Angara won’t budge on tax reform package

Senator Sonny Angara INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Sen. Sonny Angara said on Monday that he was willing to resign as chair of the Senate committee on ways and means if the administration would not accept his committee’s version of the comprehensive tax reform package.

This was the senator’s reaction after President Rodrigo Duterte said in his State of the Nation Address on Monday that he wanted the the Senate to pass the comprehensive tax law in full, the way the House of Representatives did in May.

Mr. Duterte also noted during his speech that Angara did not applaud when he made that statement. He then told the senator, who will run for reelection in the 2019 midterm elections: “Watch out in the election.”

Asked what he thought the President meant, Angara said one never knew if Mr. Duterte was joking or serious or even half-joking or half-serious.

Angara said senators would consult Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and try to find a middle ground.

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