Spending other people’s money
Nothing is more pleasurable to a politician than giving away other people’s money. The only possible exception is stealing the money outright. When lawmakers enacted mandatory discounts for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs), it was a political win-win: the catered-to sectors applauded, and fiercely invoked their entitlements with every meal; the politicians got the credit while the national treasury was left intact, all the better to loot for other purposes. As we’ve seen, this sort of behavior becomes contagious in the worst possible way, as the pleading signs begging or threatening diners not to use fake PWD cards prove.
Someone ends up paying the bill, of course: every discount demanded is paid for, not by the state, but by the business owner. This is on top of other challenges. I first became aware of this when Chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou posted a sobering reflection on Facebook last July 23. His post was an open letter addressing the cumulative burdens on small business owners, discussing rising costs, mandatory policies, and the quiet struggles of entrepreneurs.
Two posts in quick succession brought this problem back in vivid detail. The owners/family of Emin and Mila’s Canteen announced their business was closing and detailed how it was a painful, real-world outcome of accumulated pressures—beyond the actual closure of a decades-old family establishment was the heavy administrative and emotional toll that follows. Just the other day, David P. Sison tied it all together: the closure of Emin and Mila’s Canteen and other restaurants together with hard economic data, ultimately pointing toward a concrete legislative remedy (Senate Bill 2494 and House Bill 10497).
All three posts focused heavily on the vulnerability, financial strain, and survival struggles of small, family-owned restaurants and independent operators in the Philippines. Each post highlighted how multiple pressures (rising operational costs, wages, compliance requirements, and government mandates) piled up on small businesses until they broke. All three emphasized that businesses are not faceless corporations; they are built on personal sacrifices, life savings, community identity, and real human livelihoods.
Chef Tatung’s post was an existential and solidarity-building reflection. His was an open invitation to talk about the psychological weight of surviving as an entrepreneur, encouraging owners to speak up rather than suffer in silence (“Hindi ka nag-iisa”). Emin and Mila’s Canteen’s post was a raw, deeply personal farewell. It dealt with the immediate grief, logistical nightmares, and emotional aftermath of shutting down a 48-year legacy, pleading for public empathy and respect. Sison’s post took the issue full circle by means of an urgent, action-oriented advocacy. While an emotional appeal, it provided statistical backing to a direct call to action, asking the public to support specific pending legislation (tax credits for senior/PWD discounts).
Sison listed and cataloged rising costs: 85 percent of restaurant owners saw sales drop in an April RestoPH survey; LPG prices surged from P954 to as high as P1,600 per tank; the daily minimum wage has risen to P755. This is where the 20 percent discount mandated by law can become the straw that breaks the camel’s back. When small businesses close due to financial strain, it destroys local jobs, wipes out entire life savings, and ends family legacies that took generations to build.
Currently, when restaurants and small businesses shoulder the 20 percent mandatory discount, they can only claim it as a tax deduction (which merely reduces taxable income). Under this setup, the vast majority of the discount’s actual financial burden is absorbed entirely out-of-pocket by the business owner.
A tax credit allows establishments to directly subtract the actual cost of the discounts from their final national internal revenue tax liabilities. This ensures that the government fairly shares the financial responsibility of funding these social welfare mandates instead of placing the entire weight on private operators. There is already proposed legislation: SB 2494 (by Sen. Mark Villar) and HB 10497 (by Rep. Joel Chua) propose converting the mandatory 20 percent discounts given to senior citizens and PWDs from tax deductions into direct tax credits.
Sison is asking people who care about fairness and jobs to take the time to write or send a message to their representatives and senators to support these bills.
Reading these and other posts, I believe that business owners overwhelmingly want to support senior citizens and PWDs, viewing them as family at their tables. Making the discount system fairer ensures that businesses remain healthy, open, and financially capable of continuing to honor these discounts without going bankrupt.
Because the lights are going out, one by one. Recovery Food in BGC closed after 14 years. Scout’s Honor shuttered after 12. Asador Dos Mestizos had to pull the plug on its Silang branch during the recent fuel crunch.
As Chef Tatung pointed out last July, the middle class from whose ranks the chefs and restaurateurs come tends to suffer in silence, afraid to compound their misery with official attention.
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Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @mlq3
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