Recto continues to support Aquino

Senator Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Ralph Recto appears to be the second head of a congressional ways and means committee to lose his post in the administration’s drive to increase revenues through sin tax measures pending in Congress.

But unlike Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, who was stripped of his chairmanship of the House tax panel in December, Recto said his resignation was voluntary and without any pressure from the administration.

“It is a personal decision, nothing else,” Recto told the Inquirer when asked if anybody from the administration had asked him to resign in the wake of his controversial committee report that fell short of the government’s revenue targets.

Recto said he would continue to support President Aquino both as a member of the Liberal Party and of the majority coalition in the Senate.

“Yes, I highly respect the President,” Recto said.

Recto quit the chairmanship of the Senate committee on ways and means after he came up with a committee report that proposed lower excise tax rates on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages.

Asked if the President has called him with respect to his resignation, Recto said, “No, he did not.  He does not need to.”

Finance and tax officials were hoping Recto’s version would improve on the House version, which sought to generate additional revenues of more P30 billion. The administration wants the increased sin taxes to generate an additional P60 billion to fund health programs.

In December 2011, President Aquino said Mandanas’ removal as chair of the House ways and means committee was not due to his failure to sign the impeachment complaint against then Chief Justice Renato Corona but was due to his belief that the value added tax on imports should also benefit the internal revenue allotment of local government units.

Aquino added that Mandanas was not on the same page as the administration on the issue of sin tax reform measures pending in the House of Representatives.