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Senators criticize NEDA’s P10,000 budget for a family of 5 as unrealistic


At least four senators criticized on Wednesday the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) P10,000 monthly budget for a family of five as unrealistic.

Senator Panfilo Lacson used sarcasm, saying a Filipino family can live on P10,000 a month provided the family members do as well as not do certain things.

“Actually, we can, but only if my family will eat only once a day, won’t brush our teeth nor take a bath, walk every day to and from our place of work but avoid perspiring so we won’ wash our clothes,” Lacson said.

The senator said he will also ask his wife to stop watching her favorite telenovela, because he will sell the TV and ask his children to throw away their mobile phones so they won’t ask him for ‘pasa loads’.

“Actually, we can survive with P10 a month as long as we all stop breathing,” he said.

Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the NEDA figure was “very hard to believe.”

“I challenge them to reduce their salary for three months and try to survive with P10,000 a month for three months. I bet they will change their calculations,” said the senator who served as NEDA director general during the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Senator Francis Escudero said NEDA seemed unaware of the realities in Metro Manila.

“Quite frankly, I do not know which planet they are talking about. Because it’s certainly not Metro Manila or the Philippines. Please,  also check ... baka ang assumption nila, dalawa ang nagtatrabaho sa family of five kaya P20,000 ang total,” he said.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian did his own math to come up with the conclusion that a family of five simply cannot survive on P10,000 a month.

A monthly food budget of P3,834 is equivalent to P8 per meal for each person, which is not even enough to buy a pack of instant noodles.

Gatchalian noted that P806 per month for transportation amounts to only P8 per person per day which is not even enough to pay for one-way jeepney fare.

He said P2,204 a month for lodging and utilities forces a family of five to live in a cramped apartment, or even a single room, without the most basic comforts of a household.

“P10,000 simply isn’t enough. The government’s economic managers should use more realistic benchmarks,” Gatchalian said. —VDS, GMA News

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