Public Fiscal

1. 1. Compare how public fiscal administration was done in the different Presidential
administration from President Marcos to President Duterte.
Ferdinand Marcos administration
The Philippines economy grew at a relatively high average annual rate of 6.4 percent during the
1970s, financed in large part by foreign-currency borrowing. External indebtedness grew from
$2.3 billion in 1970 to $24.4 billion in 1983, much of which was owed to transnational commercial
banks. In the 1980s the Philippine economy was hurt by political instability, authoritarianism,
increasing foreign debt, falling commodity prices, corporate mismanagement and vast
unemployment.
The Philippines found itself in an economic crisis in early 1970, in large part the consequence of
the profligate spending of government funds by President Marcos in his reelection bid. The
government, unable to meet payments on its US$2.3 billion international debt, worked out a
US$27.5 million standby credit arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that
involved renegotiating the country's external debt and devaluing the Philippine currency to P6.40
to the United States dollar. The government, unwilling and unable to take the necessary steps to
deal with economic difficulties on its own, submitted to the external dictates of the IMF. It was a
pattern that would be repeated with increasing frequency in the next twenty years.
In the early 1980s, the economy began to run into difficulty because of the declining world market
for Philippine exports, trouble in borrowing on the international capital market, and a domestic
financial scandal. The problem was compounded by the excesses of President Ferdinand E.
Marcos's regime and the bailing out by government-owned financial institutions of firms owned
by those close to the president that encountered financial difficulties. In 1983 the country
descended into a political and economic crisis in the aftermath of the assassination of Marcos's
chief rival, former Senator Benigno Aquino, and circumstances had not improved when Marcos
fled the country in February 1986.
Corazon Aquino administration
The Aquino administration takes over an economy that has gone through socio-political disasters
during the People Power revolution, where there was financial and commodity collapse caused
by an overall consumer cynicism, a result of the propaganda against cronies, social economic
unrest resulting from numerous global shortages, massive protests, lack of government
transparency, the opposition's speculations and alleged corruption in the government. At that
point in time, the country had debt that began crippling the country which slowly made the
Philippines the "Latin-American in East Asia" as it started to experience the worst recession since
the post-war era.
Most of the immediate efforts of the Aquino administration was directed in reforming the image
of the country and paying off all debts, including those that some governments were ready to
write-off, as possible. This resulted in budget cuts and further aggravated the plight of the lower

2. class because the jobs offered to them by the government was now gone. Infrastructure projects,
including repairs, were halted in secluded provinces turning concrete roads into asphalt.
Privatization of many government corporations, most catering utilities, was the priority of the
Aquino administration which led to massive lay-offs and inflation. The Aquino administration
however, was persistent in its belief that the problems were caused by the previous
administration.
Fidel V. Ramos administration
The Ramos administration basically served its role as the carrier of the momentum of reform and
as an important vehicle in "hastening the pace of liberalization and openness in the country". The
administration was a proponent of capital account liberalization, which made the country more
open to foreign trade, investments, and relations. It was during this administration when the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was established, and this administration was also when the Philippines
joined the World Trade Organization and other free trade associations such as the APEC. During
the administration, debt reduction was also put into consideration and as such, the issuance of
certain government bonds called Brady Bonds also came to fruition in 1992. Key negotiations with
conflicting forces in Mindanao actually became more successful during the administration, which
also highlighted the great role and contributions of Jose Almonte as the key adviser of this liberal
administration.
By the time Ramos succeeded Corazon Aquino in 1992, the Philippine economy was already
burdened with a heavy budget deficit. This was largely the result of austerity measures imposed
by a standard credit arrangement with the International Monetary Fund and the destruction
caused by natural disasters such as the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Hence, according to Canlas,
pump priming through government spending was immediately ruled out due to the deficit. Ramos
therefore resorted to institutional changes through structural policy reforms, of which included
privatization and deregulation. He sanctioned the formation of the Legislative-Executive
Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), which served as a forum for consensus building, on the
part of the Executive and the Legislative branches, on important bills on economic policy reform
measures.
Joseph Estrada administration
Although Estrada's administration had to endure the continued shocks of the Asian Crisis
contagion, the administration was also characterized by the administration's economic
mismanagement and "midnight cabinets". As if the pro-poor rhetoric, promises and drama were
not really appalling enough, the administration also had "midnight cabinets composed of 'drinking
buddies' influencing the decisions of the 'daytime cabinet'”. Cronyism and other big issues caused
the country's image of economic stability to change towards the worse. And instead of
adjustments happening, people saw further deterioration and hopelessness that better things can
happen. Targeted revenues were not reached, implementation of policies became very slow, and
fiscal adjustments were not efficiently conceptualized and implemented. All those disasters
caused by numerous mistakes were made worse by the sudden entrance of the Jueteng
controversy, which gave rise to the succeeding EDSA Revolutions.

