Persecution is the correct term for what happened to Gloria since all of her cases were immediately extinguished right after Noynoy stepped down and the presidency taken over by Rodrigo Duterte.


Gloria was the prime political trophy of Noynoy in his collection of distinctions on destructive politics and selective justice that his yellow administration has been known for.


Now Gloria is constructively assisting the administration of Rody and she has been instrumental in the recent House approval of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package (CTRP) as a whole as what Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez had wanted since a piecemeal approval such as the more popular income tax reduction being enacted way ahead of the more painful provisions such as the higher taxes on vehicle and petroleum would have thrown off the fiscal program.


It was under Gloria's term that economic experts attribute the start of critical economic reforms that had propelled growth.


She gave Congress the most convincing argument to pass a complete tax reform package using her experience as a nine-year president saying that revenues shrank during her term after the piecemeal approval of fiscal reforms.


The government experienced in 2009 a massive erosion in revenues as a result of the Congress' failure the year before to approve a package that would have recovered revenues but since it was a year before the national elections, none of the revenue enhancing measures was approved.


In 2008, Gloria asked Congress to pass a revenue measure to fund her request for a supplemental budget but the legislature only passed the tax-eroding provisions the following year and did away with the portion that would have offset the revenue loss.


Arroyo recounted during one of the deliberations on the CTRP, that in 2008, she requested Congress for a supplemental budget to help fund programs designed to rebuild communities devastated by strong typhoons that year.


Under the Constitution, a supplemental appropriations bill should be supported by funds available in the National Treasury or by funds to be raised through a corresponding revenue proposal.


Arroyo said at that time, Malacañang asked Congress to approve a simplified net income taxation bill as compensating measure to the supplemental budget.


The bill aimed to help curtail tax evasion among the self-employed and professionals, and generate an additional P11.8 billion in tax revenues.


Arroyo said concerns about the bill being "regressive" prompted the introduction of a complementary measure that would make this proposal progressive by exempting minimum wage earners from paying income taxes. She said:

<div class="article-comment">

"To put a progressive element, we put in the package the exemption for minimum-wage earners. What happened was that the exemption was passed and increased beyond what we proposed, and a simplified net income taxation was not passed."

</div>

Instead of a revenue-neutral bill that would have allowed constitutionally the supplemental budget, the government ended up with a tax erosion of P14 billion, according to Arroyo.


She said a simplified net income taxation bill was approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading, but was abandoned by the Senate, which instead passed only the tax relief measure for minimum wage earners. The House eventually adopted the Senate version.


Arroyo's account of her experience during her term apparently helped members of the House ways and means committee come to a decision of approving the first package of the CTRP as a package during the last hearing held on March 14 before the Congress went on its traditional Lenten break.


The first package of the CTRP aims to lower personal income tax rates, while at the same time, providing for a corresponding set of revenue enhancing measures, among them the adjustments in the excise taxes on fuel and automobiles and the expansion of the value added tax base but keeping exemptions for seniors and persons with disabilities.


The political star of Arroyo, an economist and professor to her mischievous student Noynoy, is expected to glitter while that of Noynoy and his yellow ilk fade.



Sources: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Gloria’s strong comeback by Tribune Editorial, March 29, 2017, <a href="https://goo.gl/gKQrzt" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Source">The Daily Tribune</a>
</li>
</ol>



(This article is adapted from the source listed above. We are unable to grant permission for any kind of reproduction other than social media shares.)

Gloria's resurrection : The star in Arroyo and the fading yellow ilk in Aquino