GMA, allies press tax hikes to plug budget deficit

MANILA, Philippines - Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies in the House of Representatives plan to help President Aquino plug the huge budget deficit that her administration posted before exiting on June 30.

“President Noynoy does not want to raise taxes. We in Lakas-Kampi will do it for him. That is our marching order from our party chairman, President GMA,” Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez told the Serye Café news forum in Quezon City yesterday.

He said proposals to help the Aquino administration generate more revenues and thereby solve the huge budget deficit problem that Mrs. Arroyo left behind would be discussed in the two-day Lakas-Kampi-CMD team-building and bonding sessions which start today at a casino-hotel in Clark, Angeles City.

“We will cooperate with the new government in plugging the budget deficit,” he said.

Suarez was the Arroyo administration’s principal taxman in the previous Congress. However, then President Arroyo did not support his tax proposals and the chairman of the House committee on ways and means, then Antique Rep. Exequiel Javier, sat on them.

At one time, the Quezon congressman was so exasperated over lack of support from the Palace and its congressional allies that he blamed both Malacañang and the legislature for the ballooning budget deficit.

He has re-filed three revenue-related measures in the House. One seeks to “rationalize” tax rates on the so-called “sin taxes” on cigarettes and liquor. Another proposes the creation of a National Gaming Commission that would regulate gambling, cockfighting, horse racing, and lottery games.

His third bill would require the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to install metering devices in telecommunications (telco) companies to monitor text messages, voice calls and other services.

Suarez said he and other Lakas-Kampi members would discuss these tax measures during their Clark sessions.

“I am confident that I can get them to endorse these proposals as a way of helping the new government generate revenues,” he said.

He said the sin tax measure would result in an increase in the levy on some products and a reduction on others.

As for his proposed gaming commission, he explained that this would put the regulation of all gambling and gaming activities under one umbrella.

“From casino gaming alone, we could generate billions of pesos just from the grant of franchises. In Singapore, a casino investor has to pay more than $1 billion for the franchise,” he said.