Job creation and the rising inflation rate are two issues that Filipinos expect to hear from President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) today, July 23.
The latest Pulse Asia survey showed that 56 percent of Filipinos want Duterte to discuss job-related issues, particularly on providing job opportunities for Filipinos, while 52 percent are concerned with rising inflation rates.
“This is the prevailing sentiment in Metro Manila (56% and 51%, respectively), the rest of Luzon (55% and 51%, respectively), the Visayas (65% and 51%, respectively), and Class D (58% and 52%, respectively),” the survey noted.
Other issues that Filipinos want to address include:
- Pay increase for workers (48 percent);
- Poverty reduction (33 percent);
- Contractualization (27 percent);
- Illegal drugs (26 percent);
- Graft and corruption (16 percent);
- Territorial sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea (16 percent);
- Federalism (5 percent);
- Charter change (3 percent)
OFWs and inflation rate
One of the biggest concerns among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is the rising inflation rate in the country which is seen to only negate the high value of dollar.
As of press time, peso-dirham exchange rate in the UAE is around Php14.49*, which is expected to head to Php15 by the end of the year.
However, the Philippines’ inflation rate reached 5.2 percent in June 2018, negating the benefits that OFWs can get from the high exchange rate.
OFWs begin to complain that for some OFW families in the Philippines, expenses are even bigger than the remittances.
Some OFWs say that while weakening of peso could be beneficial for OFW families, it means nothing if the continuous rise in the prices of goods in the country would be taken into consideration.
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