By Genalyn Kabiling and Hannah Torregoza While the Senate seeks an inquiry into the President’s plan to suspend the excise on fuel, Malacañang said yesterday that members of the Duterte Cabinet are committed to “work tirelessly” and “not grow complacent” in addressing the nation’s inflation woes. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo
(OPS / MANILA BULLETIN) Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement as he welcomed the latest survey results showing higher public satisfaction with the President’s official family in the third quarter of the year despite woes over rising inflation. “We welcome the results of the survey administered by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in September 2018 which showed that the net satisfaction rating of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s Cabinet rising from +25 in June 2018 to +32 in September 2018,” Panelo said. “Notwithstanding the favorable survey numbers, the members of the official family of the President will not grow complacent in addressing national issues but will continue to work tirelessly as we lay down the foundation of a stronger and more robust society,” he said. Panelo has attributed the good satisfaction rating of the Cabinet to efforts to tame the country’s inflation spike. “Since the survey was conducted during the month of September when inflation was at 6.7%, the findings tell us that our people, indeed, recognize and appreciate the efforts of the Administration in stabilizing the prices of basic commodities and bringing a comfortable and dignified life for all,” he said. Duterte has already expressed his willingness to suspend the second tranche of the excise on fuel in January 2019 to counter the effects of rising commodity prices. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian pointed out that despite the government’s efforts to mitigate the inflationary effects of the TRAIN Law, prices of goods and services in the country continued to soar in September 2018 with the inflation rate recorded at 6.7 percent — the highest registered inflation in the last nine years and bringing the year-to-date inflation rate to 5.0 percent, well above the government’s target of 2-4 percent and breaching the 2018 inflation forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of 4.9 percent in August 2018. The chair the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs noted that the President has expressed he is amenable to suspending the second tranche of the excise tax under the TRAIN law which is scheduled on January 2019, as the tax reform program provides for its suspension if Dubai crude averages $80 per barrel for three months. As such, Gatchalian has sought a Senate inquiry on the possible effects of the government’s plan to suspend the excise tax on fuel to ease inflation. Gatchalian filed Senate Resolution No. 917, saying it is necessary to study the potential impact of suspending the fuel excise tax under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law in accordance with President Duterte’s plan. “It is imperative for this inquiry to continue to ventilate the issues related to the effective implementation of the said social mitigating measures, not only with respect to the targeted beneficiaries, but also to the rest of the families who see themselves poor,” Gatchalian said in the explanatory note of his resolution. Gatchalian also said additional inflationary pressures are expected to happen in the coming months, particularly due to higher global oil prices; minimum wage hikes granted starting October; higher airline fares due to fuel surcharge; additional fare hike petitions by buses, taxi and jeepneys; weather disruptions which usually come in the 4th quarter of the year; and the further weakening of the peso. Citing Department of Energy’s (DOE) September 25 data, the senator said domestic pump prices year-to-date have risen to P9.40 per liter for gasoline and P9.35 per liter for diesel. “P2.65 or 28.2 percent of the price increase in gasoline can be attributed to TRAIN while P2.50 or 26.7 percent is added to the price in diesel,” he explained. During the previous hearing conducted by his panel, it was revealed that there were delays in the implementation of various social mitigation measures, including the 10 percent discount on rice sold by the National Food Authority (NFA), the Unconditional Cash Transfer program, and the Pantawid Pasada program. The NFA has admitted that it has yet to implement the 10 percent discount because the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) gave no funding. In the same hearing, Gatchalian called for the creation of a multi-agency task force that would be responsible for mitigating the effects of rising inflation in the country. He took to task the Department of Finance (DOF) whom he said can probably create a task force to address inflation which can be multi-sectoral and multi-departmental “so that we can come up with a holistic approach to curbing inflation.”