"Change is coming..

" was one of the taglines we've heard during President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign
last presidential election. It might be a short phrase but his words claim a powerful tone in the ears of
everyone, something that every Filipino citizen craves for a long time. But despite for our eagerness to
meet change, can we really handle it as an individual, a group, a community or as an entire society?

We live in the world that everything is uncertain ---except for tax. Tax is known as the blood and fuel of
the government. It helps the government to meet its functions and provide funds to all the LGU’s across
the nation.

But despite its functions and purpose, taxes seem to be a burden for others since it depend on the lens
they use to view their current socio-economic status.

TRAIN law, also known as The Tax Reform for Accelerating and Inclusion, was introduced in the
Philippines on January 1, 2018. It the first package of the administration's most awaited comprehensive
tax reform program (CTRP) which seeks to redress a number of flaws and deficiencies in our taxation and
to simplify the system in the Philippines.

According to Gialogo, E.G. Train law overhauls the outdated National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC)
which was adopted 20 years ago. Train relatively decreases the tax on personal income, estate, and
donation. As a matter of fact, TRAIN tax law is intended to abet the situation of middle class and poor by
exempting them with Personal Income Tax as long as they have an annual taxable incomes of P250,000
(two hundred fifty thousand pesos) and below or less than P21,000 a month (twenty-one thousand
pesos) which makes it "pro poor"

President Duterte, along with the Department of Finance, states that through TRAIN tax law, we might
achieve the following by 2040:

• Poverty rate reduced from 22% to 14% (uplifting some six million Filipinos from poverty)
• To graduate to upper middle-income country status from the current low middle-income country
status

• Eradicate extreme poverty

• Inclusive economic and political institutions where everyone has equal opportunities

• Achieve high-income country status

• Peace within the country and with our neighbors

• More healthier Philippines

(Department of Finance, 2018)

This might sound too promising and idealistic for us who wish nothing but the best for our fellowmen
and country but we can never deny that reality will always reveal itself from time to time. In fact, it is
also mentioned by Gialogo that TRAIN tax law increases the tax on certain passive incomes, documents
(documentary stamp tax) as well as excise tax on petroleum products, minerals, automobiles, sweetened
bevergares and cigarettes. This being the case—Oil retailers, payroll managers, super markets,
convenience stores and even street vendors have begun and kept on updating their price list which led
many consumers unhappy because they have to deal with the excise tax that the government imposed.

As said by Mr. Royd Agapito in an interview with Rappler on the January, 8 2018,

"I don't think TRAIN will provide significant impact to an average wage earner. It is like the government
is just giving us a new perspective to look at our taxes. You have higher pay, but electricity, transport,
grocery bills will also be higher.."

Agapito represents the situation of most Filipinos with the effects caused by the TRAIN tax law. In fact,
majority of the economic analysts warned us before about the negative aspects that will happen among
others—those who cannot easily adapt to change will be much burdened with adapting to change.
An example of this situation is the increase in the price of beverages using sugar or artificial sweetener
and drinks using high fructose corn syrup from 6 pesos to 12 pesos per liter. The reason behind this price
increase is to promote a healthier lifestyle of Filipinos by decreasing the daily intakes of unhealthy food,
which often leads to worsening number of diabetes and obesity cases in the Philippines. However, this
increase can't be handled by the poor families because they can't handle the increase, and not all water
or other non-toxic beverages are cheap or budget friendly. Sweetened beverages aren't the only ones
that will be increasing its price, but also other necessities. This happens because TRAIN increases the
excise tax on fuel which has not been adjusted since 1997. The Petroleum Excise Tax affects the delivery
of food therefore, the prices of food increases which creates a huge problem for consumers.

In conclusion, despite that the TRAIN law puts higher taxes for those wealthy individuals who earn
millions and billions of pesos and less for those who are poor and earns insufficient amount of money, it
proposes to provide a better future for the Filipinos. However, this law must be employed and regulated
properly to ensure that it will not create huge problems in the end because putting higher tax to basic
necessities of the mass is not desirable for our country but it might give an inimical effect to individuals
with low wage income. We must reconsider the capacity and capabilities first of all the citizens in this
country. We should not pursue something that could give enormous detriments to our people because
the role of government is to give aid for the people and to resolve the issues.