3. Despite all these controversies, the administration still had some meaningful and profound policies
to applaud. The administration presents a reprise of the population policy, which involved the
assisting of married couples to achieve their fertility goals, reduce unwanted fertility and match
their unmet need for contraception. The administration also pushed for budget appropriations for
family planning and contraceptives, an effort that was eventually stopped due to the fact that the
church condemned it. The administration was also able to implement a piece of its overall Poverty
Alleviation Plan, which involved the delivery of social services, basic needs, and assistance to the
poor families. The Estrada administration also had limited contributions to Agrarian Reform,
perhaps spurred by the acknowledgement that indeed, Agrarian Reform can also address poverty
and inequitable control over resources. In that regard, the administration establishes the program
"Sustainable Agrarian Reform Communities-Technical Support to Agrarian and Rural
Development". As for regional development, however, the administration had no notable
contributions or breakthroughs.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration
The Arroyo administration, economically speaking, was a period of good growth rates
simultaneous with the US, due perhaps to the emergence of the Overseas Filipino workers (OFW)
and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The emergence of the OFW and the BPO improved
the contributions of OFW remittances and investments to growth. In 2004, however, fiscal deficits
grew and grew as tax collections fell, perhaps due to rampant and wide scale tax avoidance and
tax evasion incidences. Fearing that a doomsday prophecy featuring the [Argentina default] in
2002 might come to fruition, perhaps due to the same sort of fiscal crisis, the administration
pushed for the enactment of the 12% VAT and the E-VAT to increase tax revenue and address
the large fiscal deficits. This boosted fiscal policy confidence and brought the economy back on
track once again.
Soon afterwards, political instability afflicted the country and the economy anew with Abu Sayyaf
terrors intensifying. The administration's Legitimacy Crisis also became a hot issue and threat to
the authority of the Arroyo administration. Moreover, the Arroyo administration went through
many raps and charges because of some controversial deals such as the NBN-ZTE Broadband
Deal. Due however to the support of local leaders and the majority of the House of
Representatives, political stability was restored and threats to the administration were quelled
and subdued. Towards the end of the administration, high inflation rates for rice and oil in 2008
started to plague the country anew, and this led to another fiscal crisis, which actually came along
with the major recession that the United States and the rest of the world were actually
experiencing.
Benigno Aquino III administration
The Philippines consistently coined as one of the Newly Industrialized Countries has had a fair
gain during the latter years under the Arroyo Presidency to the current administration. The
government managed foreign debts falling from 58% in 2008 to 47% of total government
borrowings. According to the 2012 World Wealth Report, the Philippines was the fastest growing
economy in the world in 2010 with a GDP growth of 7.3% driven by the growing business process
outsourcing and overseas remittances.

