Lawmakers to PBBM: Don’t give election losers posts in Cabinet

By Maricel V. Cruz

REP. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday urged

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to resist the temptation of appointing or recycling candidates who lost in the May 2022 elections.

He made the appeal as the one-year ban on the appointment of election losers has expired.

Rodriguez said if the President now fills vacant Cabinet jobs, “it should not be because of the lapse of the one-year appointment ban but because there is real need for full-time Cabinet members, including one at the Department of Agriculture (DA), which is temporarily headed by the Chief Executive himself.”

He added that the President should stop the practice of recycling “or rewarding defeated candidates with government positions.”

Among the departments that are in need of full-time permanent secretaries are those of agriculture, health and national defense.

In the case of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Rodriguez said the President should give way to a full-time secretary “because he has his hands already full in international relations and immediate domestic needs and problems of the country, including rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea.”

“I would recommend that the next agriculture secretary be from Mindanao, the island being the Philippines’s breadbasket. It is also high time to transfer the DA central office to Mindanao where our country’s agricultural battle ground is set,” he said.

“He should have competent people helping him. He is very fortunate that he has his principal ally in Congress, our Speaker Martin Romualdez, to rely on not only in terms of legislative and moral support but in solving problems the nation faces,” he said. Rodriguez is the chair of the House committee on constitutional amemdments.

4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan meanwhile said the Chief Executive should preferably pick new

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SENATOR Chiz Escudero has warned the government against introducing new tax measures as they would burden the public which have yet to recover from the pandemic. He said the government should instead boost its fight against corruption, go after tax cheats, and cut unnecessary expenditures.

“Taxation should be the last resort, not the first option. You reduce unnecessary expenses to cancel the need for unreasonable taxes,“ Escudero said, adding that extracting more taxes from the people is the wrong way to revive an economy hit by a pandemic.

“How will they recover if you will pull them down with the new taxes?” Escudero said. Choked by the pandemic, he noted that the last thing the public deserves is to be choked by taxes this time.

He said rising inflation also provides the “wrong timing” to hike taxes. “Because it reduces purchasing power,” the senator department secretaries who are ready to serve for the next five years. said, adding that “inflation is a form of taxation imposed without legislation.’”

“Our suggestion is for the President to appoint highly capable department heads who can focus entirely on their jobs until 2028, and who do not have any plans to run in the 2025 elections, which is just 24 months away,” Libanan said.

“Secretaries keen on running for office in the mid-term polls are bound to become preoccupied with partisan political activities in a matter of months,” Libanan pointed out.

Mr. Marcos on Tuesday said he intends to reorganize his Cabinet soon, as he wants to appoint new members, including individuals who lost in the last elections, following the lapse of the 12-month prohibition on their appointment.

“Adding high taxes to high prices of goods is like pouring gasoline on fire,“ he further stated.

Government, he said, “should not reward our people’s tax obedience with more taxes or that would be a form of compliance punishment.”

Reports said the Department of Finance (DOF) will be pushing for new and higher taxes on sugary drinks, and motor vehicles, among others.

The DOF said that three proposed taxes alone could generate P81.9 billion annually on the first year of implementation.

The Bureuue of Internal Revenue also plans to impose a creditable withholding tax of 1% on one-half of the gross remittances of online platform providers to their partner-sellers or merchants.

Sen. Raffy Tulfo meanwhile is proposing a one-strike policy for abusive employers who are not complying with the country’s minimum wage law and are not giving the benefits due to their workers.