SC won’t stop Train
The petitioners were led by Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, and Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Rep. Antonio Tinio.
The second set of petitioners is the consumer advocacy group Laban Konsyumer, Inc.
Included in the list of respondents was President Rodrigo Duterte, who was impleaded in the petition, and was also accused of grave abuse of discretion for enacting the Train bill “not validly passed by Congress.”
Government had insisted that Train would “create a more just, simple, and more effective system of tax collection where the rich will have a bigger contribution and the poor programs and services.”
The militant lawmakers sought to void the law since Train bill’s bicameral conference committee report quorum and without a vote.”
Grave abuse of discretion was allegedly committed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and Deputy Majority Leader Arthur Defensor, Jr., by not allowing opposition workers to interpellate during the plenary deliberatons.
The Train Law lowers personal income taxes while raising duties on fuel, cars, coal and sugarsweetened drinks.
Revenues coming from the new tax scheme will raise money for the president’s P8-trillion infrastructure program.
The petitioners are challenging the Law’s passage and are vowing pursue against the measures’ “regressive and burdensome new tax impositions.”
Laban Konsyumer questioned the Train Law for imposing a “heavy burden” on Filipinos from low-income and poor families, as it insists that “[t] he unwarranted imposition of excise gas, and kerosene, and the increase in the excise tax on coal which are considered (or form part) of basic commodities… are in the nature of a tax subsistence.”
It pointed out that Train Law would be “inequitable and regressive,” stressing that taxation was equitable only when its burden fell on those with the capacity to pay. The petition stressed that the Constitution mandates that taxation must be progressive, not regressive.
TRANSITION