Whoever conceptualized the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN did not do their homework. The ripple effects on the people’s lives are mostly negative. Finance Secretary Carlos Domingo and his team of consultants are reaping a cascade of complaints.
Sure, there are benefits like employees earning less than P250,000 a year or P21,000 a month not anymore having to file their income tax return. This provision in TRAIN increases workers take home pay. However, the excise tax levied on fuel and petroleum has a ripple effect on consumers.The excise tax on petroleum products and softdrinks containing sugar sweeteners are passed on to the consumers.
Gasoline and diesel distributors raised their prices at the pump.
Consequently, transporters of products and people are also increasing their cost of fare and carrying of products to the market. Transports groups like UV Express, taxis, jeepneys and buses are now asking the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to allow them to increase their fares to be able to afford the increasing cost of basic commodities, including electricity. The LTRB is amenable to a fare hike as long as it not arbitrarily too much “Fare is fair,” is the LTRB formula.
Vegetables transported from Baguio and other provinces, meat and fish from their source, are those mostly affected. The government may achieve its goal of increasing revenue for big-ticket infrastructure projects at the expense of the small income taxpayers.
As I have said before, I’m not so affected by TRAIN being a diabetic and a retired person. All these complaints against TRAIN are not mine. I’m merely airing the common people’s grievances so those in government will know what it has done.
The lines are drawn
At the Senate hearing on Wednesday, the senators and the resource persons—law deans and former members of the 1986 Constitutional Convention—expressed their views on charter change. A drawing of the lines between the House pushing for a Constitutional Assembly and those who favor a Constitutional Convention to revise the charter is clearly emerging.
Senator Ping Lacson now also wants the Senate to convene itself into a constituent assembly and do its own revision of the charter.
Lacson’s proposal, Senate Resolution 580, which has gained the support of other senators, is to maintain the independence of the Senate and prevent its abolition under the House- planned parliamentary /federalism setup. The Senate also insists on separate voting on any revised Constitution.
These are critical times for the country and its 30-year old Constitution drafted and approved in a plebiscite during then President Cory Aquino’s revolutionary administration. She convened a Constitutional Convention to draw up the fundamental law of the land to replace the 1935 Charter. Now the politicians in the House of Representatives want to do it all by themselves so they can advance their own selfish agenda.
The people must be made aware of what the lowlifes in the lower house are planning. They want to shelve the 2019 mid-term elections so they can be holdover officials without having to campaign and spend money for their bid to stay in office. The House has a bigger plan and that is to install President Rodrigo Duterte as interim Prime Minister during the transition from bicameral to unicameral parliamentary system technically abolishing the Senate.
What is suspect is that the House-planned system switch does not specify the duration of the so-called transition time. Although the President himself said he does not want to stay on longer than his single six-year term, speculation on the House end game of Digong as PM has not been easy to dismiss.
What the President can do to squelch such rumors is for him to tell Congress to cease and desist. Federalism can still be pursued through charter change done by duly elected constitutional convention delegates. This can be done within a year’s time without any draconian changes in the present setup until a subsequent referendum ratifies the revised Constitution.
Someone suggested why not revise the charter with the job done by 21 senators and an equal number of congressmen headed by the Senate President and the House Speaker? The only problem to this suggestion is that both the Senate and the House are headed by President Duterte’s PDP-Laban political party. How about throwing in an equal number of persons from the academe like law deans, captains of industry, and also leading and reputable members of media? Former 1986 Con-Con members Fr. Joaquin Bernas and Christian Monsod should also be included.
Another suggestion by a concerned citizen is to abolish both the Senate and the House and let the defrocked legislators run for election as members of parliament or MPs under the revised charter.