This paper looks into the most crucial challenge confronting the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in relation to the mobilization of domestic resources. This is none other than the implementation of a coherent and practicable tax reform agenda whose goal is to increase the tax effort (measured as taxes as a proportion of gross domestic product) to a significant level and hence contribute to augmenting the country's domestic savings. Furthermore, this paper gives more attention to identifying or proposing the reforms that can be advocated by civil society organizations. In this sense, the paper can serve as a basis for developing a civil society position on a progressive tax reform agenda. The paper is divided into two general sections, namely the reforms that can be done at the national level and taxation issues arising from globalization.
