Servings of rice, pan de sal to get smaller – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos should brace for smaller size pan de sal and smaller servings of rice in eateries as prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene continue to rise, Senior Citizens party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes warned on Thursday.

Ordanes, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations and chairman of the committee on senior citizens, said the government should take the necessary steps to prevent the continuing increase in the prices of LPG.

“Pan de sal will become smaller, the servings in restaurants and karinderya of rice will be smaller and the prices of viands will become expensive and the people will return to the use of charcoal and firewood to cook their food if the increases in the prices of LPG and kerosene will not be reduced,” he said. 

Ordanes noted that public utility vehicles, especially passenger jeepneys, will also stop plying its routes because of the rising prices of oil products.

Meanwhile, he stressed that oil importers have already expressed openness to the temporary removal of value-added tax (VAT) on fuels. 

He said the revenue impact of temporarily suspending VAT and excise taxes can be addressed by improving tax collection, cracking down on smuggling and tax evasion and aggressively recovering ill-gotten wealth from corrupt officials.

“Along with this, there is a need to clean up the people in the revenue-generating agencies and remove the corrupt employees and officials to ensure that each peso collected goes to the people,” Ordanes said.