Incoming senator Raffy Tulfo will not support calls for the government to provide aid to the middle class amid rising fuel prices of oil and other basic commodities.
“For the middle class, I think we should study it first. But for those below middle class, the poor, yes,” Tulfo, in an ABS-CBN News report said.
He said in the report that the middle class “can still handle the impact of the inflation since their salaries are higher than those in the underprivileged sector.”
“They can still afford to buy their needs. They receive at least above minimum wage. So let’’s help those earning minimum wages or lower,” Tulfo said.
Tulfo said Filipinos receiving the minimum wage and below number now around 8 million, citing data he received, ABS-CBN reported.
Tulfo, the incoming chair of the Senate committee on labor said this is the sector that needs help from government the most.
He added that many workers are still being deprived of the required minimum wage and benefits despite existing laws.
Tulfo also said he would prioritize talks on the problems of power outages in the country as these directly affect consumers.
“As chai of the Energy Committee, we will prioritize the issues that will directly affect the poor such as system loss, the increase in power rates, and the power outages in the country,” Tulfo said, quoted by GMA News.
Tulfo said he was still assessing the proposals to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) considering that the facility had structural defects, its location was prone to typhoons, there could be problems with the nuclear waste, and it was prone to accidents, GMA News reported.
He said nuclear energy is “less costly and there were many benefits in terms of energy supply.”
On excise taxes, Tulfo said its suspension amid rising fuel costs has “to be studied carefully. He vowed to tackle the issue in the next Congress.
Tulfo meanwhile said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the chair of the Senate Energy panel in the 18th Congress, offered to be TUlfo’s vice-chair.
Initially, Tulfo said he was vying for the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment, but he decided to yield to Senator-elect Jinggoy Estrada as Estrada was the more senior senator, GMA News reported.