Things are not ‘normal’

There is a thin line between keeping the public well-informed and preventing panic and instability during times of crisis, such as the one we are facing with the escalation of tensions between the United States-Israel alliance and Iran in the Middle East.

But it is another thing to downplay the situation by saying everything is “normal” when it is not.

To describe our current predicament as normal when pump prices and the peso to the dollar exchange rate have skyrocketed to historical highs with no assurances of easing any time soon is, for lack of a better word, insulting to the common man, woman and child who has to live day to day on a hand-to-mouth existence.

Would it not be better if the Palace just laid out to the public the realities of what we are currently facing and will continue to experience in the next months (at least until the hostilities cease) and the plans for dealing with what’s yet to come? The public deserves to be kept informed to assuage their fears.

Yes, this is not the first time the world has had to suffer the effects of conflict in the Middle East.

But the last time the US invaded Iraq, the hostilities, and thus, its impacts, were contained. It doesn’t help that warfare has since evolved. Drone technology has made stealth missile attacks easy and cheap. Allied states in the region have become collateral damage and the restriction of access in the Strait of Hormuz has further amplified the negative impact of the hostilities on the global economy. In particular, the damage inflicted on facilities in many oil and gas-producing states caught up in the crossfire of the US-Israel conflict with Iran.

It is hard to say how long it will take to get these damaged oil and gas fields, refineries and other vital energy installations rebuilt and up and running, ready to serve the global energy demands. Plus, the amount of capital that needs to be reinvested and recouped as part of the new cost of products.

And for a country wholly dependent on imported oil like the Philippines, this means that the adverse effects of the Middle East conflict will not be over even when hostilities cease.

There is no assurance that should the tensions and attacks cease, that things will simply go back to the actual normal and business as usual status we were in before it all started. We should brace ourselves for what could be an even longer economic recovery time than we endured during and after the pandemic.

Finally, our government’s response reeks of a lack of compassion and understanding for the plight of those who already have less in life to begin with and have now further slithered to the depths of poverty. Businesses simply cannot afford to give wage increases which, while undeniably necessary, is simply not economically possible at this point. So soon after recovering from the economic recession during the pandemic, many businesses will have to close their doors again.

For the many Filipinos who worry about their daily expenses,