesity and diabetes.

Sen. Ralph Recto described the proposed taxes on sugared drinks to be the most sensitive and controversial provisions in the tax bill. PASCO argues that the proposed excise tax on sugared beverages will be among the highest in the world. Furthermore, that the excise tax proposal in its current form will hurt mainly the poor.

Combined with the excise taxes on petroleum and coal products, the group is arguing the proposed revenue measures will pump up inflation. According to PASCO president Victoria Aguinaldo, sweetened drinks such as sodas, iced tea and ready-to-drink juices account for between 30 percent to 40 percent of total sales in sari-sari stores and carinderias.

PASCO claims to represent 1.3 million sari-sari stores and carinderias nationwide. The customers in these establishments are mainly from the D and E classes.

Bantay Konsumer, Kalsada, Kuryente (BK3), another advocacy group, joins in the lobby against the sugar tax. They claim the excise tax will aggravate malnutrition in the country. They quote the 2017 State of Food Security and Nutrition Report released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that shows that while the prevalence of overweight children is at five percent, the prevalence of under-nutrition among Filipino children is at 13.8 percent.

Sugary drinks, according to BK3, are among the sources of energy of Filipino consumers. Therefore, according to the group’s logic, the sugar tax will hurt poorer consumers who do not earn enough for daily sustenance.

The Senate version of the tax reform package is due to pass over the next few days. In fact, the most optimistic scenario is the package of tax measures will be signed into law before the year ends.

Unless the lobby against the sugar tax gains support from a majority of the senators, the new revenue measure will find its way into the final version coming out of the Upper Chamber. A lot will depend on the give and take among the legislators given that the tax reform package contains a wide array of proposed measures.