Mar vows to plug leakages if elected

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said the Philippine economy needs no magic formula to grow and improve.

The problems are clear, he said, noting that if he wins as the country’s next second highest official, he would push for effective governance to stop both the revenue and expenditure leaks.

Generally, he said he would advocate for an improvement in governance, put forward effective spending and cut down on revenue leakages.

“We don’t need a magic formula. The problems are fairly straightforward,” Roxas said last week in a roundtable discussion with editors, columnists and reporters of The STAR on his plans for the country if he wins as vice president.

For example in agriculture, Roxas noted that the government spends billions of pesos to import rice when it should be producing its own needs.

“How do you expect us to get rich if annually we ship out billions of pesos to buy rice from Thai farmers… What if we produce that rice?” Roxas said. However, he noted that there is a leakage because of the lack of proper storage and irrigation facilities.

“So just about in every aspect of the economy, you just need to apply straightforward techniques…There’s so much low-hanging fruit in the country that a few months of straight forward governance is really needed,”Roxas said.

Addressing the leakages, Roxas said this very well applies to tax collections in the country.

He said that if he becomes vice-president, he would not recommend slapping new taxes, saying that the existing measures are already enough. The view is consistent with the position of Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

The problem, he said, is in tax administration and collection.

“You have to differentiate the arithmetic of economists and bankers from the reality of what’s on the ground. Any imposition of a tax is an added burden on those already captured when our problem is the leakage — those that are not captured. So for example, everybody has a 20 percent withholding tax and we are all captured. But our problem are the people who are not in this room but who make bundles of money that is not recorded and is offbooks. That is the problem,” Roxas said.

He said the problem is capturing those that are not presently captured.

When asked what portfolio he wants to take if he is elected vice-president, Roxas said he is willing to head any agency or department where he can be useful. He said he is not asking for any position and is willing to head even the Bureau of Internal Revenue or the Bureau of Customs if assigned to these posts.

He said his priority areas once elected are addressing the country’s rice supply problem and ensuring that prices of medicines in the country are appropriate. He also wants to ensure that people get the security they deserve in their financial transactions.

“I hate the fact that we import rice. That’s pretty straightforward… What’s important are the things that matter to real people. They want a future. They want livelihood,” he added. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)