Labor group denounces PH economic team’s London trip

Cabinet officials made a visit to the first-ever Jollibee store in the United Kingdom, a month before its scheduled grand
opening in October.

A labor group on Thursday criticized the presence in London recently of the Duterte administration’s economic team amid the worsening inflation gripping the country.

The moderate Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) slammed the officials, led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, for being “unmindful of the rising inflation, worsening poverty and suffering of our people.”

“It looks like they are having a good time and there’s no sense of urgency in them,” ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said, referring to the Cabinet officials, who were shown on Dominguez’s Twitter account happily eating dinner at a soon-to-be-opened Filipino fast food chain in London.

But presidential spokesperson Harry Roque defended the economic team’s trip, saying its three-day roadshow would “promote the Philippines as an investment destination.”

Sell the country

“If we don’t sell our country, investors will not come here,” Roque said.

The delegation was in London from Sept. 24 to 26 for the Philippine Economic Briefing, which was meant to entice British businessmen to invest in the Philippines’ infrastructure, energy and tourism sectors.

With Dominguez in London were Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat  and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo. —REPORTS FROM JOVIC YEE AND CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO