Driving TRAIN: Angara’s legacy

It is unfortunate that some quarters have criticized Senator Sonny Angara for his role in shepherding the tax reform legislation, known as TRAIN, in the Senate. These critics have even called on voters to reject Senator Angara, who is seeking reelection in 2019.

Though I had sharply criticized Senator Angara in the past for allowing vested interests to be accommodated, he ultimately had the TRAIN passed. It’s good enough that as the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, he facilitated the approval of this landmark reform.

The critics have misunderstood TRAIN, but I am confident that in the future it will be seen as a turning point in Philippine economic history — for correcting decades-old structural problems in our tax system and for generating sustained revenue to finance longterm development.

It was certainly a thankless task for the reelectionist senator to take up tax legislation, in which the primary but contentious feature is an increase in the fuel tax and other excise taxes. He did not avoid his responsibility of sponsoring the TRAIN bill, and he delivered despite the political backlash.

Senator Angara no doubt is aware of the sad experience of Senator Recto who authored the unpopular E-VAT law during Arroyo’s presidency. Recto’s loss in the Senate was wrongly attributed to his championing the EVAT. But then Gloria Arroyo was unpopular and her presidency had an asterisk. (Remember the crisis brought about by “Hello Garci”?)