Tax reform under GMA I (2001-2004)

The robustness of the conclusions and findings we had arrived at so far can be further tested if we change the decision-makers with the institutional parameters in place. For this purpose, we examine in this section the tax reform initiatives undertaken during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. As revealed in subsequent paragraphs, this exercise would reveal continuities in tax policy and bolster our previous conclusions regarding tax policymaking in a candidate-centered democratic polity like the Philippines.

Individual legislators, legislative committees, and tax policymaking II

This blog entry will illustrate the inordinate power and influence of legislative committees and powerful individual legislators in the policy process.  In the case of tax policymaking, the officials and members of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees would wield this disproportionate power relative to their respective legislative majorities.  Comparatively speaking, officials of the [...]

Individual legislators, legislative committees and tax policy making

Through this blog entry and subsequent ones, I will continue sharing parts of a book on Philippine institutions and policy making which I started writing the middle of last year. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ In candidate-centered democratic polities, individual legislators exert an inordinately heavy influence on policy making.  This is so since politicians need to develop personal reputations [...]

FVR’s CTRP

In the previous blog entry, we noted how President Ramos was rebuffed by legislators from his own political party in his attempts to expand the coverage of the value-added tax (VAT) during the first half of his term. Despite this setback, the imperatives of the tight fiscal situation forced Ramos to propose a more comprehensive [...]