Aquino stressed that "philosophically, I am against regressive taxes." He shot down suggestions like imposing taxes on text messages as this will penalize those in the lower income group who usually use cheaper text messages instead of making calls through their mobile phones.

Economist Lorenzo, for her part, thinks that plugging leakages in the country's tax system may work in closing the deficit. But Lorenzo said that may take some time to work.

Aquino has six years to prove that his idea will work.