Some 300 from the national government, local government units (LGUs), the country’s development partners, civil society and other sectors are expected to gather in Davao City next week to take part in this year’s Philippines Development Forum (PDF), the primary mechanism of the government in facilitating substantive policy dialogues on its five-year reform agenda.
Read MoreThe procurement of over two dozen Japanese ships and high-speed boats—topped by two largescale vessels whose acquisition were sealed during President Duterte’s just-concluded official visit to Tokyo—would significantly shore up the security and border patrol capabilities of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), especially in running after drug smugglers as well as Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) terrorists and pirates who prey on foreign and local mariners and seafarers in the South, according to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
Read MoreFinance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has welcomed the decline in poverty incidence to 21.6 percent, saying this is the cue for the government to “work doubly hard” on its 10-point socioeconomic agenda to hit President Duterte’s target of reducing the number of poor Filipinos by 1.5 percent of the population annually over the next six years.
Read MoreIt is a “fallacy” to believe that the proposed expansion of the value-added tax (VAT) base and adjustments to the excise tax on petroleum products under the proposed comprehensive tax reform program are anti-poor because being consumption taxes, these will impact the most on affluent Filipinos who make use of more goods and services, rather than the poor, low-income and even the middle-class households, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
Read MoreTOKYO—Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said here that the Philippines is “not turning its back on anybody” and just wants to “make more friends” in the ecoomic field as the Duterte administration rebalances the country’s foreign policy via the swift regional integration with its Southeast Asian neighbors as well as with China, South Korea and Japan.
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