07/05/2026
By: Cong. Isidro Ungab
"IS THE GOVERNMENT PRIORITIZING IMPEACHMENT OVER THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?
The numbers are in. They are devastating.
📉 GDP growth: 2.8% — collapsed from 5.4% a year ago, missed the 3.4% consensus, and the third straight year of missing the government’s own 5–6% target.
📈 Inflation: 7.2% — a three-year high. Nearly 4x end-2025 levels. BSP admits it won’t return to normal until 2028.
💵 Peso: ₱61.62/$1 — a historic record low. Second-worst performing currency in Asia this year.
⛽ Fuel: another hike this week — gasoline up ₱2.21/L, diesel up ₱2.66/L. The brief reprieve is over.
So we have to ask: is this government prioritizing impeachment over the economic crisis?
Look at the evidence.
The Senate resumed session on May 4 with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte declared its “top priority.”
The House Justice Committee has already moved the case to the plenary.
The capital’s political class is consumed — consumed — by a proceeding that will deliver no rice, no fuel, no jobs, no stronger peso.
Meanwhile:
❌ No fiscal stimulus plan
❌ No peso defense framework
❌ No targeted subsidy for transport workers crushed by fuel costs
❌ No acceleration of public spending to offset Q1 underspending
❌ No credible roadmap to bring inflation back to the 4% ceiling before 2028
What there is, in abundance, is impeachment.
Even economists are saying it now. the political turmoil is creating tangible long-term consequences for the economy, and is “directly impeding effective governance and delaying key structural economic reforms.”
The flood control scandal froze public spending. The corruption controversy gutted construction. The impeachment war is now consuming the legislative bandwidth that should be passing reforms. The Middle East shock found a government with no plan, no buffer, and no unity.
This is not just an external crisis.
This is a self-inflicted wound.
The Filipino people did not vote for ₱70 gasoline.
They did not vote for groceries that climb every week.
They did not vote for a peso in free fall.
They did not vote for a government that answers a generational economic crisis with a political vendetta.
Tama na ang circus.. Trabaho na ang ekonomiya.
So we ask again — and the Filipino people deserve an answer:
Is this government prioritizing impeachment over the economic crisis?
The numbers say yes. The Senate calendar says yes. The silence on every economic front says yes.
