By Argyll Cyrus Geducos
Malacañang said that Senator Francis Pangilinan is taking advantage of the issue of inflation as it reassures the public that the country's economy is now improving.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement after Pangilinan said that there has been no concrete action by the government to address the rising prices of goods.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo
(OPS / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a statement, Panelo lamented Pangilinan's statement and said that the senator is just politicking.
"We find it unfortunate that Senator Francis Pangilinan is still milking the issue of inflation considering prices have gone down," he said.
"His claim that the government has not done any concrete action to address the increasing prices of goods is out of touch with reality and is certainly another form of politicking to discredit the Administration," he added.
According to Panelo, government economists are not worried about the 6.7-percent inflation rate in October as it has already plateaued.
"We are looking forward that it would further ease in the coming months as a result of the steps directly taken by the Executive Branch to address the rising prices of goods," he said.
"We guarantee that this administration is not taking the issue of rising prices sitting down. We are doing all we can to make sure that there is food in every Filipino family's table," he added.
Situation improving
Meanwhile, in his Thursday press briefing, Panelo citing the government's economic managers, said that the country's economy is now improving after two months of experiencing a high inflation rate.
"As explained by the Department of Finance and our other economic managers, the situation is improving. The inflation rate has protruded and there is no other way but down," he said.
"Given the fact that the government has undertaken measures to neutralize inflation rate, like flooding our country with food supplies, rice and others. And if you have noticed, prices have start to come down," he added.
Q3 GDP
Panelo, meanwhile, refused to comment on the Philippine Statistics Authority's report that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) slowed down to 6.1 percent during the third quarter of 2018.
Despite the Philippines being one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, the said figure is lower that the revised second quarter figure of 6.2 percent.
"Apparently, the economic managers they have not made any statement regarding that. I'd rather let the economic managers make a statement on that aspect," he said.
The slowdown in economic growth came amid the country's inflation reaching a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in October.