Don't worry, just let the Central Bank of the Philippines do its job.
Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo, senior vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations, gave her reaction Tuesday, Sept. 27, on the continued depreciation of the Philippine peso against the United States (US) dollar.
Quimbo, speaking during the weekly Ugnayan sa Batasan News Forum, underscored that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has "sufficient tools" at its disposal to address the issue of the weakening peso.
"Ibigay natin sa ating BSP ang pag-manage sa situation (Let's leave it to BSP to manage the situation). They have sufficient tools to do what they need to do. So sa akin, yun lang eh (For me, that's it)," the economist-solon said.
At the time of the news forum, the peso was still a smidge below P59 as against the US dollar.
"Pagtiwalaan natin ang BSP and other economic managers (Let's trust the BSP and other economic managers). And the BSP is in the hands of a very able person, si Governor Philip Medalla na naging teacher ko, napakagaling na ekonomista. Isa siyang respected na ekonomista (Governor Philip Medalla is a former my teacher of mine, a great economist. He is a respected economist)," the lady solon stressed.
Quimbo added: "Hindi kasi siya simple, kailangan mo talagang tignan nang kabuuan (It’s not so simple, you need to look at its entirety). It's a tough balancing act. But we have sufficient tools to manage the situation. So wag tayong mangamba (So, let's not worry).
She noted that the peso depreciation resulted from external forces, "mostly with what is happening in the US with respect to their policy rates".
"So kung nagtataas sila doon, kailangan din natin magtaas ng interest rates (If they raised interest rates there then we should do the same). And then as a result of the rise in US interest rates, nagiging mas malakas ang US dollar with respect to the Philippine peso (the US dollar becomes stronger with respect to the Philippine peso). So yun ang explanation kung bakit nagwe-weaken ang peso natin (So that explains why our peso has been weakening)," she said.
Quimbo then laid out what she believes are the BSP's options in addressing the peso depreciation.
"When you think about depreciation, ano ang gagawin natin? (what are we going to do?)...are we going to manage our exchange rate, magtataas din ba tayo ng own interest rates nang sa ganun, lumakas lakas nang konti ang piso? (should we also raise our own interest rates in order to strengthen the peso a little?) O di kaya gagamitin na ba natin ang ating reserves of dollars para directly mag-intervene sa foreign exchange market nang sa ganun makapag-defend din ng konti sa piso? (Or are we going to use our reserves of dollars to directly intervene in the foreign exchange rate market and defend the peso?)
"These are questions that the BSP must decide on. And when they do that, it's a tough balancing act ika nga (so to speak)," she said.
"At the same time, again they have sufficient tools to do what they need to do with respect to the exchange rate," added the Marikina lawmaker.