“The president is just another politician, with neither vision nor statesmanship”
In my primary grades, our music teacher would let us sing “Whispering Hope” at the onset of the season of joy. Few but us senior citizens would yet recognize this song.
The simple lyrics written upon a plaintive melody tell us to “Wait till the darkness is over, wait till the tempest is done. Hope for the sunshine tomorrow, after the shower is gone.”
I would not be truthful if I were to say “sunshine” would come this new year, after the political darkness, the tempest over a beastly budget despite the cosmetic creative accounting, and the drought followed by floods of the past horrible year.
For one, food security will continue to bedevil us, with La Nina threatening to unleash more rains that would flood our newly planted crop. With little photosynthesis expected, the summer crop, usually bountiful, could be bad.
If our agriculture officials are whistling in the dark, whispering frail hopes, it looks like we will be importing close to five million tons of rice, at inflated prices too, because the condition in the Mekong River delta is not too good either.
Petrol-led inflation will continue its volatility, unless Trump is able to work out a negotiated settlement in the Ukraine and the Middle East, as he trumpeted.
But for a country like ours, taming the prices of food will be much more difficult, and all the huffing and puffing from our agriculture officials, to include such senseless efforts to force-brand a fungible commodity like rice, ostensibly to protect local farmers will be for naught.
Decades of neglect have come to roost, and we simply do not produce enough rice or grain, livestock or greens, even fish which we blame on China’s incursions into the WPS, as to give us reason to hope this year for even a modicum of food security, even beyond.
Ah, but there is “ayuda” which should temporarily assuage the pangs of hunger of the lumpen, minus the “kaltas” of the barangays and the political favorites of our bleeding-heart legislators.
Be it AKAP, AICS, TUPAD, MAIP, even as the 4Ps have been reduced shamelessly, voters are likely to thank their politicians for their tender mercies, even if they are being cooked in their own lard.
There were some who had hoped the president would tame the greed and cut slabs from the pork, whether hard as in useless and corruption-laced “projects” or soft as in ayuda, but no, he simply caviled to the desires of the legislature, hoping perhaps that he would get them to rally behind him in the forthcoming lameduck years.
Those of us who did not trust him enough to support his presidential quest are being proven right. He is just another politician, with neither vision nor statesmanship.
There are those who pin their hopes in the elections for 12 new and or recycled senators, as if the Senate still matters these days, their non-iconic 33 billion-peso structure soon to be a relic.
Voters would choose from a menu of comedians, charlatans, recidivists, non-performers and dynasts.
Oh, there will be two or three who will somehow perform. They would be the “comite de pakialam,” preaching truth to the majority of the “comite de silencio” who would pay no heed, neither comprehend the issues that bedevil the benighted land?
Our balance of trade will be negative, with more imports than exports to satisfy a consumption-driven economy that produces very little of value to the rest of the world.
Our fiscal deficit will grow beyond 2 trillion pesos, which means we will need to borrow that much more to sustain an expenditure program that is more politically-driven than economically correct.
Consumer confidence is shaken, and shopkeepers are glum; meeting their payrolls in 2025 would be problematic.
The property sector is in deep slumber, as it would take some 34 months for the current over-supply of condo units to be sold. How will buyers pay their loans?
In its year-end survey, SWS found only 90 perent of our people hopeful for the new year, in a country where hope springs eternal, and where the season of joy is always regarded with optimism. 90 percent is the lowest hopeful index since 2009, when it registered 89 percent, but knowing how our people respond to surveys, more than the honest 10 percent are really hoping against hope, whistling in the dark.
This coming Monday, the monolithic Iglesia ni Cristo will hold massive rallies throughout the country, a political statement that highlights the division that hounds us all, a polarization never before seen since the dying days of authoritarian rule.
Who does not want to write about better days instead of being a jeremiad of woeful days ahead?
But writers like us have a duty to ourselves to tell the truth, and the painful truth is, there ain’t no sunshine coming through.
