Pangilinan laments govt’s failure to arrest inflation

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Wednesday lamented the government’s failure to check inflation which has stayed at 6.7 percent in October.

The October inflation is the same rate of increase in prices of basic commodities last September which is an over nine-year high. It is also higher than the estimate of the administration’s economic managers.

“The government’s economic team released a joint statement on October 7 assuring us that its members are working on lowering the prices of goods and giving assistance to our people greatly affected by inflation,” Pangilinan said in a statement.

“But the increasing prices of goods has been the country’s problem for more than two months. And yet until now, we haven’t seen any concrete action by the government to directly address this problem,” he added.

The opposition senator also expressed concern on the slight increase in the price of rice which clocked in at 10.7 percent this October as compared to 10.4 percent in September.

Pangilinan then renewed his call to suspend the excise tax on fuel products, ensure the effective implementation of the unconditional cash transfer program for the poor and fix the National Food Authority leadership to ensure that they abide by their mandate in regulating the price of rice.

The senator further asked the government to deal with inflation decisively as it is a “problem of every Filipino.”

“When will we act? We reiterate these and we hope the government will listen because these are not just their problem but the problem of every Filipino,” he said.  /muf

READ: October inflation up 6.7%, still over 9-year high, but price pressures easing