SILAY CITY -- Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said Friday, September 7, the inflation rate in the country that already reached 6.7 percent is already a cause of concern.
“I'm hoping that President Rodrigo Duterte should now be hands-on in the economic aspect of the country to address the high inflation and not just leave it to his economic managers. We're hoping the inflation would be arrested immediately because it is affecting too much the ordinary people,” said Ejercito, who was here Friday for various engagements.
“If you recall during the debates on the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law, my apprehension is that this may cause not only ordinary inflation but food inflation which is already happening now,” Ejercito said.
“What we need to do is to fast track all the major infrastructure with the ‘Build, Build, Build’ that needs to be expedited as the multiplier of the construction of infrastructure such as bridges, railways and others which will give job opportunities to soften the impact of the inflation,” the senator said.
“We in the Senate, we are proud that we did lower the taxes on petroleum products which is lower than the original version.
We do not want to put blame on anybody but next time I hope that the economic managers should be more honest on the implications with figures. I'm concerned about the safeguards on inflation. We have put a safeguard on the inflation that if it breaches to four percent threshold, the excise taxes could be suspended but in the Bicam (bicameral conference), it was deleted,” he added.
Passage of Train 2
Ejercito said: “How can we talk about Train 2 when all these things are happening? It would be hard to convince our colleagues because of what happened with Train 1.”
He also said a lot of investors who are here are saying that if incentives will not be given, they might not expand or worst they might relocate. “So we have to think about this and we should not hurry up on Train 2,” he added.
Ejercito is proposing that tobacco tax alone should be increased.
“We are stand to earn P45 billion to P50 billion from tobacco taxes which would be a big boost in our budget and it's a good health measure and revenue-raising measure,” he emphasized.
Sugar importation
Ejercito said he is disappointed that some people are encouraging the importation of rice, sugar, garlic, and almost everything just to lower the inflation.
“I worked hard for the passage of the anti-agricultural smuggling law which I authored. It is designed to protect our farmers and agricultural sector,” he added.
Ejercito also pointed out he authored the Senate version of the Sugarcane Industry Development Act to revitalize the sugar industry. “It will weaken if we allow the open market.
We have to strengthen the agricultural sector instead of weakening it,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ejercito said he is hoping that the case of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV would be resolved soon because it's “affecting all our works.”
“We have less than 10 sessions left in the Congress. My personal reason is I'm worried that we could not tackle the Universal Health Care Program that needs to be passed in October. I hope it would be resolved soon so we can go back to work,” he said.
Ejercito was here Friday for the blessing of the Silay City Public Market which he allocated P5 million.
He said he will look into the possibility for an additional P8 million budget to complete the rehabilitation of the public market.
He is also eying an allocation for the Silay City public plaza and fountain to boost the city's tourism.