Pretty foolish things…
Obviously nonchalant about the impact of the statements of his subalterns, President Bongbong Marcos has been conveniently silent all throughout the controversy.
This is not about Shakespeare’s verse in The Merchant of Venice on the follies that lovers commit. This is about the childish foolishness that men and women on the power totem pole commit to incite war and perdition.
The incendiary perorations from the defense department and some members of the Senate over the decades-old Scarborough conflict, and a bland statement from Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan, have resulted in possible repercussions that could further cripple the economy, which is already at death’s door.
As I write this piece, the Philippine peso has plunged to P64 versus the US dollar — the lowest in the country’s history — and the free fall does not seem to stop.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro, who has been talking like he is the Foreign Affairs secretary, has also taken over the role of the Department of Trade and Industry and issued an advisory to businesses to forget China and find supply sources in other countries.
His sidekick in the Philippine Coast Guard, Jay Tarriela, a patent ignoramus in the sea of foreign relations, kept on barking as though he owned the 7th Fleet.
Against this grotesque backdrop are realities that the warmongers ignore or are simply ignorant of.
Gibo, Tarriela and the senators, among them Kiko Pangilinan, JV Estrada, Risa Hontiveros and Erwin Tulfo, who want to declare Ambassador Jing persona non grata, are not aware that China is the biggest buyer of our pineapples, bananas, durian, and fresh and processed tuna.
Obviously nonchalant about the impact of the statements of his subalterns, President Bongbong Marcos has been conveniently silent all throughout the controversy. He has been begging for millions of dollars in loans from China and expects them to be handed to him on a silver platter.
When they heard about possible retaliatory measures China might take without wasting a single bullet, the senators suddenly backtracked, while Gibo and Tarriela retreated to their cocoons.
It is the height of lunacy for Gibo to say, “Go find another source of supply.” Is he not aware that the community of nations, including the United States, has been wooing China for the simple reason that it is the biggest consumer market in the world? Did President Donald Trump not personally make forays into China to avail himself of limitless trade possibilities?
And here we have political characters who are literally pygmies among giants who strut as though they have the wherewithal to compete.
What is alarming these days are the trade imbalances and internal chaos even among advanced economies — and that does not exclude China, the US and Germany. Currently, France is facing debilitating nationwide strikes and demonstrations driven by the high costs of living, energy and fuel, and the government’s efforts to rein in budget expenditures.
What’s happening in France sounds familiar.
With the value of the peso plummeting to an all-time low, we must prepare for a summer of discontent and the imponderable effects of the El Niño dry spell.
Put together the proclivity of our congressmen to creatively come up with legislation that would once more lead to the heist of the people’s taxes, with billions earmarked for road infrastructure that reaches the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and we can be sure of only one thing: another round of massive corruption will hit us in the solar plexus.
Given the President’s advice to buy a water bucket or balde to store rainwater to drink, expect no other bright ideas but to have to rely on your own resourcefulness.