The Politician

Thanks to the increase of remittances of our beloved OFWs, our currency –Philippine Peso, is steadily becoming stronger against US Dollar. As the Banko Sentral Analysis goes, it is the peak quarter wherein remittances of OFWs are strongest.. Not only this, because of the weakness of the US Dollar in the last few weeks, it also made a strong impact on our currency. It further heightened the growth of Philippine peso.

The question now is that, is the growth and strength of Philippine Peso good for all Filipinos and for the country?

Lets first go to the good effects of the growth of PHP. With the growth of PHP, Philippine Government saves billions of pesos paying our debts to foreign lending institutions. This means that there is more budget for Education, Service and Infrastructure. Second, Inflation Rate would slow down meaning, price increase of commodities like food etc, will slow down and will not hurt Juan dela Cruz swiftly. Third, imports would be cheaper. Oil that is imported mostly from the Middle East will be cheaper because the buying power of PHP has risen. And there would be rollbacks on sold gases. These three are the major good points of having a strong currency.

Now lets go to the downside of PHP becoming stronger. First that would be affected here is the families of the OFW. This is simply because their money now can buy fewer things as compared to before where exchange rate is over 50. Having said this, families of OFW are at the losing end because even though they are feeding the economy of our country, they are losing because their remittances is becoming smaller and smaller over time. Second, even though there is the fact that imports are way cheaper now unlike before it can trigger a negative side just like what happened in the years of former President Ramos wherein imports flourished in the country and it killed a lot of small businesses. Plus, even though there are roll backs in the prices of gasoline sold in the market, still the fare doesn’t roll back. It is kind of unfair in the part of the commuters because once PUV raises their fare, it will be for good. There is no roll back in fare of PUVs. Third, going to the previous argument, commodities in the market would still be at the present price and sellers would not lower their price even though the price of gasoline have lowered. One reason for commodities to rise is because of the rise of gas for transportation and other stuff that needs gas. Fourth, there is the fact that a lot of money is saved from paying debts with the increase of PHP’s power, still, this theoretical “surplus” in the budget is not felt or even seen by the people. Maybe because someone, some groups, or whatever is putting this surplus in their pocket.

Over all, at the end of the day, having a good and strong currency is a plus for one's country. The problem here lies within the government on how they would make certain key actors in the community like the PUVs cooperate and lower their prices. Also, there should be control over imports that are coming in the country for it will just be a deja vu of the past.

This is a new challenge not just for the government but also on the people. A new opening has come for our people and we must work together and set aside our personal interests, set aside our selfish goals and Philippines will make it back to the top.

posted by JP @ 11:57 PM