Ma. Melanie Alyssa P.

Mabalot
A1C
The reality of PH Economy in 2018

Sadly, I do agree on the content of the article that I have just read. For the past year,
news on televisions and social media always talks about how the prices of goods and gasoline
increased as a result of inflation, how big the impact of Train Law is, and much more. Although I
am not a working individual yet, merely a student, I can say that I can feel the changes that
happened from last year. I tend to be observant with my surroundings, especially when I am
commuting from my home to school since the travel time was long. At some point, I pondered
upon the petroleum prices while passing by saying, “Wow, the price of diesel in the past years
were just a little more than 20 pesos and now its price is comparable to the prices of unleaded
gasoline in the past.” Furthermore, whenever we go for grocery shopping, I can also feel the
wrath of TRAIN Law as the prices of the goods that we buy increased rapidly compared to the
past years, especially commodities with sugar. The budget of Php 1500 that is a reasonable
amount for a week of grocery is now insufficient and can just afford to buy a minimal amount of
products. With these observations coped up with the content that I have read in the article, I
asked myself, "what was really the cause as to why we experience this?”

Firstly, Punongbayan said that one of the reasons why the economy of the Philippines
had a difficult time was because of the government’s action, letting the inflation rate spike as
high as possible. The Philippine Peso is now weak against other foreign currency, and as I have
mentioned earlier, the upsurge of inflation was really felt due to the sudden increase of goods
because of the newly implemented TRAIN Law. Even though this law’s objective is to reduce
certain taxes like personal income tax, donor’s tax, estate tax, and value-added tax, in my
opinion, the amount that was reduced is still recouped on the prices of goods as of the moment.
Worse, we pay a much larger amount for our needs, affecting the budget and savings of a
family, especially the lower sector of the population.

Second, the rice mismanagement due to the clumsy rice policy implemented by the
government also brought damage to the Philippine economy. Come to think of it, the Philippines
is considered as an agricultural country but how come that we import tons of rice from other
countries? Isn’t it ironic? The sadder part about this is that most of the farmers do not own the
land of rice that they harvest and the middleman is the one who benefits from this, thus, creating
a monopoly of rice that causes the depletion of the supply. In my opinion, I think that it is
possible for the Philippines not to import rice as much as we do because we are a rich
agricultural country and if we buy directly from our farmers, they could make the price of rice
cheaper. This could be done if the government would incline on giving more attention and
assistance towards the farmers rather than giving more importance to importing of rice.

Third, the Build, Build, Build program of the Duterte Administration also provides a large
hole towards our economy. The slowed down implementation of this program is also bringing
the economy of the Philippines down. Among the 75 approved projects, only 10 projects are
taking place although the budget of 8-trillion is already out for this program. If there is already a
budget that is allocated for these projects, where is the output now? Not seeing any
improvements is really regrettable because instead of allocating it to these stagnant projects
where you could not see where the budget is spent, it should have been allocated to the other
programs that would benefit from it, especially the agricultural department.

Fourth, I do agree that the government should stop allowing the Chinese to have further
control in our economy, especially with all of the issues of our country with them. Moreover, we
also know in the recent news that there are many Chinese nationals that are coming in here to
the Philippines to work. Not to discriminate them but I do not agree why our government is doing
this. Our unemployment rate keeps on increasing but we still give more opportunities to them?
Later on, I would not be surprised if we would just be slaves to China.

Lastly, Punongbayan also stated that the uncertainty in the business sector has a key
effect on our economy. As we all know, businesses play a big role in maintaining our economy
since they are the major contributors of goods and services. They are also the ones who create
job opportunities for unemployed workers. However, at the start of Duterte’s administration, the
business industry started to fall down, causing a lot of businesses and opportunities to be wiped
out. If this obliviousness of Duterte regarding the industry of business will continue, I bet that our
economy will shrink more and foreign investors would not find our country to be attractive
anymore.

All in all, I do believe that the PH economy had a rocky journey through the whole year
of 2018, especially on the third and fourth quarter of the year. For the reasons that
Punongbayan presented, ‘I was also convinced that these situations were the cause as to why
we are undergoing through a “needless hardships” within our economy. Sadly, if this will
continue, I cannot imagine how worse this situation can be.