It has not been a good period. The last several weeks have been besieged with negativity, from unending oil increases to higher LPG costs, runaway rice prices that needed to be capped, and revelations about confidential funds while ordinary Filipinos struggle to survive. I cannot seem to open the television, read the news, or listen to the radio – aggravated by constant conversations in fast food areas (used to be barber shops) – without more reports of the same sad stories.
Of course, it is not bad just for most Filipinos who cannot afford to take more blows to their monthly budgets, For the country and our future as a whole, we are seeing the continuing erosion of whatever economic strength we had built up in the past. It was only about 10 years ago when our peso-to-dollar exchange rate was 43:1, and now it is over 57:1, a deterioration of over 31%.
Naturally, when a country thinks of spending more instead of producing more, it will end up borrowing more. So, ten years ago, our outstanding national debt was about 5.7 trillion pesos while it is now around 14.3 trillion pesos, an increase of 150%. Our children and grandchildren will be paying a painful price for the mismanagement of the Philippine economy and treasury.
And this will not stop. How can it? We are not earning more, we are not saving more, because we are not producing more. We are only borrowing more, and paying much more when the exchange rate favors our debtors more than our people.
Senator Bato said that the noisy controversy about confidential funds are politically driven. Is he serious, or is he really just that dense? When Filipinos suffer, unable to buy enough rice from earnings that are not enough for food, transport, electricity, and cooking gas, confidential funds in the billions, spent in ways exempted from proper explanation, are like salt rubbed on open wounds.
Political? Of course, it is political. But it is not from a political opposition that hardly exists, it is political from the people of a country who are crying out for relief. It is political from a people who, by all survey and Comelec figures, overwhelmingly voted for the same political officials who live in bright abundance in an otherwise morose economy. The pain, Senator Bato, is in the deep contrast between plenty and want, and huge confidential funds in the context of an economic crunch. Oh, yes, it is politically driven by the political insensitivity of the powerful.
Even those who are against the Marcos-Duterte administration cannot wish for economic and political disasters. Any disaster at this point is everyone’s disaster. As the doctors would say it, the country has underlying health conditions, like political diabetes and weak productivity. Any virus or bacteria can lead to dialysis or a heart attack. Food and fuel expenses are hurting everyone, pro or anti administration.
It is not yet an emergency because there is no single illness or group that will threaten the political life of those in power today. Despite many issues, the intensity of suffering is not yet crucial. In other words, surveys say the same people who run government remain popular despite the hardship of the people. So far, then, the trials of life are not yet painful enough to make most Filipinos blame those they elected to national positions.
Therefore, there is still time to make things turn for the better. Things may be bad but can be made better. We can all tighten our belts, but the belts of those in power must be the first to be tightened the most. Either they set the example or they will be the target of a people’s ire when the last straw breaks the camel’s back. And those with great wealth can be the first to create massive opportunities because only they have the capital to do so. Power and wealth must motivate the people to hope, to work, and produce more.
We cannot drift from day to day without a plan for the country. No vision has been articulated, no specific missions have been laid out to support any vision, and no roles are described and assigned to the citizenry. Unless government wants to simply subsidize from more borrowing.
With inherited poverty still crippling the lives of tens of millions, I want support for the tens of millions of victims. At the same time, subsidies must find a path of development, a path of empowerment that will bring the impoverished out of poverty. What is that plan? How is it doing? After all is said and done, after all that our collective resources have been spent on, decade after decade, have we become a more productive people, a more honest government?
I was always against federalism because I saw how it will feed local and regional warlords – and political dynasties. But I am also aware that our country survives on the extraordinary efforts of progressive and dedicated local governments rather than the national government. In the absence of inspiration from the very top, we have to depend on the good examples of community leaders and local politicians, and especially the captains of business who may have the foresight to take risks for all of us.
Our country is ripe for a radical shift. Towards where, I am not sure. But away from what, I am sure – away from where we are and away from how we are only drifting every day. Because anyway, with or with a major planned change, disruption will simply be forced on us by circumstances not far from now. And when nothing will bind us strongly enough in the bad times, it will then be each one for himself and herself.
My long years in our motherland have made me realize that we are a resilient people, not so much because we are capable of producing what we need, but because we can endure so much suffering. Time to break that sad pattern.