DEFECTS in the provisions and enforcement of the tax reform of the government have left people vulnerable to the rising cost of living, according to three incumbent senators who filed their certificate of candidacy (COC) on Monday.
The lawmakers are now reviewing their support for the second part of the tax-reform package, which the House of Representatives has called the “Trabaho” bill, for Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities.
Sen. Cynthia A. Villar was the first to submit her COC on Monday at the Commission on Elections main office in Intramuros, Manila, to seek reelection in the May 2019 polls.
In a brief speech after filing, Villar said the lax enforcement of the anti-cartel laws and wrong economic projections caused the surge in inflation in previous months.
In September inflation rate reached 6.7 percent, triggering a spate of nonmonetary administrative measures and another rate hike by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
She called the attention of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) for failing to break the rice and onion cartel, which took advantage of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which took effect on January 1, 2018, as the first part of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).
“We passed a law for large-scale agriculture smuggling as economic sabotage making it nonbailable, yet they were not able to send to prison smugglers or the cartel, so there is negligence [on] their part,” Villar said.
Villar filed her COC under the Nacionalista Party (NP) and was accompanied by her husband, former Senate President and real-estate mogul Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr.
If she wins in the 2019 polls, Villar said she will focus on legislation to boost the competitiveness of the agriculture industry and environmental protection.
She said among her priority legislation is climate-based crop insurance; livestock, poultry and dairy development law; and repeal of the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009. Despite contributing to the rising cost of living, the TRAIN law, Villar said, is necessary to help the government fund its mass infrastructure programs.
“I don’t regret supporting it, but we were not able to consider that some people will take advantage of the TRAIN law. It is a lesson learned,” Villar said.
Poe hits slow response
Reelectionist Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares also maintained her support for the TRAIN law, but she added the government failed to enforce its corresponding “social mitigating measures,” which would have minimized the adverse impact on the public.
She criticized the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) for failing to promptly distribute cash aid for poor families and drivers of public- utility jeeps, respectively.
“The problem is they collected the money, but they were not able to immediately provide the necessary aid so the [economic] situation worsened,” Poe said.
Poe said members of the Senate are now pushing for the immediate suspension of the excise tax and the passage of the rice tarification bill to tame the surging inflation rate.
Poe was accompanied by her mother, Susan Roces, when she filed her COC as an independent candidate on Monday. She noted, though, that the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) adopted her in their 2019 senatorial slate.
Last-minute change
For his part, Joseph “JV” G. Ejercito decried the removal of a provision in the TRAIN law, particularly for inflation. He explained that many senators, including himself, supported the Senate version of the TRAIN law since it contained two “safeguards” to minimize its inflationary impact.
The safeguards include the suspension of the excise tax for the fuel if its global price reaches $80 per barrel; and the suspension of the excise tax if the inflation reaches 4 percent.
Ejercito, however, lamented that the second provision was scrapped in the final version of TRAIN. If it had been retained, the steady gallop of inflation to as much as 6.7 percent in September would have been enough to kick in a suspension of the excise tax.
Poe and Ejercito said they will only support the passage of the Trabaho bill once they are firmly convinced the defects in the enforcement of TRAIN will not happen again.
“At this point, not yet [support it] because we feel, as I mentioned, there [were] some dishonesty in the provision of TRAIN,” Ejercito said.
“Economic managers have to be honest first before we can trust what they want,” he added.
Ejercito, who is running under the NPC, said he will lobby for legislation providing emergency powers to President Duterte for the government’s mass infrastructure program.
“We cannot afford any more delays. I think we are 30 years behind in construction development so it has been hampering our economic growth,” Ejercito said.