Starting June 1, the Philippine government will enforce a 12 percent value-added tax on digital services.
This policy will affect millions of users, freelancers, and businesses by requiring both foreign and local providers to charge VAT on platforms like Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, Shopee, Lazada, Canva, Zoom, Meta Ads, and cloud services such as Google Cloud, and AWS.
And yet, despite the lack of benefits, absence of security of tenure, and zero protection, freelancers in this country will have to continue to work.
Let’s be honest: this government—the very institution that should be protecting us—has shown time and again that it is out of touch with the realities faced by ordinary Filipino workers, like freelancers.
In a country where job scarcity, inflation, and underemployment are daily battles, thousands have turned to freelancing not because it is glamorous or easy, but because it’s the only viable option.
And we have thrived—not through government support, but through self-discipline, upskilling, and perseverance.
But instead of encouraging this innovation and resilience, this administration responds with yet another tax.
Let us call it what it is, a revenue grab rooted in laziness.
Rather than fixing loopholes in the system, chasing large-scale tax evaders, and enforcing accountability among the powerful elite who bleed this country dry, the government chooses the easier path—milking the majority of Filipinos who actually earn their living independently, honestly, and transparently.
Why are they being taxed to the bone when there are even no clear signs where the money of the country’s coffers goes?
Where are the improvements on services or in infrastructure? Roads and bridges are still broken. Hospitals still lack doctors and equipment. The education system is crumbling. The internet—the very backbone of our work—continues to unreliable and overpriced.
And yet, billions of pesos vanish into “confidential funds”.
We’ve watched public officials prioritize Charter change, Red-tagging, and silencing dissent, instead of focusing on job creation, digital infrastructure, or educational reform.
Meanwhile, freelancers continue to pay out-of-pocket for healthcare, internet upgrades, software tools, and even tax compliance services—expenses that full-time employees are fortunate not to have to consider.
Where is the return on our contributions? What has the government done for the freelance sector? There are no subsidies, no benefits, no access to fair legal recourse when clients disappear. No government hotline to protect us from scam jobs. In short, we are invisible until it’s time to be taxed.
Billions that could’ve gone to livelihood programs, digital infrastructure, healthcare, or fair tax incentives for small earners like us—disappear into silence. No breakdowns. No receipts. No shame.
And when people question it, they are silenced. Red-tagged. Brushed off as “bitter critics.”
But who suffers the most? We do—the ordinary citizens.
And now they want to take more from us?
Enough.
Actively. Quietly. Diligently. Every peso we earn is taxed through platform fees, currency conversion, and now, they want to slap another 12 percent VAT?
This is not sustainable. This is not right. You can do better, and you must do better.
Support the workers who ask for dignity, or continue to serve the corrupt who take everything, and give nothing in return.
Stop punishing the people who actually comply with the rules. Start holding accountable those who’ve made a career out of abusing them.
So I say to this administration: You cannot continue to demand more from your people when you give them so little in return.
Before you bleed the sector dry, ask yourselves: Have you earned the right?
Prince Wilkens Abordo
princewilkens03@gmail.com
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Prince Wilkens Abordo is a junior Secondary Education student majoring in Mathematics at Silliman University. He is chairperson of the SU Student Government Advocacy Committee. He is also chairperson for the Committee on Governance at the Provincial Youth Development Council, and chairperson for the Committee on Active Citizenship at the Local Youth Development Council.
