Speaking in front of around 500 soldiers at Camp Lukban in Catbalogan City, Samar in central Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte not only reiterated his plans to continue going after those who are involved in the drug trade but also revealed that his next move could be to name the rich people of the country who are not paying their taxes properly.
Knowing that he had already released the names of the police generals, judges, and politicians involved in the drug trade just as he promised, this upcoming list of rich tax evaders could already be in the works and ready for release! Who knows? The president just might make another press release of the names of these rich tax cheats…
But what would be the purpose of releasing this list, anyway? Well, to get them to pay their taxes correctly, of course!
It can be recalled that Duterte promised cops and soldiers (as well as employees of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) that he would raise their salaries, double it actually but without this item included in the 2017 budget and definitely not in this year’s budget, the Budget Department is finding it difficult to come up with the money to fund the pay hike.
Duterte, however, had a solution to that: better collection and stopping corruption not just in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) but also in the Bureau of Customs!
So, this move to release the names of the country’s biggest tax cheats is already a huge step to that direction! I bet those tax cheats are scrambling now to pay their tax backlogs before Duterte releases their names…
With better collection of taxes from these huge taxpayers, could this pave the way to the promised pay hike for cops and soldiers Duterte vowed will begin this month? Let’s wait and see…