If I was the President of the Philippines

Reading all these stories about GMA just infuriates me. She has totally no delicadeza and she is so thick skinned that nothing gets to her anymore. After "Hello Garci" and surviving it, she and all the other politicians just got more brazen in what they do that they don't even care to hide what corruptions they do anymore.

I'm sure if and that's the big IF GMA were to step down after 2010, the next President would be no different.

So it made me think, what would I do if I was the President of the Philippines? What programs and changes would I implement to fix the country? Here is what I think (obviously these will be implemented if I had no opposition to the programs I want to implement).

Let's start with the most basic problem, graft and corruption.

1. I will set up an anti-graft task force consisting of former police officers, NBI agents and supreme court judges (trustworthy of course). Who after rigorous interviews and background checks would will investigate and prosecute those who are found guilty of accepting bribes to plunder. Basically, anything involving stealing money from the government and the people.

They will report and are answerable only to me. Cases will have to be solved within 1 year and will not be dragged for 10 years. They will of course be monitored all the time so as not to have a biased decision against someone the don't like and make a fair decision.

2. I will increase the salaries of all government officials to market rate. From the Executive branch all the way down to the various departments. This is to remove all temptation for asking for a bribe. Anybody caught asking for a bribe (from a hotline to undercover agents) will be penalized as a heinous crime for government officials and employees.

I'm going to model the way the government works like that of Singapore. Where the officials are highly paid that they have no need to commit graft to support their lifestyle.

3. Next one to fix is the BIR, remove all types of corruption there and make them accountable for shortfalls in the collection. Strict prosecution of tax evaders and tax collectors found to be taking bribes will be prosecuted and charged within a month.

4. The biggest problem is customs, so a complete revamp and removal of the top positions in the BOC and completely eliminate falsification and misdocumentation of imported goods. Eliminate smuggling or reduce it to the point that it will not be profitable to be caught smuggling goods.

This has two effects, one is to have fair trade and to protect local producers against cheap imports due to improper classification or smuggling.

5. The next one to fix is our tax system. Clean up the tax system to remove confusing deductions and loopholes and simplify the filing of taxes either through gross taxation or some other ways to eliminate all the numerous loopholes and deductions that makes it easy to evade taxes.

Have a set of simplified tax rules for employees and individuals. Make it easy for people to file taxes (1 page for employees), 3 pages for business owners or self-employed making less than a certain amount. Another set of tax rules for Corporations where taxes tend to be complicated.

Eliminate the need for people making less than P100,000 to pay taxes and those making between P100,0001 to P500,000 pay 2% of gross income, P500,001 to P750,000 pay 3% of gross income, P750,001 to P1M pay 4% of gross income and P1,000,001 and up pay 5% of gross income.

This simplifies the tax code and frees up the BIR personel to work on businesses and those who evade taxes.

Of course, a lot of people will argue that the Philippines will lose a lot of income, but I believe this simplification will increase tax payment participation and the simplified process will reduce expenses that the collection will more than make up for the losses.

More on my next post.