On declining inflation and the PhilAtom bill

Last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country's inflation rate for May and it was another piece of good news, it was only 1.3%, from 1.8% in March and 1.4% in April. Aver-age inflation for January-May this year is only 1.9%, while that of Taiwan, South Korea, Viet-nam, India, and Japan ranged from 2% to 3.7%.

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS, JR.

Even the big economies of America and Europe have higher inflation rates this year than the Philippines, except Italy and France (see Table 1).

The persistent argument here that “high inflation contributed to the defeat of many administration candidates” in the last election is wrong for three reasons.

One, our inflation rate this year was low up to the month of the election itself.

Two, assuming that high inflation in 2023 and 2024 affected voters’ behavior, then it should have been reflected in various surveys like the SWS survey of May 6 but it did not. The survey showed that nine of 12 administration Senatorial candidates would win. It is not possible that between May 6 to May 12 the voters suddenly factored in the high inflation of the last two years and thus they voted against many administration candidates.

And three, elections are a political exercise with many political factors to consider, and many political actors and players that affect the political behavior of the voters and candidates themselves. Like the two senatorial candidates of the current administration who were belatedly endorsed by opposition leader Vice-President Sara Duterte and won. It is dishonest to downplay political factors just to hit the economic performance and secretaries of the administration.

NUCLEAR BILL