'We really must consider the alternative transport channel, as it…will give citizens from all walks of life an avenue for safe and easy mobility,' says Senator Zubiri. The bill that seeks to lower the income tax of companies and rationalize tax perks has successfully hurdled the House of Representatives. On Friday, September 13, lawmakers voted 170-8-6 in favor of House Bill (HB) No. 4157 or the proposed Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act (Citira) on 3rd and final reading. Citira is the renamed version of the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities bill that the House had passed in the previous 17th Congress. The Trabaho bill, however, ran out of time in the Senate and had to be refiled in the 18th Congress. Among those who voted no to the Citira bill was Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman who said the measure is a “classic example of how skewed the Philippine tax system is against the poor.” “To deodorize Citira’s inequitable partiality to the rich, it is propagandized that Citira would purportedly generate employment and attract investments. These are overstated, and even contrived,” said the opposition lawmaker in explaining his no vote. The measure is the second tranche of the Duterte administration's Comprehensive Tax Reform Program.
The national budget for 2020 has been signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday. The General Appropriations Act of 2020 is ₱4.1 trillion, 9 percent higher than the previous year’s 3.76 trillion budget. The budget wasn’t signed at the end of 2019 because the President requested “thorough” scrutiny of the bill. President Duterte said in his speech that this year’s spending plan would support the government’s goal of making the Philippines an upper bracket-income country, and lowering poverty to 14 percent by the end of his term. He remarked that just like in previous years,