The Republic Act 10351, or the Sin Tax Reform Law, was legislated under the Aquino Administration.

President Benigno Aquino signed into law a reform of the Philippines' tobacco and alcohol excise tax on
December 20, 2012. The legislation took effect on January 1, 2013, and its accompanying implementing
rules and regulations culminated in over a decade of reformation efforts.

Primarily, the proponents of the law framed it as a health and good governance measure. Additionally, it
was also one that was outlined with revenue implications wherein the said law would make up for the
lost revenues in the past administrations due to lack of automatic real excise rate adjustments. Upon
implementation, there was a significant improvement over the complicated and weak excise taxation
from the past years. From a minimum excise of P2.72, an immediate shift to a two-tiered excise with a
price of P12 minimum excise per pack of cigarettes was enacted, which was followed by automatic
percentage increases after. In 2017, a transition to unitary excise was implemented for beer and a
hybrid-specific and ad valorem rate for spirits. However, cigarette rate increases are still higher. The Sin
Tax Reform also involved allotting the bulk of incremental revenues (about 85%) to finance universal
health care, giving special attention to the poor's insurance premiums while retaining allocation for local
tobacco-growing regions (about 15%) that were in place under existing law. The STL was implemented in
expectation to increase revenues and reduce smoking and excessive drinking.

Republic Act 7042, or the act that shall be known as the Foreign Investments Act of 1991 (FIA) which
primarily governs the foreign investments climate in the Philippines was approved in June
13,1991. It then took effect fifteen days after its publication in two newspapers of general circulation in
the Philippines (RA 7042, Sec. 10). This law was enacted to promote productive investments from non-
Philippine nationals to the extent that the Constitution and other relevant laws allowed foreign
investments.

Foreign Investments Act was implemented in a way that non-Philippine nationals may
engage in businesses in a domestic market or export enterprise up to 100% capital in
entities engaged in various types of business activities subject to listed restrictions in the
FINL. Foreign Investment Negative List (Negative List) is a list provided by the FIA that
entails economic activities where foreign equity is either prohibited or limited to a certain
percentage. List A contains areas of investment where foreign ownership is limited by
mandate of the Philippine Constitution or by specific laws. On the other hand, List B
contains areas of investment where foreign ownership is limited for reasons of security,
defense, risk to health and morals, or protection of local small- and medium-sized
enterprises (Baker & McKenzie, 2017). Regardless of nationality, anyone is welcome to have
a business venture and investment in the Philippines provided these are not under the
Foreign Investments Negative List (FINL) of FIA (Manalastas, 2001). The Filipino
government has passed this legislation aimed at making the Filipino business environment
more conducive to doing business.
On May 15, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III approved Republic Act 10533 or the “Enhanced Basic
Education Act of 2013”, signing into law the K+12 program as his advocate for educational equity. The
Universal Kindergarten Implementation began in School Year 2011-2012 wherein all 5-year-
old children are required to be in kindergarten before they will be accepted to Grade 1.On
the other hand, The Senior High School program was moved in 2016, which aimed in producing
students that are holistically developed and equipped with 21st century concepts and skills. The act also
expands Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education, hence the introduction
of Senior High School Voucher Program (SHS VP) as a mechanism to provide financial support to
qualified students in SHS in 2015.

In order to facilitate the K-12 transition from the existing 10-year basic education to 12 years, the
Department of Education implemented the SHS and SHS Modeling. The curriculum set was
standard and competency-based designed around around the needs of the learners and the
community insign with the times. The government agency also provided a list of core and
applied subjects to be uniformly offered in Grades 11 and 12 in all senior high schools to make
sure that all the students are taking the same core and applied subjects in every semester. The
program was designed To prove that K to 12 would be instrumental in equipping students with
skills thereby providing them opportunities for jobs. Furthermore, the government provided
government assistance in the form of SHS Voucher wherein it will enable qualified public and
private junior high school completers to enroll and study in Non-DepEd schools. The voucher
amount was divided into clusters To ensure that the voucher is equitable and that more students
will be able to participate in the program.

In June 2007, the Philippine government tackled the problems of graft and corruption in the government
through Republic Act 9485, otherwise known as Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007. The policy was aimed
to increase transparency and promote honesty and responsibility in government service delivery.

The Anti-Red Tape Act included measures to reduce red tape in service transactions and established a
formal corruption prevention tool for service provision. Under RA 9485, all government offices
including local government units, government-owned and -controlled corporations are mandated
to advance transactions, adopt fixed deadline for the completion of transactions and assess and
enhance their frontline services. It also requires all agencies to maintain honesty and
responsibility among its public officials and employees, and shall take appropriate measures to
promote transparency in each agency with regard to the manner of transacting with the public.
RA 9485 further states that heads of government offices are accountable to the public in
rendering fast, efficient, convenient, and reliable services. It also requires agencies concerned
to act on pending papers within five working days involving simple transactions and a minimum
of 10 days for complex cases.
Republic Act 10863, otherwise known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA), was signed
into law on May 2016 by President Benigno Aquino, Jr. to address the need to refine the country’s
import laws and regulations. The CMTA law was signed for the benefit of importers, local and foreign
investors, consumers, and the Bureau of Customs.

The CMTA law aims to modernize the clearance process for imported goods. More importantly, the
industry provides a layer of protection against technical smuggling or the fraudulent declaration of
goods imported  To perform its mandate, the government will develop and implement programs for the
continuous enhancement of customs systems and processes that will harmonize customs procedures.
Adopt clear and transparent customs rules, regulations, policies and procedures, consistent with
international standards and customs best practices. Establish a regime of transparency of and
accessibility to customs information, customs laws, rules, regulations, administrative policies,
procedures and practices, in order to ensure informed and diligent compliance with customs practices
and procedures by stakeholders. Consult, coordinate and cooperate with other government agencies
and the private sector in implementing and developing customs policy. Provide a fair and expeditious
administrative and judicial appellate remedy for customs related grievances and matters. Employ
modern practices in customs administration and utilize information and communications technology in
the implementation of customs functions. Institute professionalism and meritocracy in customs tax
administration by attracting and retaining competent and capable customs officers and personnel to
enforce the provisions of this Act.