Peso plummets, inflation surges to 7.2% amid impeachment talk

For months now the House of Representatives has done nothing significant in terms of enacting legislation, which is its primary task. 

Either by design or purpose, the members, who used to be divided by ideology and partisan politics, have come together in an unprincipled alliance to vilify their common enemy who stands alone but is shielded by her unyielding supporters. 

Their goal: To stop her from running in the 2028 presidential race which surveys show she is destined to win — no sweat. 

Expectedly, the zarzuela that best describes the mini-trial conducted by the House Committee on Justice concluded with the approval of the committee report and the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte. But a schism developed after 15 legislators were reported to have withdrawn their support for the documents. 

The committee report will be taken up in the plenary session scheduled on 11 May. The environment in the House of Representatives, however, has changed dramatically with former Speaker Martin Romualdez no longer calling the shots but distancing himself from his cousin, President Bongbong Marcos. 

Moreover, Malacañang’s hand in the effort to have 106 lawmakers vote to approve the report is perceptibly obvious with Majority Floor Leader Sandro Marcos wooing members supposedly with the promise of more infrastructure projects.  

“There are covert and overt operations going on,” my mole in Congress told me. “May gapangan na nangyayari (There are sneaky operations going on),” she texted. 

She hinted that not a few lawmakers refused to commit to the impeachment because the bonanza packages promised by the principal characters in the impeachment proceedings last year have not been delivered. In addition, their constituents have voiced their opposition to the impeachment. 

If promises were indeed unkept, the current financial problems of the government militates against any attempt to squeeze money from the treasury. This is borne out by the fact that Malacañang had earlier applied for a ₱P1.7-trillion loan to prop up the government bureaucracy. In short there is no more money available either in “maletas” or paper bags.

The prospect of the impeachment progressing and being elevated to the Senate for trial is not a certainty. If it should pass in the plenary the only plausible reason is to prevent a Sara presidency that would haul in those behind the unprecedented flood control corruption and those behind the kidnapping and handing over to a foreign authority of former President Rodrigo Duterte. 

In the meantime, Congress is oblivious to the tragedy of the Philippine peso plummeting to its lowest at ₱P61.55 against the US dollar and inflation surging to an all-time high of 7.2 percent!.