The Duterte administration should first address government underspending before it increases taxes, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal to the Senate to pass his proposed tax reform package “in full.”

“I would like to think that increasing taxes should be tied to expenditure, or the capacity of government to utilize the budget,” Lacson said in a text message.

“I said that because government is still underspending under the Duterte administration,” he said.

According to Lacson, unused appropriations for 2016 hit more than half a trillion pesos or P589,293,569,000.

“Why should we punish our people with additional taxes when government cannot spend efficiently to spur development anyway?” he said.

In his second state address Monday, Duterte appealed to the Senate to pass the tax reform package “in full.”

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“The fate of the tax reform is now in the hands of the Senate. Ano bang gustong ninyong gawain, mag-luhod ako niyan? Well, really I’ll leave it up to you,” Duterte said.

The President even put on the spot some senators who, as he pointed out, were not clapping upon hearing his statement.

“Ayaw man magpakpak --- ah pati si ano wala, they are not clapping so. Si Angara ayaw rin mag-clap. Bantay ka lang sa election tingnan mo,” Duterte said, referring to Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee.

Angara, who is running for re-election in the 2019 polls, earlier said he considers Duterte’s remark both as a “joke” and a “threat.”

The proposed tax reform measure of the Duterte administration is aiming to lower income taxes while limiting VAT exemptions, adjusting excise taxes on oil and automobiles, and imposing new taxes on sugar sweetened drinks. — RSJ, GMA News