Press Release
July 12, 2018

Hontiveros: Postpone TRAIN, not Midterm Elections
Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on proposals to postpone the midterm polls

The proposal to postpone the 2019 midterm elections supposedly to give lawmakers enough time to tackle and pass a law to shift to federalism and to tackle pending major bills like the budget is farcical.

We legislators should set our priorities straight. What needs to be cancelled is not the midterm elections but the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act. Instead of advancing narrow political interests such as prolonging terms of public office through an unecessary postponement of elections, what Congress needs to do is protect the people's economic rights and welfare.

Also, postponing the elections to give way to deliberations on federalism is a great disservice to the proposed new system of governance. Was that what the President's federalism was all about all along? Prolong the term limits of his political allies?

I challenge my fellow lawmakers to join me in pushing for the passage of Senate Bill No. 1671, otherwise known as the "Bawas VAT" bill, to provide relief for the lower economic deciles of the population affected by the TRAIN law by lowering the existing VAT rate to 10% from the current 12%.

Pwede bang mamamayan muna bago ambisyon?

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