Villanueva: Extend reduced tariffs on basic commodities amid food inflation

Majority Leader Joel Villanueva (Albert Calvelo/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The government should extend the reduced tariffs on basic commodities in view of rising costs of food products, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said on Monday.

Villanueva made the remark after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s economy grew by 7.6 percent.

“We need to ensure that the national budget will support this positive momentum in our economic growth. For example, addressing the economic agenda of creating more jobs and building the necessary infrastructure to support development are main priorities,” the senator said in a statement.

For the short term, Villanueva said that “the government can temporarily address food inflation by extending the reduced tariffs on basic commodities such as meat and rice under Executive Order (EO) No. 171, which shall expire after December 31 of this year.”

The EO No. 171, signed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte last May, was targeted at maintaining the reduced tariff rates on key commodities such as meat and rice until the end of December this year.

For medium- to long-term solutions, Villanueva said that the government should support the agriculture sector and concentrate on food security.

“Our agriculture sector urgently needs support to increase our capability and capacity for food production. By providing such, we hit a lot of birds with one stone: controlling inflation, generating jobs, and improving [the] competitiveness of local food producers. No Filipino should go hungry as we grow our economy,” Villanueva pointed out.

The country’s inflation hit 7.7 percent last October due to the rise in food prices.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was at 5 percent in September.  Irish Perez, trainee

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