SoNA checklist: Tame inflation

When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) two weeks from now, on top of the agenda should be the high prices of basic commodities.

Increases in the cost of goods and services affect all sectors but poor Filipino families are hit the hardest — right in the gut, where the volume and quality of the food they eat is less.

Linda Sabornido, a 34-year-old housewife with three children, said wise budgeting is the key but with the continued rise in prices — while incomes remain stagnant — the challenge has gotten tougher.

“Last month, dried fish cost P50 for one-fourth kilo; now it is P60,” she said, referring to the small dried cellophane-wrapped sardines in her plastic bag. “There are 24 pieces which are enough for our daily breakfast for the week.”

She also bought vegetables like ampalaya, upo, and patola, as well as okra, squash, and string beans. She also had small onions, three garlic bulbs, a dozen large eggs and fresh dilis. It all cost her almost P600.

“I don’t buy leafy vegetables because they easily dry out and don’t last long. I only go to the market once a week so the vegetables should have a longer shelf life,” she added.

“For the fish, I buy only the smaller ones which are cheaper and easier to divide among my children.”

Last year, Sabornido said, she allotted P500 a week for their food, excluding rice, with an occasional treat of chicken feet when her husband gave her extra money. Her husband, a pedicab driver, takes home an average of P200 a day.

Sabordino’s style is typical of thousands of poor Filipino households who are the most vulnerable to increases in inflation.

Single largest expense

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives, in a report last December 2022, indicated that food represented the single largest expense, accounting for 43 percent of total expenditures, of a family.

The CPBRD report showed that the poorer a family was, the higher the share of food in the family budget.

“Food expenditure among households in the bottom 10-percent income group had a higher share at 61 percent compared to the 29 percent for households in the top 10-percent income group,” the report noted.

Bottom 3 percent

On Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority in Eastern Visayas reported that the inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent of households in the region in June 2024 was at 5.2 percent, which was higher than the 4.6-percent inflation rate in May 2024. No data was provided for the inflation rate across all sectors.

The inflation rate is based on the prices of goods and commodities in 2018.

In comparison, the 4.6-percent inflation rate in May for the bottom 30 percent of households was higher by one percentage point than the 3.6-percent regional inflation rate for all sectors.

This indicated that the inflation backlash is felt hardest by the poor.

“The increase in the food inflation rate was primarily due to the annual price increase in meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals,” the report said. It also noted the increasing cost of vegetables, tubers and cooking bananas.

For Sabordino, whatever the government data showed was irrelevant since all she cares about is that there is food on the table.

“All I hear in the news is the government’s fight with China. I hope somebody in the government will pay attention to us and address our very basic problem of food,” she said.

Tackle tech issues

The youth sector, meanwhile, said that science, technology, and engineering issues must be addressed in the SoNA.

The Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines said issues that must receive urgent attention are the government response to radical shifts in the climate, addressing disasters, the state of science and technology education, SIM registration and data leaks, bombings and war technology, and the conflict in the West Philippine Sea.

“We have to hold the government officials accountable for their criminal negligence of the Filipino people, the reason for our vulnerability in the climate crisis,” Alab Ayroso, national coordinator of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, said.

“Science and technology education is in a dire situation and the low PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scores of Filipino students is just the tip of the iceberg. It is clear that education is not a priority, given the conflicting policies on the academic calendar, the K-12 program, and the push for the heavily criticized Matatag curriculum,” Jerome Pumatong, secretary general of Agham Youth National, said.

The youth group said online scams should also be addressed in the SoNA.

The results of a survey on the effectiveness of the SIM registration one year after its implementation, for instance, showed the scheme was not effective against scams,” Ian Aragoza, education officer of the Computer Professionals Union, said.

Government reports stated that cybercrimes increased by 21.84 percent in the first quarter of 2024, despite the SIM registration.

“At the same time, we refuse to get in the crossfire between the United States’ provocation of China in the region. This is not a question of who between the two we will allow in our waters and territories, but of asserting our national sovereignty,” Aragoza said.