MANNY VOWS TO BOOST BIR EFFICIENCY / NOYNOY: NO TO GMA-NAMED SC CHIEF
MANILA, FEBRUARY 21, 2010 (STAR) By Christina Mendez - Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Manuel Villar Jr. vowed yesterday to crack the whip on the country’s revenue agencies as well as strengthen local governments’ tax collection powers – if he is elected president – to address the country’s runaway budget deficit.Villar said the government’s P298.5-billion deficit last year, which was P48.5 billion over the target, threatens to dampen economic growth in the next two years unless adequate measures are put in place.
“The next administration needs to boost the efficiency of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs. Our commitment is to improve tax administration, simplify taxation for small businesses and the self-employed, and rationalize fiscal incentives,” Villar said.
“At the same time, we need to ensure that the revenue-raising powers of local government units are adequate and robust to finance public services. Healthy LGUs will take some of the pressure off the national government,” he added.
Villar acknowledged that stimulus spending and reconstruction costs for damage caused by typhoons last year had inflated the deficit.
But he explained that a prudent fiscal administration through improved collection must be put in place if the government wants to cut the deficit to manageable levels in the next two years.
“Creating new taxes will always be a last resort in addressing the deficit problem. Our priority will be to improve collection efficiency and be very prudent in our fiscal affairs,” he said. “We need to perk up the countryside economy by empowering LGUs in revenue generation to allow them to make growth-inducing investments.”
Villar said a thin tax base and complex tax structure are hampering collection efforts.
“We will zero in on structural defects and move quickly to boost efficiency,” he said.
Earlier, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves blamed the staggering deficit on new laws cutting taxes and on government’s failure to sell big-ticket assets.
But Villar said the situation is not hopeless.
“As a former businessman and entrepreneur, I understand how big deficits can stunt economic growth. It will take good governance and strong political will to execute measures needed to address the deficit problem,” he stressed.
“We will need to work closely with Congress and other branches of government,” he said.
Noynoy eyes impeachment for GMA-appointed Chief Justice By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) Updated February 21, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - A Supreme Court chief justice appointed by President Arroyo is likely to undergo impeachment proceedings if Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is elected president.
Aquino made this clear during a roundtable discussion with editors and columnists of The STAR, citing the constitutional prohibition on appointments two months before the May 10 elections and until the end of her term on June 30. He said the law only allows appointments in the executive department in extreme cases.
He earlier said he would not recognize an Arroyo-appointed successor to Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who retires on May 17 or a week after the elections.
“It’s not a question of recognition, but I think I will have to follow the Constitution which says she (Mrs. Arroyo) can’t appoint,” he said.
“If she appoints somebody and I don’t object, then I’m tacitly approving the appointment and going against the Constitution,” he pointed out.
A magistrate who accepts an unlawful appointment may be impeached, he stressed.
“We have an impeachment proceeding, kailangan dumaan siya duon, sana nga hindi na (he has to hurdle it, but I hope it doesn’t come to that).”
When reminded that the SC, composed of 14 Arroyo appointees, might uphold such an appointment anyway, Aquino said he would have no problem with that.
“That’s okay. We’re open to both routes. What is clear to me is when you go to the Constitution, there are no ifs and buts. There’s only one exemption, and these are appointments in the executive department,” he explained.
“Other than that, she’s barred from appointing two months before (the May polls) and up to the end of her term. Everybody seems to have agreed and no one has posed any objection to my interpretation,” Aquino stressed.
Earlier, two senior justices - Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales - said they would not accept an appointment from Mrs. Arroyo.
Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of party-list Alagad said the decision of the two senior magistrates has undermined the independence of the judiciary.
“By refusing to be appointed (by Mrs. Arroyo), they have already breached the cold neutrality of an impartial judge,” Marcoleta said.
“Chances are they will be appointed by the next president. The victim here is the judiciary, where they were instrumental in eroding its independence,” he said.
He also called on Sen. Francis Pangilinan and former Senate president Franklin Drilon to “stop salivating” on the issue. Pangilinan and Drilon belong to LP.
Arroyo and Carpio had a falling out in 2006, when the latter’s law partner then Defense Secretary Avelino “Nonong” Cruz resigned from the Cabinet. Carpio’s senior partner Pancho Villaraza was the President’s lawyer in the initial stage of her administration.
Marcoleta said the “most logical choice or successor” of Puno is Justice Renato Corona, the second most senior magistrate. Corona has accepted the nomination of the Judicial and Bar Council. He is open to an Arroyo appointment.
“It is more likely that Justice Carpio and Justice Carpio-Morales believe that it may be too far-fetched for either of them to be appointed by GMA as possible successor to Puno, hence both openly declined to be named by her to the post,” Marcoleta said.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2010 by
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved