Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Wednesday welcomed the signing into law of his “malasakit” (compassionate) measure exempting persons with disabilities from paying the 12-percent value-added tax on certain goods and services.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank the President for signing this very important measure into law. This is a compassionate measure aimed at helping the plight of PWD sector,” said Romualdez, who is also the president of the Philippine Constitution Association.
President Benigno Aquino III signed the measure into law on Tuesday but government agencies headed by the departments of Social Welfare and Health, in coordination with the trade department, are still preparing the implementing rules and regulations to ensure that the legislation will be implemented properly.
Romualdez said the VAT exemption will cover medical and dental services; purchase of medicines in all drugstores; public railways, skyways and bus fare; admission fees in theaters, cinema houses, concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other places of culture, leisure and amusement; and all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants, and recreation centers.
Under Republic Act No. 10754, relatives of PWDs up to the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity who are taking care of the handicapped individual can also claim an income tax deduction of P25,000 annually.
Tahanang Walang Hagdanan Inc. president Manuel Agcaoili said there are almost 10 million physically and mentally PWDs in the country, or about 10 percent of the total population based on the estimates of the World Health Organization.
But the Philippine Statistics Authority placed the number of PWDs in the country at only 1.5 million, Agcaoili said.
Lawmakers have also lauded the measure of which Romualdez was the principal author.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, said the signing into law of the measure showed the government’s ‘malasakit’ to the marginalized sector that Romualdez and other authors like him have been advocating for.
“As [former] President [Ramon] Magsaysay said—those who have less in life must have more in law,” Angara said.
For his part, Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, said the measure guarantees “inclusive growth” that will have a trickle down effect to the poorest of the poor, including marginalized PWDs.