Despite many poor households complaining that P200 is not enough, President Duterte said that the government cannot afford more than the current oil subsidy for the country’s poorest households on Thursday, March 31.
“The Cabinet members said they are ready to give P200…I insisted P500 pero magkautang-utang na tayo diyan,” the President said during a meeting with the National Task Force and Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-RTF-ELCAC)
IBON Foundation Executive Director Sonny Africa said that this meager oil subsidy was insultingly low. “The economic managers are being stingy with money that isn’t even theirs to begin with,” he stated.
Previously, the President himself admitted that P200 was too small to compensate for the rising cost of living, and ordered Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominuez to find a way to increase it.
“Masyadong mababa iyan. It cannot sustain a family of three, even four or five.” he said.
But Duterte’s economic managers have insisted on a conservative response to the recent oil price hikes. Alongside their refusal to raise oil subsidies, the DOF also opposed cutting taxes on oil, saying that the government needed the funds.
However, despite the Duterte administration’s “meager oil subsidy” and their supposed efforts to avoid ballooning debts, the administration’s debts increased at an all-time high at P12.09 trillion for the end of February.
While the government claimed that they borrowed money to fight COVID-19, IBON Foundation found that only P570 billion — a bit more than a tenth of the total 5.3 Trillion that they borrowed from 2020 to 2021 — went to the pandemic response.
The administration spent P1.84 trillion on infrastructure in pursuit of its Build, Build, Build program, more than thrice as much as the COVID response. They also spent P2.17 trillion on debt servicing.
“The unchanged large spending on infrastructure is inappropriate because much of this was spent abroad on expensive imported materials, equipment and contractors instead of being spent locally. Putting the same amount in people’s pockets and supporting domestic MSMEs would have had a much bigger multiplier effect than leakages abroad.The even larger amounts for debt servicing are even more unproductive in that sense with no multiplier effects at all,” the think tank said.
IBON Foundation further reported that an increase in wages is necessary to counter the spiking prices of oil and basic goods. This is especially considering that the Duterte administration only implemented wage hikes twice. From P496 in 2016 to the present minimum wage worth P537 in Metro Manila, the administration merely implemented a 9.4% wage increase.
Critics assert that Duterte should eliminate corruption and go after tax evaders to increase government funds instead of depriving Filipinos of the help they need.
Yet, tax convict Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. remains in close ties with the president, following reports of their supposed meeting this month. The president expressed he wanted someone to continue his administration’s projects and legacy.
Under the Duterte administration, around 400 extra-judicial killings were reported, excluding those drug-related which rights groups assert to be at an estimate of 30,000 cases. Furthermore, Karapatan alliance reports around 580,000 cases of harassment, threat, and intimidation.
Additionally, despite the president’s supposed non-approval of Marcos, Jr. as a “spoiled and weak leader,” his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio teamed up with the dictator’s son for the 2022 national elections. When asked about Marcos, Jr’s P203 billion tax debt, Duterte-Carpio, lawyer by profession, stated that she chooses not to comment on the matter.
“That P203 billion, if you calculate it correctly, can provide P10,000 to each poor family. The government keeps saying it can’t afford to give more aid due to lack of funds or whatever. Why not go after that P203 billion?” said Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap Secretary General Eufemia Doringo.
Raising the monthly subsidy to P500 would only cost P70 Billion to P80 Billion, just around a third of what the Marcoses have to pay.
Despite the large-scale economic and health crisis at hand, the Duterte administration chooses to spew red-tagging attempts on its critics.
“Instead of providing concrete solutions to address the unresolved oil crisis amid the pandemic, the redtagger-in-chief chooses to waste the nation’s time and taxes by mumbling a cheap script fed by his military henchmen. Like a rabid dog pushed into a corner, Pres. Duterte and his minions redtag progressive candidates, VP Leni Robredo, political opposition and all else who will make sure that he will spend the rest of his life in jail after his term,” Kabataan Partylist National President Raoul Manuel stated.
Kabataan Partylist representative Sarah Elago said that the red-tagging efforts are attacks on the different sectors calling out Duterte on his failures.
“Sumisirit ang presyo ng langis, maraming walang trabaho, mataas ang presyo ng bilihin, dapat ito ang pagkaabalahan, hindi ang patuloy na atake sa mamamayan,” Elago said.
They continue to call for sufficient pandemic aid, suspending taxes on oil to lower prices, and economic policies that cater to those in need instead of the rich and powerful.
Featured image courtesy of George Calvelo
