By Mario Casayuran Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a member of the Senate minority bloc, said Thursday the proposal to postpone the 2019 mid-term election is farcical. Senator Risa Hontiveros
(Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN) The proposal to postpone the 2019 midterm elections was supposed to give lawmakers enough time to tackle and pass a law to shift to federalism and to tackle pending major bills like the budget is farcical. ‘’We legislators should set our priorities straight. What needs to be cancelled is not the midterm elections but the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act,’’ Hontiveros said. ‘’Instead of advancing narrow political interests such as prolonging terms of public office through an unnecessary postponement of elections, what Congress needs to do is protect the people's economic rights and welfare,’’ she explained. ‘’Also, postponing the elections to give way to deliberations on federalism is a great disservice to the proposed new system of governance. Was that what the President's federalism was all about all along? Prolong the term limits of his political allies?’’ she asked. Hontiveros then challenged her fellow lawmakers to join her in pushing for the passage of Senate Bill 1671, otherwise known as the “Bawas VAT (value added tax) ” bill, to provide relief for the lower economic deciles of the population affected by the TRAIN law by lowering the existing VAT rate to 10% from the current 12 percent.