Be Free Pinoy - for your FREEDOM

“When you DIE, there’s no more Bank Secrecy” – Kim Henares, BIR Commissioner once said, according to the report of BusinessWorld Online about three years ago. More recently, the same guy had said that “Relaxed Bank Secrecy Law soon a global standard”. In that recent news, Commissioner Kim confirmed that the government has been planning to repeal the Republic Act 1405 known as the Bank Secrecy Law of the Philippines although it is not yet their priority. The Philippine government seemed serious in searching and going after those individuals who are deliberately evading taxes – this time it is on Estate Taxes. For many years, the Bank Secrecy Law has been the great vehicle for concealing the true value of an individual’s wealth in Cash. For many years, this Law has also been of great help and an avenue of transferring wealth to the heirs unnoticed by the Tax man. However, over the time, there has always new Laws, Acts, amendments, decrees and so on that weakens the teeth of prior Laws.

We've just arrived at our destination after around 6-hour drive from our hometown, General Santos city. We are here now in one of the remote communities of the mountainous part of Compostela Valley province. As we arrive, we were into meeting with our relatives and into chatting given that we've not seen them for quite a while. I really missed the kind of life here. I used to grow up in a community where there were no electricity and water were literally being fetched from the spring and hauled to every household. However a lot has changed already: Families here don't have to fetch water anymore because reservoir has been built and water hoses run to every household and thus faucets are now being installed in kitchen, restrooms, etc... But the province has been experiencing drought for a couple of months and the situation has affected the water supply of the community. Water supply here right now is occasionally available during the morning and for only a few hou