“The Philippines will continue to be what it is today because of corruption and inflation”
WITH the Middle East crisis in its third week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is succeeding in doing everything he can to cushion the impact of the war on the Philippines.
Together with other world leaders, he succeeded in convincing some nations from Europe and other places to stop Iran from totally preventing the passage of oil in the Strait of Hormuz which is about 20 percent of the world’s oil usage, and to be able to accompany oil tankers to pass through, which is a consolation.
Here in the Philippines, the Marcos government has been able to buy 300,000 barrels of oil through the Philippine National Oil Company which can be used for transport including shipping.
Marcos was also able to give a subsidy of P5,000 each for all drivers using diesel fuel . That is at least a consolation for those who use that kind of transport.
Yes, Santa Banana, the prices of diesel, gasoline and kerosene continue to go up, but not as much as we had feared it would. That is at least a consolation for everybody, especially the marginalized who have to depend on public transport for their daily needs.
On the question how long the Middle East crisis will last, that we cannot predict.
But I think at the rate things are going, it will last long, as feared. Iran might continue bombing other nations in the Middle East as it has been doing. But the question is, Iran cannot do it indefinitely. Well at least while Iran continues to bomb fuel sources in other countries, it cannot do it indefinitely.
As far as the United States is concerned, it is definitely holding its punches against Iran because if the US will really use its power against Iran, the Middle East conflict will not last that long.
In the meantime, the politics in the Philippines continues to simmer.
The latest development is that Vice President Sara Duterte has succeeded in convincing Senator Imee Marcos to run for vice president under her in the 2028 election.
The combination is both funny and strange because here we have a situation where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has his sister running under Sara Duterte.
The question now is who will run for president under the administration’s ticket? We can only guess.
According to my sources the President has been trying to convince former Vice President Leni Riobredo to run as the administration’s candidate . These sources say it would be possible to have Leni Robredo who is in the opposition run for the administration. Same sources said the president is trying to convince Jonvic Remulla to run for vice-president.
In any case whoever is running in 2028 will be another problem for the country. Santa Banana, we had the flood control mess wherein so many politicians took advantage of the money of the people and now comes next is the Middle East conflict which has its own impact on the lives of the marginalized.
Then we have the coming presidential election in 2028.
The Philippines will continue to be what it is today because of corruption and inflation which continues to be the biggest problem of the country.
We can only pray and hope that first the war in the Middle East will end soon that the Philippines may suffer no furrther.
I often pray that corruption and inflation will be minimized soon enough.
