MANILA, Philippines — Presidential candidate Leody de Guzman said Sunday that he will lay out his platform on wealth tax in a discussion with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
Earlier, Dominguez said that the agency is “ready to brief all presidential candidates and their economic teams” and “present to them ideas on how to handle the increasing debt.”
READ: New, higher taxes eyed to service PH debts
“Tinatanggap ko ang alok na pulong ni Dominguez at nais kong marinig kung bakit binawasan niya ang estate tax sa TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) at corporate income tax sa CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) pero gusto pa niyang dagdagan ang buwis sa mga ordinaryong tao,” de Guzman said in a statement.
(I accept the offer of Dominguez and I want to hear why he slashed the estate tax in Train Law and the corporate income tax in Create Law but he wanted to increase the tax of ordinary people.)
READ: TRAIN Law: How was it implemented?
The labor leader also said that he will present their strategies to resolve the country’s debt.
“Nais ko ring ilahad ang plataporma ng aking partido para sa isang wealth tax sa 500 pinakamayayamang tao sa Pilipinas, at ang aming istratehiya sa pagresolba sa utang,” he shared.
READ: Corporate income tax cut to 25% by July pushed
(I also want to present our party’s platform to impose a wealth tax to the top 500 wealthiest people in the country, and our strategy to resolve our debts.)
READ: Ka Leody wants a 20% wealth tax on the 500 richest Filipinos if he’s elected
For De Guzman, concerns on tax reform should be discussed with workers as they carry the tax burden in proportion to the salaries but do not get as much from the government due to the privatization of social services.
The presidential bet further said that the dialogue would be publicized as a challenge to Dominguez.
“Isapubliko natin ang usapang ito, bilang paghamon kay Dominguez na ipresenta diretso sa manggagawa ang kanyang mungkahing dagdag buwis,” he said.
(We will publicize the dialogue as a challenge to Dominguez to directly present to workers his proposed additional tax.)
De Guzman is running under the Partido Lakas ng Masa, together with vice-presidential bet and activist Walden Bello.