Chiz to economic team: Cite funding for PBBM’S list

THE economic managers were asked to provide Congress with “detailed funding” for the programs the new administration intends to implement in the next six years, as expressed in President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Senator Francis Escudero suggested Tuesday that the country’s economic team “flesh out the details” of Marcos Jr.’s “very compelling vision” of how he wants to navigate the nation in the next six years, “particularly the sources of funds to implement his initiatives.”

Beyond that vision, Escudero said, “what follows is the hard part of funding those dreams.”

Addressing the joint session of Congress on Monday, the President committed to “modernize and further improve the healthcare system by duplicating in other parts of the country specialty hospitals” such as the Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, and Lung Center of the Philippines—all built during the time of his father’s presidency.

In the past four decades, these specialty hospitals have benefited an increasing number of people from all over the country, but there has been a clamor to build more of them at least in the center of each major iland group, to avoid forcing patients to travel for hours, even days to Metro Manila.

Besides the specialty hospitals, Marcos also vowed to a “even expand the previous administration’s massive infrastructure Build Build Build” by adding more “Public-private Partnership” projects to spur economic growth in the countryside.

Escudero, a three-term senator from Bicol, called on the government to divulge the cost of the SONA programs and how these will be financed, noting that ultimately, “the taxpayers will pay for these projects.”

Every government program, he reminded, “carries a price tag, often hidden, while the purported benefits are highly praised. Lost in the euphoria is the fact that it is the people, and nobody else, who will eventually pay for them. The buck begins with the taxpayer.”

Speaking partly in Filipino, Escudero wanted to know, “How do they plan to fund the projects cited by the President? Will it be through new taxes or new borrowings? Will the people pay in pain right now through higher taxes or will the government just take a mortgage on our children’s future? We need to know.”

Moreover, the lawmaker cautioned the Department of Finance against imposing new taxes that will “make life harder for the majority of Filipinos.”

For instance, he cited the proposed value-added tax imposition on Netflix and online digital transactions via ecommerce sites Lazada and Shopee, saying the economic managers should be able to present a clear and comprehensive proposal.

Some critics of this proposed digital tax have said that proponents mistakenly believe they would only impact the rich and middle class who heavily patronize e-commerce sites or entertainment platforms, but reminded them that majority of poor households also will be impacted by a digital tax because of their heavy use of the internet for schooling and work from home duties.

“There is no doubt that the people have united behind the President’s articulation of their aspirations. But unity is soluble in taxes—high and unfair taxes,” Escudero stressed. He indicated that he is now looking forward to receiving the proposed P5.2-trillion national budget for 2023 “at the soonest possible time to determine if the SONA promises are indeed funded.”

A tabulation of how much these programs cost and how each will be funded “must be highlighted in the administration’s 2023 national budget,” Escudero said, signalling he is also committed to “work for the expeditious passage of next year’s budget to ensure timely implementation of various programs.”