An open letter to Kris Aquino over her “honest taxpayer” post.
Queen of all Media Kris Aquino is currently making rounds after she has heavily criticized by a Netizen via an open letter over her “honest taxpayer” post.
Just recently, the actress-host took to image-sharing site, Instagram where she shared that amount of taxes she paid from 2008 to 2015, naming her as number one individual taxpayer in the Philippines.
According to the Philippine Entertainment Portal, the 45-year-old showbiz personality paid a whooping P322,098,558.74 income tax from 2008 to 2015.
On Monday, April 25, 2016, a certain Betty Romero took to Facebook where she posted her reaction with regards to Kris Aquino’s post.
Here’s the open letter:
“Dear Kris Aquino,
Seriously? This?
So you, and your brother, the President, got called out for using government property, a helicopter, for a campaign sortie.
He defended you by saying you are a member of the First Family and therefore you have a right to ride that chopper, and aside from that, one of the highest taxpayers in the whole country. And that struck a nerve.
And you responded by appealing for support and posting the photo below on your Instagram account.
And truthfully, I thought it was fake, a parody account. I hoped it was fake, that you couldn’t do something as galling (as kapalmuks) as this.
Why couldn’t you have just apologized? Wouldn’t that have been simpler? And more humble?
So you make a whole boatload of money. We probably had an idea, and know you’ve made it abundantly clear.
By shoving your wealth into our faces, do you actually think you will gain more sympathy, more understanding for yourself?
That’s a nearly obscene amount of money that could do so much good for a lot of Filipinos. And you play the ‘pity me, support me’ card?
When was the last time you got to see how our countrymen who live with poverty and an ineffectual, uncaring government really live?
Did you watch the debates last night? Did you see some of your countrymen appealing to the presidentiables to help them solve their daily problems?
Did you see the little girl, an honor student who had to write her spelling test on a leaf as her parents couldn’t afford to buy a sheet of paper?
The man whose father died of appendicitis and in whose barangay the health center is locked? The woman who commutes 6 hours a day in traffic, leaving home before her kids get up, getting home when they are asleep?
The OFW with thyroid problems who desperately wants to come home and raise her youngest child, but can’t because she has too much debt? (And did you notice how the OFWs watching barely clapped for your candidate?)
You have had many privileges in life–wealth, education, talents, and you were the daughter of a slain hero, and the woman who, however briefly, unified our nation after long years of dictatorship. And today you are very wealthy, no doubt you have worked hard for it.
But you don’t need to flaunt it this way.
We don’t need another stark reminder of the inequality gap that makes life an agony every single day for so many of our countrymen.
I don’t need to know that one woman pays more taxes in a year than I will make in my lifetime.
Is it too late to ask for some delicadeza from you? Your ?#Truth, Ms. ?#HonestTaxpayer, is so far from the reality the rest of us live with everyday.
Sincerely,
Betty Romero
?#HonestTaxpayerDinPo”
Last week, Kris Aquino was heavily criticized online over using presidential chopper during a campaign sortie by Liberal party in Argao, Cebu on April 19, 2016.
But according to President Benigno Aquino III, being part of the presidential family, Kris has the right to use a government property including the presidential chopper.