NEW YEAR'S DAY MESSAGE OF SEN. SONNY ANGARA

My wish and hope on the advent of New Year 2018 is that we will be able to work together as a nation to transform our dreams into reality.

Every new year brings hope and opportunity for growth and success for our family,as well as our country, and a chance to become better individuals and citizens.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve my countrymen this year as chair of the Senate committee on ways and means and of the local government.

With the support of the executive, ourfellow legislators, and the various stakeholders, we passed the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which will take effect this new year. With this law, we have created a simpler, fair, and more efficient tax system where 99 percent of individual tax payers will benefit from income tax cuts.

This new year, poor households will be given unconditional cash transfers and small businesses will enjoy reduced taxes and simplified filing of tax and payment processes under the new tax system.

We are hopeful that these reforms under TRAIN would bring growth to our families and to our nation. This new measure is just the beginning. There is more work ahead of us in making taxes work for us, especially the poor, who must benefit more from government services.

And so the work ahead, in the words of the President himself, shall focus on "cutting the poverty rate to 14 percent and making the Philippines an upper middle class country by 2022.

Cheers to the New Year! Good luck and happiness to everyone!