President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. RENE LUMAWAG/Presidential Photo
Women’s rights group Gabriela on Tuesday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers for allegedly pushing for an economic program similar to that of the Aquino administration.
The group called for pro-people economic program instead of policies “allowing inflation to eat people’s meager incomes.”
They also criticized the approval of bills and executive orders that are said to elevate taxes and fees and cut social benefits to fund the administration’s “hyperinflated” budget for this year.
Gabriela secretary general Joms Salvador said in a statement that the poor who have hoped for “real change” have instead seen the government backing out of its promise of “ending job contractualization, reducing foreign meddling in our economic and military affairs, and starting local industries and real land reform to end our dependence on exporting our labor force.”
Gabriela held a noise barrage on Tuesday to call on Duterte to “reject the old and discredited agenda inherited from the Daang Matuwid regime now being pushed by his neoliberal financial managers.”
The group fears the skyrocketing increase in prices of energy products and transportation costs that the proposed Comprehensive Tax Reform will bring. The said reform package is being pushed by the Department of Finance and majority lawmakers.
The Duterte administration is also mum on the P750 national minimum wage proposed by workers.
Salvador said the cost of Public Private Partnership (PPP) subsidies are being passed on to the poor.
She said DOF officials are making the poor shoulder the new taxes instead of fixing the current “inefficient tax collection system.”
The group also challenged Duterte to advance the continuing peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front. The upcoming round of talks will be focusing on the approval of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER).
Gabriela said the national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform, which will be tackled under the CASER, will provide more secure economic foundation and decisive alleviation of mass poverty not only to the government but also to the people. RAM/AC
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