ROMUALDEZ VOWS TO FOLLOW MARCOS LEAD
SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez vowed to follow the lead of President Ferdinand“Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr.’s administration when it pursues its goals of bringing down the inflation and unemployment rate as well as reducing the cost of rice to P20 per kilo.
According to Romualdez, while the Marcos administration is “not there yet” in achieving some of the objectives it set during the first SONA, it has made great strides in bringing down inflation, unemployment and the prices of rice in the country.
“As we’ve already seen, the inflation rate is going down so tama ‘yung direksyon pero hindi pa talaga tayo nakaabot sa punto na mababa na talaga ang presyo ng mga bilihin. We want to get there, that’s the direction,” Romualdez said.
“Dito rin sa trabaho, or ‘yung jobs, ‘yung unemployment. The unemployment rate is going down pero marami pa rin ang walang trabaho. So while we are not yet there, ‘yung direksyon po ay tama,” he added.
In fact, Romualdez stressed, inflation continued to slow down until PAG 2 last month, when it settled at 5.4 percent in June from a high of 8.7 percent at the start of the year in January.
The headline inflation of 5.4 percent in June is the lowest in a span of 13 months, coming from 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March, 6.6 percent in April and 6.1 percent in May.
Citing latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on the unemployment rate, the highest ranking House leader from Leyte said it continued to decline in April when it dropped to 4.5 percent in April 2023 from 5.7 percent in the same month last year, and 4.7 percent in the previous month.
As for achieving the P20 per kilo of rice objective, a Marcos administration legacy promise, Romualdez said the President is still keen on fulfilling its vow.
“We are not yet there but we will soon approach that. We will make sure that in the House, we will take initiatives as we had done in the previous regular session that we will focus on the availability of affordable rice and we will try to target that 20 pesos per kilo,” Romualdez said.
“That is our aspiration and we will be headed towards that and we will find ways and means to make sure that local production is up and that there will be fewer, if not no more occasions, for hoarding or profiteering,” he added.
Romualdez said that there were even reports that rice in the Kadiwa ng Ani at Kita stores established by President Marcos was being sold at P25 per kilo.
