by Ellson Quismorio, Manila Bulletin
Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos recently wore his economist’s hat to comment on the weakening Philippine peso.
(Contributed photo)
“I would like to make one thing clear…the peso is not weak because the peso is weak. The peso is weak because the dollar is strong,” Marcos told local reporters in his district during a recent press briefing.
According to him, the United States (US) dollar is viewed as the safest or most stable currency, especially if there’s a crisis.
“Ang nangyayari ay lahat ng mga tao kapag may krisis ay bumibili ng dollar. Kapag binibili yung dollar, ang demanda ng dollar tumataas (What happens is, whenever there’s a crisis, people purchase dollars. And this results to the rise in then dollar’s demand). Which means, againts other currencies, it becomes stronger,” explained Marcos, who in 2017 earned his master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Despite the weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, the senior deputy majority leader argued that the local currency is still “stabilized” against other currencies in the world.
On Monday, Oct. 10, the peso slid to its lowest level of P59 against the greenback.
“What can we do about it? On the bright side, madami tayong OFWs dito sa Ilocos (we have a lot of overseas Filipino workers here in Ilocos). So ang remittances na pinapadala nila na dollar value ay mas mataas (So they send more remittances here), so the remittances are worth more,” the Ilocano said.
Marcos also noted that the Philippines has “a significant amount of dollar reserves”. Thus, he said, “An option would be, potentially, to sell off the dollar reserves to be able to taper. Tataas pa rin yung value nung dollar pero hindi gaano kalaki (the dollar will still go up in value, but not as much).”
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But he later admitted that selling off local dollar reserves might not make much a difference, simply because it’s not as big compared to other countries.
“So I think the best piece of advice would just be to sit back and hold tight. What the national government I know is doing is to focus on food security because as we are a net importer of certain goods and services, we have to make sure that domestically, we are able to produce that,” the presidential son said.
