MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday there was no need for the House of Representatives to grant special powers to curb inflation, adding that there are mechanisms that he can utilize to control the prices of commodities.
“I do not think that it is necessary to ask for special powers. I have already the power to declare an emergency and to control the prices of commodities. So I don’t think there is any need for more than that; that is sufficient,” the president told reporters at Rizal Park in Manila during the launch of an urban agriculture project.
But Marcos, who is concurrently agriculture secretary, did not specify what he meant.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has already raised its prime interest rate to 6.0 percent on Feb. 17, after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported inflation for January at 8.7 percent.
The January rate was faster than the 8.1 percent rate in December 2022 and monetary authorities are now predicting that prices may even rise faster than 9 percent in February.
The BSP, which originally aimed to keep inflation at 2 to 4 percent, may again announce another interest rate hike when its Monetary Board meets again on Mar. 23.
An ‘emergency situation’
The president, who vocally opposed wanton importation while campaigning last year and during his first few months in office, has already allowed more imports of agricultural produce amid the continued stockpiling of key commodities after the Christmas season.
Reporting on a meeting of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday, the Palace indicated that the government may subsidize the cost of fertilizer by importing them in bulk, possibly from China, and then selling them to farmers at a discount.
During his state visit to China in January, Marcos — who described inflation as an “emergency situation” at that time — secured deals with two companies in China to supply local farmers with affordable fertilizer.
At the same time, the president continued to encourage farmers to increase production to cushion the impact of inflation.
At Rizal Park, he led the “Kadiwa ng Pangulo” program, which aims to make basic commodities, like fish, poultry and livestock, fruits and vegetables, more accessible to poor families.
Solution to inflation
Marcos also launched the “Halina’t Magtanim Ng Prutas At Gulay, Kadiwa’y Yaman, Plants for Bountiful Barangays Movement,” which seeks to build community gardens and increase local production of fruits and vegetables.
“The other elements of inflation, we can’t control much, that is why we’re doing something like this so that we can recover from inflation,” he said.
The president also attended the inauguration of a sardine manufacturing plant in Sto. Tomas City, Batangas, saying that is what he wants to achieve in the country’s agriculture sector.
“It is an example of what we in agriculture and agribusiness are hoping to demonstrate to all our investors, the ability to scale up from what can be a backyard kind of business, slowly building it up to a very modern and very, very high production capacity like we see here today,” he said. (Jerome Aning, Nestor Corrales © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
