BY GLENDA TAYONA and IAN PAUL CORDERO
ILOILO City – The Panay Consumers Alliance (PCA) slammed the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for saying a P10,000 monthly budget was enough for a family of five to get by.
“Try it for yourselves,” Lucy Francisco, spokesperson of PCA, dared the country’s economic managers. “Let’s see if you’re not going to feel the pinch.”
According to NEDA, a family of five can live with a P3,834 (P25.56 per head each day) food budget, P1,288 house rent, P2,204 for water and electricity, and P2,674 for transportation, health and education.
The 56-year-old jeepney driver Ildefonso Peñaflorida of Janiuay, Iloilo told Panay News he spends P10,000 a month for his children’s school allowance alone.
“I have other expenses like for electricity, water and food,” he said.
Peñaflorida earns a maximum of P400 daily. He has four children – three are going to school while the youngest is still a baby.
He told Panay News he gives his three children P30 school allowance each day.
“We strongly protest NEDA’s irresponsible statement. They are ignorant of the plight of millions of Filipinos,” said PCA’s Francisco.
She cited the surges in the prices of basic commodities and additional family expenses due to the resumption of classes.
The 28-year-old housewife Jenelyn Magno of Barangay San Nicolas, La Paz, Iloilo City said a P10,000 monthly budget is not enough for her family to get by.
Magno has six children. Her husband is a trisikad driver who earns around P200 each day.
Most of the family’s income goes to food, said Magno.
The family has other expenses, she said, such as the children’s school allowance.
“I can hardly buy decent clothes for my children,” lamented Magno.
PCA blamed Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law for the soaring prices of goods and services.
“The purchasing power of consumers has shrunk,” said Francisco.
PCA plans to stage a protest in front of the NEDA regional office here.
According to 40-year-old mother Annabel Bustillo of Barangay San Nicolas, La Paz, the P10,000 monthly budget can only sustain a single person.
A manicurist, Bustillo earns a maximum of P500 in a day but she said her income fluctuates, depending on the number of customers she services.
Her husband, on the other hand, is a trisikad driver who earns around P400 each day.
“For food, we spend around P400 every day while for the children’s school allowance, it’s around P500,” said Bustillo.
Her senior high school child gets P50 allowance in the morning and another P50 in the afternoon.
“My other child, a junior high school, gets P30 daily allowance plus P20 for merienda,” she revealed.
Bustillo has two more children – an elementary pupil and a kindergarten pupil.
“We have no emergency funds and this is what worries me. What will I do if my children get sick,” said Bustillo.
In Manila, Bayan Muna party-list’s Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate accused the economic managers of the Duterte administration – Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto Pernia of NEDA, Department of Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno and Department of Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez – of “brazenly downplaying the harsh effects of the TRAIN law on the prices of goods and services.”
“You are outrageously and shamelessly out of touch from reality,” said Zarate.
With inflation for May at an all-time high of 4.6 percent, these economic managers should be fired for adding a hefty burden on millions of Filipinos, said Zarate.
“Sila kaya ang mabuhay na sampung libo lang ang budget para sa kanilang pamilya. Nasubukan na ba nila ito? Bumaba muna kayo sa inyong kinatuntungang matayog na pedestal at subukan munang pagkasyahin ang P10,000 ng kahit anim na buwan tapos saka kayo magsalita,” said the progressive solon.
NEDA clarified the P10,000 monthly budget it cited was just hypothetical and used to show the effects of the current inflation rate./PN
