MANILA – The Duterte administration should suspend the second round of increases in fuel taxes starting January 2019 and increase the supply of state-subsidized rice in the market to arrest the unabated hikes in the prices of basic goods, opposition lawmakers from the Liberal Party said.
Twenty-four LP lawmakers from the House of Representatives led by Rep. Romero Quimbo of Marikina made the call after the Philippine Statistics Authority announced that the nine-year high 6.7 percent inflation rate was due to price hikes in food, non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; and transportation costs.
“Clearly, now is a time of solutions: concrete, immediate, and devoid of the usual politicking. We propose that government make rice available to all. Do away with the exorbitant NFA retailers’ fees for the sale of NFA rice in the supermarkets. Stop the implementation of the second tranche of fuel excise tax,” the LP lawmakers said in a statement.
The LP legislators were referring to the provision of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law which hikes the price of diesel by P2.50 per liter on the first year, P4.50 per liter on the second year and P7 per liter on third year onwards. Gasoline prices, on the other hand, will increase by P7 per liter during the first year, P9 per liter on the second year and P10 per liter on the third year.
The Train law was passed into law last January.
Likewise, the opposition lawmakers called for the speedy release of the P2,400 unconditional cash transfer for each of the poorest 10 million households which is also provided under the TRAIN Law.
“When the house is burning, our people need leaders who can stop the fire, or to show them the way to safety, not leaders whose priority is to sow intrigue and hurl insults,” the LP said, alluding to President Rodrigo Duterte’s penchant of linking the LP to supposed destabilization plot and calling LP’s chairperson and Vice President Leni Robredo incompetent and weak.
“We need a government that truly works; one that responds and addresses our needs , not one whose idea of solving problems is to silence those who point it out. Enough paranoia, enough noise, enough distractions. Our people need a way out of this hardship, and they need it now,” they added.
Budget Chief Benjamin Diokno also said this week that the unabated increase of inflation rate won’t make a big difference on the poor and is not a cause for panic, considering that inflation rates during the time of former dictator President Ferdinand Marcos reached 50.3 percent while it reached 20 percent during the presidency of Corazon Aquino. (GMA News)
