The Duterte administration’s revenue effort since it took office emerged as the highest among different presidential terms in over two decades, the Department of Finance (DOF) boasted.

In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III by the DOF’s Domestic Finance Group (DFG), it said that President Duterte’s emerging revenue effort during the five-year period may hit 15.6 percent.

“This feat was achieved despite the global economic downturn spanning almost two years now because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the DOF said in a statement on Friday, Feb. 4.

Without the pandemic, Finance Assistant Secretary Valery Brion also noted that the revenue effort of the Duterte administration between 2017 and 2021 would have reached an estimated 16.2 percent.

Brion said DOF-DFG estimates placed tax revenue losses resulting from the pandemic at P785.6 billion in 2020 and P929.9 billion in 2021.

Comparatively, the administration of then President Joseph Estrada (1999 to 2000) registered only an average tax effort of 14.1 percent. It fell to 14.0 percent under then-President Gloria Arroyo (2001 to 2010), before rising slightly to 14.3 percent on the watch of the late President Benigno Aquino III (2011-2016).

The Duterte administration's emerging average is 14 percent from 2017 to 2021. Without the pandemic, the government under President Duterte would have reached an even higher average tax effort of 14.8 percent.

The tax effort average under the Estrada administration was 12.7 percent, which fell to 12.1 percent on the Arroyo watch and went up to 12.7 percent during the Aquino III presidency.

Tax effort pertains to the share of tax collections to the gross domestic product (GDP), while revenue effort covers the share of tax revenues, non-tax revenues, and other revenues of government agencies in relation to the GDP. The measure is used to determine how effective the government is in collecting revenues to fund its priorities.