DOF 124th Anniversary Message
April 19, 2021
Happy Anniversary!
Undersecretaries Gil Beltran, Mark Joven, Antonette Tionko, Bayani Agabin, and Karen Singson; Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay; Bureau of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero; National Treasurer Lea de Leon; Assistant Secretaries Dakila Napao, Maria Teresa Habitan, Juvy Danofrata, Maria Edita Tan, Soledad Emilia Cruz, Danielle Marie Rieza-Culangen and Paola Alvarez; to the men and women of the DOF: Good morning.
First of all, I thank all of you for your hard work.
The past two years have been tough ones for everybody. The pandemic challenged our nation and tested our communities in ways we never imagined. The effort to fight the contagion has been a costly one and it put a great strain on our fiscal resources.
Despite the unprecedented challenge, the DOF did not waver in its commitment to ensure that our macroeconomic fundamentals remain strong and that we will not run out of resources in this protracted battle against the pandemic. We demonstrated our firm resolve to maintain fiscal prudence while we try to stimulate the economy.
Last year, we worked closely with Congress in crafting fiscally responsible economic stimulus packages. We spearheaded the Small Business Wage Subsidy program and advocated additional capital for our financial institutions to broaden lending to pandemic-hit enterprises.
We all worked hard to raise revenues for the national effort to defeat the pandemic. We moved quickly to seek international funding to reinforce our healthcare system, purchase the needed medical equipment and vaccines, as well as fund our economic recovery program.
The essential role we played benefitted from the fiscal discipline we maintained and the reform measures we won over the last five years of this administration.
We entered 2020 with a strong fiscal position and a manageable debt profile. We had won the highest credit ratings ever. Our series of tax reforms provided the country a reliable revenue flow. Our record of fiscal discipline eased access to urgent financing as we battled the pandemic.
The administrative reforms achieved among our revenue agencies—principally the rapid digitalization of their systems and processes — anticipated the broader shift to contactless transactions.
Even with the ongoing pandemic, we also managed to stick to our goal of reforming the tax system. We finally passed CREATE or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, which makes our comprehensive tax reform program nearly complete. Passing this measure was particularly hard during the pre-pandemic times, but pushing for its enactment at the height of a crisis was even more difficult.
I thank everyone who has joined us in our crusade in reforming the tax system since day one. Tax reform is extremely difficult to get approved in the legislature. Yet, you all took the challenge and delivered resoundingly on this task to help accelerate poverty reduction and attain the President’s promise of genuine change. It is through your hard work and dedication that made our success in passing the tax reform packages possible.
But our work is not yet over. We all know the most difficult part of any reform is implementation. And I urge all of you to work hard to ensure that the laws we have shepherded are fully implemented and irreversible. In addition, we must continue to push for the passage of the remaining tax reform packages.
We also have much to do. The great task of putting in place the necessary measures to help our nation recover from the pandemic falls mostly on our shoulders.
The financial system needs to be further broadened and deepened to help drive a truly inclusive growth for our people. We need to mobilize enterprises to help build resiliency. We need to deploy the powerful instruments of financial technologies to accomplish good things for our people — from more efficient governance to the mitigation of climate change.
We have bigger tasks ahead of us. I expect continuous innovation and excellence from this agency that has proven time and again its ability to bring about positive change.
I am confident that together, we will accomplish the goals we set out for ourselves. Our associates at the DOF, from the highly technical teams to those who provide indispensable support, demonstrated admirable grit and dedication during the past months of great challenge. You have all earned my gratitude and my faith.
We started strong. We will end stronger than ever.
Let us continue to do our best to build a strong and resilient fiscal regime for the Philippines and for our future generations. Let us do our utmost to provide a better, greener, and healthier economy for the Filipino people.
Thank you.
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