Inflation, unemployment, underemployment biggest issues for Marcos admin —analyst

The administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will have to deal with a country facing inflation, high unemployment, and underemployment, a professor of political science has said.

Dr. Jean Encinas-Franco, associate professor at the University of the Philippines, said the new administration should address the following issues for the betterment of the lives of Filipinos.

“Well i-address yung napakataas na presyo ng bilihin at yung unemployment, maraming walang trabaho,” Encinas-Franco said in the latest episode of The Mangahas Interviews.

(Well they must address the very high price of goods and unemployment, many are unemployed.)

“Pero mahalaga rin i-address yung underemployment kasi mas malaki yung underemployment, ibig sabihin meron ng nagtatrabaho na pero kailangan pa rin nila ng karagdagang sweldo o willing pa sila magtrabaho ng karagdagang oras para maging sapat yung sinusweldo nila,” she added.

(It is also important to address underemployment, it means there are people who are already working but they still need more salary or they are willing to work more hours so that their salary will be sufficient.)

Franco said the government must also save and not impose additional taxes especially if the minimum wage workers do not have sufficient income.

“Yung budget mismo ng gobyerno kailangang magtipid. Kasi mahirap magpataw ng karagdagang buwis given na walang sapat na kinikita yung mga tao yung mga minimum wage workers, so magtipid,” Franco said.

(The government must save its budget because it is difficult to impose additional tax given that the people do not have enough income, it is important to save.)

“Unang una may mga work from home sa private companies, baka puwede ‘yun sa gobyerno malaki ang matitipid. Tapos kailangan din tignan halimbawa kung i-didigitize mo yung ibang pamamaraan ng proseso sa gobyerno para mabawasan yung mga tao sa gobyerno na hindi naman na kinakailangan,” she added.

(First of all, there is a work from home system in private companies, maybe the government can also impose work from home to save. Then you also need to look at for example if you digitize other methods of government processes to reduce the number of people in the government who are no longer necessary.)

Incoming Executive Secretary Attorney Vic Rodriguez earlier said that there were no discussion in the incoming Marcos administration on additional taxes as proposed by the Department of Finance (DOF).

The DOF said that the incoming administrations would need to raise P249 billion additional revenues in the next 10 years to pay the historic P3.2 trillion additional debt incurred following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marcos' choice for finance secretary, outgoing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno, has said that he would look into proposals to implement additional taxes, saying he would first focus on debt sustainability when the new administration takes over.

Marcos will take his oath as the 17th president of the Philippines on June 30 at the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) in Ermita, Manila. —Richa Noriega/NB, GMA News