Farmers, fisherfolk, and small-scale entrepreneurs are among those Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan says must benefit most from any overhaul of the country’s tax system, as he threw his support behind the administration’s proposed Progress Bill on Monday.
The measure, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. laid out among his fiscal priorities during his fifth State of the Nation Address, is designed to combine tax breaks with revenue-adjusting provisions. Finance Secretary Frederick Go told BusinessMirror that the package folds in changes to personal income tax alongside relief for micro, small, and medium enterprises.
For Pangilinan, the value of such legislation rests on whether it reaches households that have absorbed the sharpest effects of rising prices. He framed the reform as an opportunity to extend economic gains to workers and low-income families who, in his view, have not shared equally in the country’s growth.
“We welcome the Progress Bill as a step toward a tax system that is fair, equitable, and more responsive to the realities faced by ordinary Filipinos,” the senator said in a statement.
He tied his endorsement to a straightforward test of who ends up better off. “We will support any reform that will enable Filipinos to take home a larger share of their earnings for their families,” Pangilinan said.
The proposal arrives as Marcos presses Congress to widen the pool of workers exempt from income tax. In his address, the President called for lifting the annual exemption threshold from P250,000 to P350,000, a change Rappler reported would pull more middle-income earners out of the tax net. Several competing bills already before lawmakers go further, with one House measure seeking to push the ceiling as high as P600,000.
Not all of the administration’s allies frame the effort purely in terms of relief. Rep. Stella Quimbo has cautioned that recalibrating the system cannot come at the expense of funding for schools, hospitals, roads, and social programs, arguing the government still needs steady revenue to sustain those services.
