Senator Panfilo Lacson is alarmed that President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers are not at all worried about a weak peso.
“We should all worry that the NEDA Director General and the DBM Secretary (as earlier announced) are not worried about the weak peso,” Lacson said in a statement on Tuesday.
He was referring to National Economic Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Ernesto Pernia and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who reportedly downplayed the weak peso against the dollar.
READ: Weak peso, stock market ‘not signs of weak economy,’ gov’t says
Lacson though noted that when Duterte assumed office in July 2016, the peso-dollar rate was only P47.30/US$1.
But just two years of the Duterte administration, “it has shrunk to an all-time low at PhP53.40 per US$1,” the senator lamented.
“We don’t need to be rocket scientists to realize that right off, we have to pay an extra PhP445.9 billion with the Php6.1 difference,” Lacson said.
Add to that, he said, the fact that the manufacturing sector imports a great portion of their raw materials.
“Pray tell me if we shouldn’t be concerned,” the senator added. Carol Balita, INQUIRER.net intern/je