Last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent of households in Catanduanes increased to 8 percent in June 2026.
It is the highest recorded by the PSA since the period from June 2025 to January 2026 when inflation for this particular group hovered below 2 percent.
The figure is also higher than the 6.2 percent for all-income households or the province’s overall inflation.
While the top two main contributors to the headline inflation were food and utilities, the annual increase in the prices of commodities were higher for the poorer sector of the island’s population.
As the agency explains in its website, the bottom 30 percent of Filipino households spends a large portion of their limited income on basic needs such as food, transportation and utilities.
“As prices rise, their budgets are strained, often pushing them deeper into poverty,” the PSA states.
Notably, the main contributors to the June 2026 food inflation in this sector of the population, which consists roughly of 60,000 households, were cereals (rice), fish, and ready-made food products.
The other commodities that significantly contributed to higher inflation were utilities, particularly electricity and fuel.
The inflation rates for the low-income group are often above average due to their higher spending on basic goods, which often see steeper price increases, the PSA said.
It adds that the impact on inflation on these households is profound, as they have little or no savings and limited access to credit, making it difficult for them to cope with rising prices.
A review of the available data on labor in Catanduanes shows that almost 70 percent of the labor force work either in the service and sales sector and agriculture and fisheries.
Over 30,000 toil in the so-called “elementary occupations” that involve the performance of simple and routine tasks which may require the use of handheld tools and considerable physical effort. On the other hand, about 20,000 are in the service and sales sector and an equal number as farmers and fisherfolk.
Mind numbing as they are, these numbers are supposed to play a vital role in guiding government policies and programs aimed at reducing poverty, promoting equitable growth and enhancing the overall economic well-being of the people.
Among such policies is the recent move of the Azanza administration to target 8,700 households and transform the poor families into self-run enterprises using a budget of P68 million for specific livelihood and social service projects.
The projects include rolling bakeries, a provincial egg laying enterprise, fuel micro gas stations, solar light distribution, barangay scholarships, abaca handicraft and bag making, abaca weaving, nutrition, salt making, honeybee culture, and tofu making.
These initiatives deserve the support and commendation of the Catandunganon public especially if they become sustainable and encourage others to enter into similar small businesses.
However, in this time of record inflation and rising cost of living, every level of government in this corner of Bicol should at all times avoid any perception of unequal treatment and biased selection of beneficiaries.
Just last Monday, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s Committee on Justice allowed the administration’s request for concurrence to the controversial appointment of Senen Razal as head of the Provincial General Services Office (PGSO) to lapse after 15 days of inaction.
Previously headed by chairpersons who died within a month of each other, the committee composed of vice chair PBM Joy Tamayo, PBM Virginia Sanchez, PBM Aida Dianela and PBM Joseph Mendoza apparently failed to muster a quorum in its last two meetings.
With Sanchez inhibiting herself presumably of her daughter’s serving as key Capitol official, the committee was left with three members and the absence of just one of them rendered the body inutile to tackle any of the matters before them.
True, the appointee in question has not been pronounced guilty beyond reasonable doubt by final judgment. But common sense should have prevailed, especially when a government agency has already recommended the filing of appropriate charges against the personnel concerned over irregularities that cost the Pandan local government some P1.65 million.
By now, Pandan Mayor Honesto Tabligan II must be sorely disappointed by the provincial administration’s action after he finally heeded the Bureau of Local Government Finance and filed malversation raps against Razal, one other treasury employee and former Mayor Raul Tabirara.
In all likelihood, most aggrieved will be those who have been sent to jail for not even one percent of cash lost by the MTO, particularly the Virac school principal imprisoned for 11 years for falsifying public documents and misappropriating P5,000 from government funds.