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Friday, March 29, 2024

Money stops when campaign starts—Manny

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Presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Pacquiao yesterday assured he will stop giving out cash when the official election campaign period begins on Feb. 8.

“Now that the (official) campaign period begins, I will stop handing out (cash). We will follow the Comelec,” said Pacquiao.

He asserted he did not violate any law when he gave out money during his pre-election campaign.

Pacquiao admitted that he took advantage of handing out cash while the campaign period has not yet started.

“It’s not yet officially election season, I am not yet covered by the law, that’s why I am taking advantage of it,” he said.

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However, the world boxing champion reiterated he has been giving out cash donation to the poor for several years now, even before he joined politics.

According to Pacquiao, the money came from his personal finances. He maintained that it should not be construed as influencing people to vote for him on May 9.

Based on the 2020 summary of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of senators, Pacquiao is the country’s second richest senator.

Pacquiao, who reported a net worth of P3.18 billion in 2020, is known to hand out P1,000 to P2,000 per person, aside from food pack items during his out-of-town sorties.

Meanwhile, if elected as President, Pacquiao on Friday said the country’s non-tax revenue income should be increased to provide funds for the government and help ease poverty.

He said generating more non-tax revenues would lessen the need to impose more taxes to fund government programs.

In the “Panata sa Bayan: The KBP Presidential Candidates Forum,” he said the government should not only rely on tax revenue, considering that it only contributes around 6% of the government’s annual income.

Pacquiao said boosting the non-tax revenue income would prevent the imposition of higher taxes, which result in price hikes of goods and services that make poor people poorer.

“It should be the other way around; the government should rely on non-tax revenue income and not only on tax revenue income,” he said.

The senator stressed the income being generated from taxes is not enough to fund most government projects, forcing the government to resort to loans.

He said this will be one of his agenda if he gets elected to the presidency.

“Our biggest concern is our spending is much bigger than what the country is earning. Our earnings are also becoming smaller due to corruption,” he added.

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