Inflation produces 2 million more poor Filipinos — lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — Rising inflation has produced at least two million more poor Filipinos, Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo said yesterday.

“Studies have shown the worrying impact of unabated inflation on poverty. Food inflation in particular, now at close to 10 percent, has likely dragged more than two million Filipinos to poverty,” he said.

He said this is corroborated by a recent survey showing an increase to 52 percent of the number of respondents who considered themselves poor, eight percent of whom were classified as “new poor.” Inflation is the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services.

The lawmaker called on Congress to suspend current and future fuel taxes under the controversial Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

“While a suspension of the scheduled increases in 2019 will at the very least help to stem the tide and prevent the situation from getting any worse, it does nothing to relieve those who are now suffering from the relentless increase in prices,” he said.

Quimbo, as part of the majority and as a deputy speaker under the leadership of ousted speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, supported the law. He now considers himself a minority member trying to unseat Minority Leader Danilo Suarez.

Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin supported the call for the scrapping of fuel taxes.

“The effects of suspending the scheduled excise tax increases next year will be too little, too late. To curb inflation, we must lower the tax on oil products to pre-TRAIN levels,” he said.

He said new and higher levies under TRAIN have been driving consumer prices up.

Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro of Alliance of Concerned Teachers said suspending the 2019 additional excise tax “is a welcome development but will not help the already suffering poor majority with the record high 6.7-percent inflation rate.”

In a joint statement, they said Congress should scrap the fuel tax provisions of the TRAIN law.

“Since the implementation of the law in January 2018, fuel prices have increased by as much as P10.50 per liter for gasoline, P12 for diesel and P14.12 for kerosene. Filipinos are in need of immediate and concrete solutions that would solve the never-ending price hikes,” they said.

Boost rice production  

As the runaway inflation continues to weigh heavily on consumers, Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay said rice prices have gone up by as much as P8 per kilo from year-ago levels.

Atienza’s statement came a day after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that prices have started going down.

Citing official government data, Atienza said the average retail price of regular milled rice as of the first week of this month was P46.04 per kilo, up by 21.13 percent or P8.03 from P38.01 a year ago.

On the other hand, the average price of well-milled rice was P49.30 per kilo, up by 16.55 percent or P7 from P42.30 a year ago, he said.

Atienza said the government should intensify its search for measures to boost rice production, which he said is the “ultimate solution to elevated prices.”

For instance, he cited the need to clean up irrigation channels obstructed by mud deposits that pile up after every flooding due to extreme rainfall or whenever dams have to dump excess water.

“Many small rice farmers have complained that they are simply not getting enough irrigation when needed, because canals meant to deliver water to their lands have been blocked by debris,” he said.

To address the problem, Atienza urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to enlist thousands of idle but able-bodied citizens in the countryside to manually dredge the clogged waterways.

“The DOLE has hundreds of millions of pesos at its disposal every year for emergency jobs. It should spend the money right away to sign up laborers to open up these jammed water ducts,” he said.

Another senior lawmaker, Michael Romero of 1-Pacman, said aside from rice prices, apartment and housing rentals are also going up.

“It is clear from inflation data that dwelling rentals have increased,” Romero, an economist, said.

He said the increase in rent has affected millions of renters not only in Metro Manila and other urban areas but in rural communities as well.

He said data for September showed that rentals for apartments and other dwelling units accounted for .4-percentage point of the total 6.7 percent inflation recorded for the month.

The culprit is the 12-percent value added tax imposed under TRAIN on housing rentals, he added.

However, it is possible that landlords are passing on to their tenants not only the VAT but also other increased costs they are incurring due to TRAIN like higher taxes on fuel, Romero stressed.

He urged the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to make sure that landlords and other lessors are not abusing or finding reasons to charge their tenants more than the VAT.

“Only lessors who are VAT-registered should legally claim VAT. Non-VAT lessors should not use the TRAIN law as their excuse for raising rent because they are not paying VAT and therefore not paying the right tax on rentals,” he said.

He said the government has a moral duty to protect millions of renters against abusive landlords and other lessors. 

Meanwhile, a peasant group assailed the Duterte administration for mandating minimum wage levels for agricultural workers in the country at poverty level.

The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said that the mandated minimum wages of agricultural workers in Regions 1, 4B, 5, 6, 8, 12 and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are the same or lower than the World Bank-prescribed wage at the poverty level of $5.50 (about P295) a day.

UMA secretary-general John Milton Lozande said the lowest is in Region 4B, where the mandated minimum daily wage for agricultural non-plantation workers is just P259.

“This is the reason why UMA in coordination with other labor groups such as the Kilusang Mayo Uno is advocating for a P750 daily national mandated minimum wage,” Lozande said. – With Rhodina Villanueva