Death, taxes, and resurrection
“Nothing is certain except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin in a 1789 letter to his friend, French scientist Jean-Baptiste Leroy. They were active together in philosophical and scientific societies, Franklin with the American Philosophical Society, and Leroy with the Royal Society of France.
Leroy, like Franklin, was doing primary research on electricity. Together with Patrick d’Arcy, in 1749 Leroy constructed the first electrometer, a device for the detection of electrical charges and voltages. He also experimented with lightning conductors and with the use of electricity in the treatment of diseases.
Franklin was a polymath. Among his many inventions were the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and the flexible urinary catheter. He was an oceanographer, charting routes and winds, developing sea anchors, catamaran hulls, watertight compartments, shipboard lightning rods and many other marine equipment. Franklin wrote treatises on hydrodynamics, meteorology, and thermodynamics. He was also a musician, playing the violin, the harp, and the guitar, and composing original music pieces. What’s more, he was a champion chess player, competing abroad!
Franklin expounded on the socio-politics of the developing America in his many writings in his own printing press and publishing outlets, as he delved on the emerging science of demography or population studies in the new nation.
Ben Franklin was among the most influential intellectuals of his time, appointed the first Postmaster General and one of the first ambassadors of America to Europe. His hyper-involvement cast him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
And that’s where he was coming from, when he wrote to his fellow intellectual/social activist Jean-Baptiste Leroy — “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” (Sparks, Jared, 1856: The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. X 1789-1790; Macmillan press). Franklin was ecstatic about American independence, albeit worried about its vulnerability and sustainability, after suffering that critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, where diverse opinions could not immediately reconcile. (There’s always politics in government.)
Franklin knew that the success of the new government would depend on how the people and their leaders would be true and faithful to its principles and values as defined in the sacred Constitution. Duties of a citizen are essential obligations required to maintain a functioning, orderly society: obeying laws, paying taxes, defending the country, and electing principled leaders.
At the signing (finally!) of the much-debated Constitution, Franklin wrote: “A long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men… I never doubted the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter” (Isaacson, Walter, 2003: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster).
“A life here or hereafter…” Franklin, son of devout Puritans who came from Britain into the New World and a new life, believed in the strict morality of doing right in temporal life in the promise of the Christian credo: “(I believe) in the resurrection of the Dead, and Life Everlasting. Amen.”
In 1773, Franklin wrote: “I wish it were possible to invent a method of embalming (dead) persons in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence…” (frieze.com, Nov. 11, 2002).
THE PHILIPPINES
Nothing is certain except Death, Taxes, and Resurrection.
That is specially noted in this small democracy, the Philippines, with its population of 112,729,484, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority 2024 census. Its 2026 population may be about 117,724,471 people at mid-year, equivalent to about 1.42% of the total world population, according to some statistical researchers (www.worldometers).
Perhaps the most notable statistic is that the Philippines is the most Christian country in Asia in 2026 — with its estimated 107.72 million Catholics and other religious denominations that believe in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of Mankind (seasia.com, March 25). Christians may make up around 91.5% of the total population!
Easter, the greatest feast of Christianity, was just celebrated on April 5, in all the jubilation for the risen Christ, the God-Man who suffered and died for all humanity to be resurrected like Him, and rise to Eternal Life.
Death and Resurrection. Two sure things in Life, here and in the hereafter.
The inevitability of death by desperation may have been foremost in the collective consciousness since the last half of last year, hurting with one piece of bad news after another, since the rant of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in his State of the Nation address about corruption in government. “Mahiya naman kayo!” (Have some shame!) He challenged legislators and government officials to own up to their theft of the country’s wealth through anomalous transactions in government projects.
Some 40 legislators and government officials, and about 10 whistleblowers, contractors, and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers have been implicated in the flood control scams since 2004, according to published reports. Yet the guilty ones evidently did not think death was inevitable for sinners (except for one implicated DPWH undersecretary who allegedly committed suicide last December). Instead, investigators ran into dead ends thanks to legal technicalities in favor of the accused and implicated. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has been postponing hearings.
About 70% of the taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) letters of authority are lost to corruption and only 30% is remitted to government, according to Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito (ANC, Nov. 25, 2025). Still, the BIR recorded strong revenue performance in 2025, collecting P3.105 trillion for the year (bir.gov.ph).
A Pulse Asia survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 15, 2025 (published on Jan. 12, 2026) found that 59% of respondents believe those responsible for the multibillion-peso flood control scandal will go to jail, while only 13% think they will escape punishment. Another 28% were unsure. Although still a majority, the 59% in December was 12 points lower than the 71% of respondents in September 2025 who believed the flood control culprits would be punished.
Forty-four percent of Filipino adults believe the justice system can successfully prosecute high-level corruption cases like the flood control scandal. Meanwhile, 24% expressed no confidence, and 33% were unsure, the Pulse Asia survey also showed.
Impunity does seem to challenge death — sometimes in the illusionary near-term triumph of evil over good. But “a clear majority of Filipinos now believe former President Rodrigo Duterte should stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over killings linked to his bloody war on drugs, a new survey has shown — a ‘noticeable shift’ that analysts say reflects waning public support for the once-popular leader and his hardline policies,” the South China Morning Post reported on April 15, 2025.
“According to the poll March 31 to April 7, 2025 by public opinion firm WR Numero, more than three in five Filipinos said it was important for Duterte to personally appear before the ICC in The Hague to face charges linked to the drug war deaths under his administration. Only 20% of respondents said they disagreed, while 19% were unsure” (Ibid.).
Public approval of Vice-President Sara Duterte has likewise waned. Based on an SWS survey commissioned by the Stratbase Group, 66% of respondents said they agree that Vice-President Sara Duterte should confront the corruption allegations against her through the formal impeachment process. Only 19% said they disagree while 15% were “undecided.” (inquirer.net, July 15, 2025).
In May, before the survey, Ms. Duterte said in defiance: “I truly want a trial because I want a bloodbath.” Crying out for blood! But the supposed impeachment trial at the Senate did not push through that year after the Supreme Court labeled the impeachment bid as unconstitutional. This year, four impeachment complaints have been filed, containing allegations that are similar to the botched impeachment attempt of February 2025 — from allegations of confidential funds misuse, threats against ranking officials, bribery of officials, and other possible violations of the 1987 Constitution, news reports said (inquirer.net, March 13, 2026).
“Now who’s crying out for blood,” Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said. “From wanting a bloodbath, VP Sara is now once again trying to evade impeachment. She was impeached before, over a year has passed, she even declared her ambition for the country’s highest position, but she still does not want to answer the accusations?” (Ibid.).
Blood. Death. Where there’s wrong done, there should be accountability and retribution or rectification. “Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good,” Ben Franklin said in his Poor Richard’s Almanack of 1748. He exhorts good citizens to be vocal about what’s right or wrong in government, so that leaders are on notice to do their best for the country. “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are,” he reminds us.
And by the way: Good citizens, pay your taxes. The last day for paying income taxes for tax year 2025 is on Wednesday April 15, 2026.
No escape: “Nothing is certain except Death, Taxes, and Resurrection.”
Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.