4. The country marked slipped to 3.6% in 2011 less emphasis on exports and the government spent
less on infrastructure. Also, the disruption of the flow of imports for raw material from floods in
Thailand and the tsunami in Japan have affected the manufacturing sector in the same year. "The
Philippines contributed more than $125 million as of end-2011 to the pool of money disbursed by
the International Monetary Fund to help address the financial crisis confronting economies in
Europe. This was according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which reported Tuesday that the
Philippines, which enjoys growing foreign exchange reserves, has made available about $251.5
million to the IMF to finance the assistance program—the Financial Transactions Plan (FTP)—for
crisis-stricken countries."
Remarkably the economy grew by 6.59% in 2012 the same year the Supreme Court Chief Justice
Renato Corona was impeached for a failed disclosure of statements of assets, liabilities and
network or SALN coherent to the anti-corruption campaign of the administration. The Philippine
Stock Exchange index ended in the year with 5,812.73 points a 32.95% growth from the 4,371.96-
finish in 2011.
BBB- investment grade by Fitch Ratings on the first quarter of 2013 for the country was made
because of a resilient economy by remittances, growth despite the global economic crisis in the
last five years reforms by the VAT reform law of 2005, BSP inflation management, good
governance reforms under the Aquino administration.
Rodrigo Duterte administration
Early in his term, Duterte's expletive-laden outbursts triggered the biggest exodus from stocks in
a year and made the peso Asia's worst performer in September 2016. The Philippine currency
was at a seven-year low and rounding out its worst month since May 2010. In the same month,
the Philippine peso completed its biggest monthly decline since October 2000 amid the biggest
outflow from the nation's stocks in a year. According to the Philippines' Finance Secretary Carlos
Dominguez III, the peso's slump this year is "mainly due to a deteriorating trade outlook because
of rising imports of capital goods, which is normal for a country that is growing very fast".
Currency strategists have, however, "predicted a rebound once investor see beyond Duterte's
words".
After 100 days in office, former president Ramos, a political ally-mentor of Duterte said that
"Duterte has been a huge disappointment and letdown" and "the government was losing badly
by prioritizing a war on drugs at the expense of issues like poverty, living costs, foreign
investment, and jobs". Based on subsequent surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations,
optimism in the economic prospects under the Duterte administration remains "excellent" with
more Filipinos believing that the quality of their lives will improve in the next 12 months. This is
supported by polls conducted by Pulse Asia one year after Duterte took office, wherein approval
(82%) and trust (81%) ratings for Duterte still remain very high.
On November 2, 2018, the Philippines slipped 11 places from the World Bank's Ease of Doing
Business rankings. The Department of Finance is demanding a correction from the World Bank,
citing the smaller data set used to assess the country's credit base.

5. In September 2018, the inflation rate of the country skyrocketed to 6.7%, its highest in a decade.
On September 21, 2018, Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 13, removing non-tariff barriers
in the importation of agricultural products, to address soaring inflation rates. Inflation decreased
in November 2018, at 5.8 to 6.6 percent. BSP decreased its inflation forecast for 2019, after the
passage of the rice tariffication bill. Inflation further decreased from 6.7 percent in October 2018
to 0.8 percent in October 2019, the lowest inflation rate recorded since May 2016.
2. Give your stand / position in one of the of the tax issues.
Tax Avoidance of ABS-CBN
Lawmakers accused the network of “tax evasion” after the low amount of taxes it has paid over
the years came to light. The illustrative comparison that seemed to catch everyone’s attention
was that in the past 18 years, ABS-CBN has paid about P1.4 billion in taxes while its rival GMA
paid P1.4 billion in 2018 alone.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue, however, clarified that ABS-CBN has, so far, paid all its tax
liabilities and has no delinquency. Thus, what ABS-CBN has been doing is not “tax evasion” but
skillful “tax avoidance,” taking advantage of every incentive and loophole available to it to legally
reduce its tax payments as much as possible.
And under the law, ABS-BBN is innocent under proven guilty. Up to now, there is no court that
has determined that the network have broken any laws.
3. Prepare a budget for any project
Livelihood Initiative for Jobless Women
Staffing/ Project Oversight
Staffing (120 hrs. per meeting x 3 for research, planning
P45,000
Materials, logistics, etc.
Benefits (payroll tax) P 5,000
Consultants P25,000
P75,000
Direct Expense
Travel for Speakers P8,000
Meetings and other travel costs P10,000
Travel for consultants P3,000
Materials Printing/Design P6,000
P27,000
Other Expenses

6. Speaker stipends P3,000
Sub-grant to affiliated organization P5,000
P8,000
Total Expenses
P110,000
Other Income
Request from Foundations P120,000
Organization intern P3,000
In-kind contributions P10,000
TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET P133,000