‘Political stability needed to address Filipinos’ urgent concerns’

Senator Joel Villanueva. PHOTO FROM SENATE’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Aside from passing important legislation in Congress, Senator Joel Villanueva believes that having political stability would help attract investors and eventually improve the country’s economic growth.

This following a recent Pulse issue survey which showed that economic issues such as increased salary for workers, controlled inflation, and more jobs remained the top concerns of Filipinos.

READ: Wage hike, inflation, jobs top concerns for Pinoys—Pulse Asia

“The results of the Pulse Asia survey (are) reflective of the most urgent needs of the Filipinos. Congress should prioritize policies that will focus on job generation, job security and social protection.” Villanueva, chair of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development said in a text message on Tuesday.

“These include income tax re-bracketing and tax reform which should increase the take-home salary of our Filipino workers and will make the tax system more progressive.”

“We should also work on political stability as this has impact on attracting investors and job creation and ultimately, economic growth,” added Villanueva, who belongs to the majority bloc in the Senate.

Based on the survey conducted from March 15 to 20, Filipinos were most concerned about improving the pay of workers (43 percent), controlling inflation (41 percent), and creating more jobs (39 percent).

The economic issues were followed by fighting corruption in government (31 percent), fighting criminality (28 percent), and reducing poverty (27 percent), among others,

The survey was conducted among 1,200 adult respondents and had a ± 3% margin of error. IDL