"Nobody Eats A Whole Fish Now": The Philippines' Poor Hit By Soaring Food Prices

[00:00:00]With fewer fishermen out at sea, market vendors [music] are selling less seafood.

[00:00:41]This April, [music] inflation surged to a three-year high of 7.2% before cooling slightly to [music] 6.8% in May.

[00:00:51]>> When Russia attacked Ukraine, inflation doubled in about three to four months, and then almost tripled in 11 to 12 months.

[00:01:00]Right now, after the US attack on Iran, inflation has tripled in just two months. So, we're actually seeing the biggest inflationary shock to the Philippine economy in over 30 years. A 7% 7.1% inflation shock is about 1,500 pesos more for the consumption basket [music] for the median Filipino household that earns 22,000 pesos.

[00:01:50]>> Nomi Saturn lives in Tondo, one of Manila's poorest urban areas.

[00:02:17]She lives off a daily wage of 1,500 [music] pesos and her husband's pension.

[00:02:49]>> [music] >> Nearly half of Filipinos about 49 or 50 million Filipinos [music] were declared moderately or severely food insecure even before the crisis.

[00:03:04]So, >> [music] >> when the oil price shocks hit, when the food shock food price shocks hit, that actually means that a lot of Filipino families are spending less [music] on food and that is going to be hitting the poorest families the worst.

[00:03:20]>> [music] [music] >> But declaring Asia food is a big share of the consumer basket for many countries. It's between 30 to 40%. So, within Asia Philippines actually stands out as one of the most exposed. It imports a big share of the rice.

[00:03:49]>> The government [music] has allocated 150 million pesos, about 8 and 1/2 million US dollars, worth of fuel subsidies to support farmers and fisherfolk.

[00:04:00]Up to 45,000 [music] of them will benefit from the aid.

[00:04:06]>> The Philippines has about 10.3 to 10.4 million farmers and fisherfolk. So, the few tens of thousands the government is helping is really a drop in the bucket.

[00:04:15]It did declare a national energy emergency, but in the same declaration, it said that their response would be within current appropriations in the budget. That's a problem. There's a budget drawn up in 2025 before the crisis. So, presumably an appreciation of the new and additional problem would mean mobilizing new and additional resources. But, have an emergency declaration saying that we will respond given the current budget at hand, that actually compromises any sort of response.

[00:04:49]>> Since March, Budoy has spent his free time repairing one of his two boats.

[00:04:54]It started to break apart from sitting idle at the dock.

[00:05:21]>> Here is Iran.

[00:05:24]>> [music] >> Sino ba ang dapat magsakripisyo?

[00:05:29]Kami ba dapat?

[00:05:36]>> [music]