The House of Representatives will work double time to enable the chamber to pass President Rodrigo Duterte’s tax and economic reform measures by the end of the year, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez of Leyte said on Monday.
Romualdez said the approval of the President’s legislative agenda at the soonest possible time would propel the country’s economic growth. “If we can sustain this, we might go to greater heights never seen before,” said Romualdez.
Some of these measures are alcohol taxes; property valuation; and capital Income Tax.
“Lifting Filipinos out of poverty is the top priority of President Duterte in the next three years and we need everybody’s support for this mission. The numbers now are good. All poverty indicators are at all-time low. We just need to stay on the course and make sure that all the programs and policies are in place for the next phase of the war against poverty,” Romualdez said.
Also in the House, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said the chamber would focus on four important measures, among others, in support of the President’s legislative agenda.
He said the measures included the three bills calling for the creation of three departments, and the one mandating an increase in the salary of government workers.
Under the stewardship of Romualdez, the House is expected to prioritize deliberations, specially now that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has said the government has enough funds to implement another salary adjustment.
Given this, Villafuerte, deputy speaker for finance, said there was more reason for the Congress to approve a measure amending the Salary Standardization Law to clear the way to another pay increase.
Duterte earlier issued an executive order amending the SSL by modifying the salary schedule to authorize a fourth pay increase since this law was signed by then President Aquino in 2016.
A former vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, Villafuerte said the chamber would also put on the front-burner the President’s SONA proposals on the establishment of the Department for overseas Filipino workers along with the Departments of Disaster Resilience and of water resources, as Dominguez had also said the creation of these new line departments would not cost the government so much.
“The House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker [Alan Peter] Cayetano, would make a big push for the immediate consideration of the new salary hike and the creation of three new departments—as endorsed by President Duterte in his 4th SONA—more so now that the head of the state economic team has neither raised any objection to nor funding concerns over these proposals,” Villafuerte said.
Romualdez assured that stakeholders concerned would be consulted and that public hearings on tax measures would be conducted thoroughly before Congress approved any.
He said “taxes are considered the lifeblood of the nation. The government needs funds to operate smoothly, so it can serve the people properly.”
“However, it is our duty to consult the people when imposing additional taxes. We will make sure that the measures to be approved are reasonable and acceptable to all,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez earlier said he was hopeful the Lower Chamber would approve “in record time” about a third of the 26 priority measures outlined by Duterte in his 2019 State-of-the-Nation Address.
These measures, he said, included the National Land Act; Department of Disaster Resilience; Coconut Levy Fund; TRABAHO bill; Alcohol taxes; Property valuation; Capital Income Tax; Mandatory ROTC for Grades 11 and 12; Government rightsizing bill; Energizing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; National Transport Act; and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Of these measures, Romualdez said only the National Transport Act and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were not specifically mentioned by President Duterte in his 2019 SONA. These, however, were among the priority measures specified by the President in his 2018 SONA.
Romualdez said all these measures are expected to face easy sailing in the committee deliberations as these were already approved by the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress.
Other priority measures outlined by the President in his 2019 SONA were: suspension of excise tax on fuel; new salary standardization law; additional benefits for solo parents; health workers in all barangays; expansion of Malasakit Centers; postponement of barangay and SK elections to October 2022; Magna Carta for Barangays; Department of Overseas Filipinos; Department of Water Resources and Water Regulatory Commission; Fire Protection Modernization Program; National Defense Act; Uniformed Personnel Separation Retirement Pension Bill; National Academy of Sports for High School Students; amendments to Land Bank charter; and development of renewable energy sources.