ANGELES CITY- The 6.4 percent inflation rate last August reflects the indifference of Pres. Duterte’s economic managers to the plight of the poor.
“We challenge the entire economic team, specifically the heads of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Finance (DOF) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM), to try living on minimum wage and let’s see if they would survive,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairman Antonio Flores said in a statement yesterday.
“Will Secs. Ben Diokno, Ernie Pernia, and Sonny Domingues survive on P512 per day?” he asked.
Flores said “monitoring inflation in their air-conditioned offices will not give Duterte’s economic managers a feel of the real sufferings of the public.”
He said “extremely high food prices and cost of living have become unbearable.
The government’s refusal to grant any substantial wage increase or economic relief for workers is aggravating the situation.”
“The government should do more than just monitor the rising inflation that is now nearing its nine-year, all-time high rate at 6.4 percent. Food inflation has contributed to the steadily rising inflation,” he said.
The KMP noted that inflation spiked from 2.9 percent in December 2017 to 5.7 percent in July this year.
“August inflation level is at an alarmingly high 6.4 percent based on the Philippine Statistics Authority data. This is almost five times more than the 1.3 percent June inflation at the start of Duterte’s presidency,” KMP noted.
“Rising inflation is always a clear indicator of a bad economy. At this rate, we are heading for the worse under Duterte. The (DBM) may be acting cool that the 6.4 percent inflation rate as still being manageable but the reality on the ground is different. The people are suffering too much,” Flores said.
Flores said “the situation of farmers and rural poor are even worse. Farmers who plant rice and provide the country with rice supply can no longer afford food.”
KMP said that, along with the consumer group Bantay Bigas and Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, it will come out today with “alternatives and proposed solutions to the lingering woes of the agriculture sector particularly in the rice, vegetables, fish and mariculture, poultry and livestock industries.”
KMP said various farmers’ and other groups “will continue to oppose the continuing rice and fish importation, the upcoming rice tariffication, the TRAIN law, and other ‘Dutertenomics’ that have further slumped the local economy into the pits.”
