By Azer Parrocha (PNA)
MANILA — Despite the drop in the prices of goods, Senator Francis Pangilinan is still exploiting the issue of inflation, Malacañang said on Thursday.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Pangilinan’s claim that the government has not done any concrete action to address increasing prices of goods is “out of touch with reality.”
“We find it unfortunate that Senator Francis Pangilinan is still milking the issue of inflation considering prices have gone down,” Panelo said, noting that the senator is merely politicking to discredit the Duterte administration.
“We guarantee that this administration is not taking the issue of rising prices sitting down. We are doing all we can to make sure that there is food in every Filipino family’s table,” he added.
Panelo said Duterte’s economic team is not worried with the 6.7 percent October inflation rate because it has already “plateaued.”
“We are looking forward that it would further ease in the coming months as a result of the steps directly taken by the Executive Branch to address the rising prices of goods,” Panelo said.
He also pointed out that Duterte has signed Administrative Order (AO) No. 13 to streamline procedures on the importation of agricultural products, including rice, and Memorandum Order (MO) Nos. 26, 27, and 28 to stabilize the prices of agriculture and fishery products at reasonable levels and enough supply in the markets.
Panelo said Duterte is now reviewing the recommendation of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on the proposed suspension of excise tax on fuel, and an announcement will be made through an executive issuance once this is approved.
He also assured that beneficiaries will get enough aid from the release of the unconditional cash transfer program subsidies despite some delays.
“Our goal is to prevent a repeat of leakages in the 4Ps system as what occurred during the previous administration, wherein spurious beneficiaries and duplicate entries were included in the database,” Panelo said.
Panelo said Duterte has also signed Executive Order (EO) No. 62 last September, returning the National Food Authority (NFA) to the supervision of the Department of Agriculture (DA), in efforts to fix the NFA and ensure efficiency and better coordination in the performance of the agency’s mandates.
“As explained by the Department of Finance and our other economic managers, the situation is improving. There is no other way but down given the fact that government undertaken measures to neutralize the inflation rate like flooding our country with food supply, rice, and others,” Panelo said.
