An official on Friday urged the government to adopt measures like placing price controls on food items like galunggong and going back to regulation of the downstream oil industry to address “runaway inflation.”
“With the February inflation at 4.7 percent, which is even higher than the 4.2 percent inflation in January, consumers are apparently in once again for more price shocks in the coming months. While prices of food are the ones driving inflation up, spiking oil prices also play a major part in the upsurge,” House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said
To address this, Zarate said, his group would propose to the government, among others, the putting up of a price ceiling for galunggong and to run after those manipulating and profiteering from its jacked up prices.
The source price of the “poor peoples’ fish” is at an all-time low of P60/kg, yet, it is selling in the market now at an all-time high of P280/kilogram, said Zarate.
Zarate said his group also proposed the extension of subsidies for farmers as well as to hog and poultry raisers, the increase in support for the agricultural sector and the regulation of the downstream oil industry.
“If these are done now, these will not only help pull down the inflation but will also help secure our already threatened food security,” Zarate said.
He said “Up to 95 percent of the country’s petroleum requirements are imported, rendering the country exceedingly vulnerable to the dictates of big transnational corporations.”