Manila Standard - 2016 August 15 - Monday

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VOL. XXX • NO. 184 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2016 • WWW.THESTANDARD.COM.PH • EDITORIAL@THESTANDARD.COM.PH

REFUGE. Residents of low-lying areas take temporary shelter in covered basketball courts in Quezon City and Rizal after days of heavy rain caused floodings. Manny Palmero and AFP

VAT increase to 15% looms

WEATHER

Cabinet also pushes for oil tax hike 70,000 displaced; 5 dead FIVE people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled from floods caused by days of unrelenting rain, rescuers said Sunday. Civil defense officials warned residents of Manila and nearby provinces to expect more heavy seasonal rain over the coming days as more than 24,000 people sought refuge in schools and government buildings. “We are expecting more lowlying areas to experience flooding,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokeswoman Romina Marasigan told AFP. “Those who are already in evacuation centers should stay there until the weather improves,”

she added. Those evacuated include nearly 9,000 residents displaced by flooding from the Marikina River on Saturday. The council said three Manila slum residents were crushed to death Saturday by walls that collapsed from the floods. A man drowned crossing a swift-flowing river in Panay on Wednesday, the council said, while the authorities retrieved a body from a Manila canal on Friday. A fisherman went missing at sea off Marinduque on Monday, while a man was injured by falling rocks at a highway east of Manila on Friday. Next page

By Christine F. Herrera

T

HE government plans to increase the valueadded tax or VAT on goods and services from 12 percent to 15 percent and raise the excise tax on fuel from P4.53 a liter of gasoline to P10 a liter to fund President Rodrigo Duterte’s first national budget of P3.35 trillion, which is 11.6 percent higher than this year’s spending plan.

Highly placed Palace and House sources said the Cabinet Revenue Cluster headed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez is also considering lifting VAT exemptions on 30 products and services, and 13 types of transactions.

“Either we impose an increase on VAT to a maximum of 15 percent or we lift exemptions from too many VAT-exempt transactions. The country’s economic managers believe that there are too many exemptions on VAT Next page

RH budget Drug slays probed; US weighs in proposal set at P4b By Gabrielle Marie Consuelo H. Binaday THE National Economic and Development Authority will propose a higher budget for the “aggressive” implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law for 2017, a Cabinet official said over the weekend. Economic and Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told reporters that they aim to increase the RPRH law’s or budget to P4.26 billion in 2017, nearly double of the approved P2.28-billion budget this year. “So we’re really serious about the full implementation of the RH [law],” Pernia said. Pernia, who also serves as the Neda chief, said earlier that they will even consider borrowing from different agencies to fund the provisions of the law. The Neda chief said the proposal to increase the RPRH law budget will result in a wider and faster implementation of programs under it. President Rodrigo Duterte, in his first State of the Nation Address last month, said there will be a full implementation of the RPRH law under his administration. Next page

THE government on Sunday vowed to investigate reports of a wave of extrajudicial killings, after Washington warned that military aid was dependent on respect for human rights. Media reports say nearly a thousand people have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte won a landslide election victory in May largely on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals. The US Embassy warned the

Duterte government on Friday that millions of dollars of military aid allotted to the Philippines was tied to adherence to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights. “We are concerned by reports regarding extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to have been involved in drug activity in the Philippines,” it said. “We strongly urge the Philippines to ensure its law enforce-

ment efforts are consistent with its human rights obligations,” the embassy added. The Foreign Affairs Department said Sunday that it took note of US views on the issue, adding Manila was focused on the eradication of drugs in society. “Nevertheless, while pursuing this objective, the Philippine government is committed to the rule of law, and the protection of human rights for all,” the statement said. Next page

Top narc supplier gives up LUCENA CITY—Cerilo Alcala surfaced on Sunday and surrendered to the police accompanied by his brother, Quezon Rep. Vicente Alcala and his nephew, Lucena Mayor Roderick Alcala. Cerilo Alcala topped the drugwatch list in Quezon and is said to be the supplier of illegal drugs in the province for more than a decade, with Central Quezon as his area of operations. Cerilo, 59, and his son Shajid, 36, showed up at the police station after sending feelers that they would surrender four days after Mayor Alcala ordered the police Next page to arrest them. twitter.com/ MlaStandard

Exemptions for 30 items lifted soon THE 30 VAT exemptions that the government wants lifted cover: • Agricultural and marine food products in their original state; • Livestock and poultry of a kind generally used as, or yielding or producing foods for human consumption; • Breeding stocks and genetic materials; • Fertilizers; • Seeds, seedlings and fingerlings; • Fish, prawn, livestock and poultry feeds; • Ingredients, whether locally produced or imported, used in the manufacture of finished feeds; • Importation of personal and household effects belonging to residents of the Philippines returning from abroad and nonresident citizens coming to resettle in the Philippines; • Importation of professional instruments and implements; • Wearing apparel; • Domestic animals; Next page

Du30 firm on Marcos burial amid protests

HIGH VALUE. Cerelo Alcala (right), an alleged supplier of illegal drugs in Lucena City, and son Sajid Alcala, surrender to the city’s police chief Supt. Dennis de Leon. Benjie Antioquia

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PROTESTS took place Sunday in Manila over President Rodrigo Duterte’s plans to honor the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos with a state burial. About 2,000 people gathered in heavy rain to denounce Duterte’s plan to move Marcos’ remains from his hometown in Ilocos Norte to the National Heroes’ Cemetery in the capital, Manila, next month. “We would be the laughing stock of the entire planet,” Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of four members of parliament to attend the Manila rally, told AFP. Next page

The Duterte administration is looking at lifting

30 VAT exemptions

and 13 VAT zero-rated transactions, including:

AGRI-PRODUCTS

CLOTHES

REAL PROPERTY

GOLD

AIR AND SEA CARRIERS

P23 billion earmarked for House projects By Rio N. Araja THE Duterte administration will allocate some P23.5 billion to fund congressional projects of 294 members of the House of Representatives under the proposed national budget for 2017. The proposed allocation will be submitted Monday to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and should be ratified by Congress on or before Dec. 14. On July 6, the Department of Budget and Management said it would submit the proposed 2017 national budget of P3.3 trillion to Congress on Aug. 15. Next page

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