B to DTI’s P3 program

forced to jack up their prices as they have to pay exorbitant nominal interest rate of 20 percent for the loans they have obtained in order to purchase the items they are selling.

As of now, he said the amount of money released through informal lending stood about R30 billion.

"Unless we deal with that, consumers will be at great loss because they are the ones who have to shoulder the interest of five-six lending," Piñol said.

To resolve this issue, Duterte asked the Department of Finance (DOF) to make available additional funds worth R4 billion for the replenishment of P3 funds.

P3 program is a R1-billion financing program intended to give SMEs better access to financing, reduce their cost of borrowing, and battle loan sharks “preying” on these small entrepreneurs.

The fund will prioritize the country’s 30 poorest provinces.

"Initially, [the President] wants to increase the amount money allocated to DTI for small businesses and entrepreneurs from the current R1 billion every year to about R5 billion this year," Piñol said.

The rate of increase in consumer prices year-on-year hit a fresh five-year high in May amid skyrocketing food and petroleum costs, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

To be specific, inflation last month rose by 4.6 percent, slightly quicker compared with 4.5 percent in the previous month, and also faster than the 2.9 percent in the same month last year.