President leaves fate of TRAIN to Congress

Amid increasing prices of goods, President Duterte said over the weekend that he was leaving it up to Congress to decide what to do with the implementation of his administration’s key tax measure, the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

This was Duterte’s response to recent protests and

growing clamor to suspend the TRAIN due to the increase in the price of commodities caused by the surging price of oil in the world market.

Duterte, in his pre-departure speech before leaving for his three-day visit to South Korea on Sunday, said he will let Congress decide on the matter since they were the ones who passed the law.

“Well, the law was enacted by Congress, I’ll leave it to Congress to decide whether or not to amend or suspend or modify the law,” the President said.

Duterte said it does not matter whether he wants the implementation of TRAIN to continue or not, but he will welcome whatever the decision of the Congress may be.

“I’ll leave it to Congress. There’s no value in giving much — of what I want. Because kung sabihin ko naman na because we need it for the Build, Build, Build at kung sabihin — wala naman akong magawa (if I say that we need it for the Build, Build, Build, and they go against that, then there’s nothing I can do),” he said.

“At kung sabihin naman nila (And if they said that) well, we’ll just have to bite the bullet and go on, eh wala rin akong magawa kung ‘yan ang decision nila (then I also cannot do anything if that is their choice),” he added.

Duterte is also letting Congress decide if it is necessary to create a new law to increase the minimum wage. He, however, is certain that money is needed to keep the economy afloat.

“Well, for one thing we cannot legislate. Actually, cost of money is a matter of a cycle of economy,” he said.

In a speech last week, Duterte defended the implementation of TRAIN and said that he needed it to run the country.

“Inflation is always there. There are many reasons, but actually, one of them is TRAIN. But I need money also to run the country. If you do not give it, fine,” he said.

Meantime, Duterte had ordered the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to activate all its surveillance teams to strictly monitor the price of commodities and arrest those who go far beyond the suggested retail price.