Rising prices worry a lot of Filipinos
A recent survey by pollster Pulse Asia showed that many Filipinos are worrying about the rising prices of commodities and this could mean that the poor get poorer.
Mindanao Times reported back in 2022 that the Philippines is one of the developing nations in the world belonging to the Third World. It is a known fact that there are a lot of Filipinos occupying the C, D, and E brackets in society.
This means that more Filipinos are affected by the high prices of basic commodities, like rice. Just recently, authorities stated that there would be harsher punishment for rice smugglers because this problem greatly affected the rice price hike.
Aside from rice, other food products’ prices also went high. Based on the report from The Philippine Star, rising prices are still the top concern of most Filipinos. Pulse Asia conducted a survey from September 10 to 14.
The result is that 74 percent of Filipinos said that taming inflation was their “leading urgent national concern” that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s administration should deal with. The majority of the respondents do not like how the current administration is handling inflation.
As the prices of products or even services continue to rise, what will happen to poor Filipinos or those who are earning an average income? The poor are getting poorer indeed.
This is because no matter how an average earner works hard, the salary remains the same but the prices of commodities and services get higher.
The second top concern of Filipinos is increasing the pay of workers. 49 percent of the survey respondents answered this. Then, this was followed by a concern that connects to rising prices and it is creating more jobs with 27 percent and reducing poverty with 25 percent.
This survey showed that majority of the Filipinos are concerned about their basic needs, their everyday needs, and necessities in life. This also reflects what the government, those in power should do for the majority of the Filipinos.
There are Filipino sayings “kapag may tiyaga, may nilaga”, “kapag maliit ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot”, and “kapag may isinuksok, may madudukot.” These sayings are inspiring and get you motivated but until when will many Filipinos do the “pagtitiyaga”, “pagtitiis”, and “pagtitipid”?
I’m speaking for those who have been working hard to earn money in a decent way but still find it hard to make their budget sustain their needs. I am not speaking for those who are just waiting for a piece of bread to fall down from above.
Kudos to all the hard workers who are always trying to “make ends meet” every single day.
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