MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte wants to bring down the country's poverty rate to 17 percent by the end of his term, his economic team said on Monday.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government aims to bring down poverty levels to 17 percent by 2022 from 26 percent when they assumed office.

Dominguez said to do so, government needs to lower taxes, broaden the tax base and allow a budget deficit to allow infrastructure spending.

"Lower tax rates do not necessarily mean lower revenue intake so long as tax base is broadened and tax administration is improved," he said at the first day of deliberations for the 2017 budget at the Lower House.

Dominguez expects the foreign and domestic borrowing mix to be at 34 percent:66 percent.

In the same briefing, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said that "poverty reduction has been exceedingly slow," which he attributed to an imbalance in the distribution of the benefits of growth as well as the dismal performance of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and significant increase in the processing of food.

Budget Secretary Ben Diokno meanwhile said government proposes to have a budget deficit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

He also revealed plans to electronically tag infrastructure projects to monitor their progress.

Diokno, a known watchdog and advocate of budget reform, has also revealed that a "budget reform act will be submitted soon."

The proposed law aims to remedy gaps and clarify the limits of the Executive's budget powers and strengthen the congressional power of the purse.

He also revealed plans to fix the pension system, remove its indexation, and replace it with a fund.