Marcos redux

The marauding horde that has the Palace as its center of operations may have already pressed the panic button to launch a campaign to steer attention away from the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling that invalidated the 2024, 2025 and portions of the 2026 national budgets, where the theft of public funds was proven.

The decision, penned by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, said the doctrine of operative fact, which applied to the projects covered by the voided spending laws, does not automatically protect officials involved in the unconstitutional measures.

The doctrine shields programs and good-faith beneficiaries, but the Court expressly excluded the authors, proponents and implementers of the invalid provisions.

An independent-thinking economist believes the administration has been panicking ever since the Supreme Court released its ruling about funds skimmed from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets.

“They’ve been freaking out. So suddenly, they’re like, let’s go after (Senator) Bato (dela Rosa) to distract everyone,” according to the financial veteran.

“People really got what corruption meant because of that ruling. So with that ruling, they can now be sued. Well, not the President, because he’s immune. But the other signatories, like the budget secretary, they can definitely be pursued,” according to the former official.

So with that ruling, many in the Marcos administration can now be sued, except the President because of the immunity he enjoys. The demonstration of good faith required to free them from culpability was lost when Marcos and his cohorts tried to pervert the 2027 budget with huge pork insertions.

Panic set in when inflation reached an uncomfortable 7.8 percent in October.

More than P467 billion in the budgets cited by the SC were declared unconstitutional, which the public can easily connect to their worsening living conditions.

The peso depreciated in late October, while crude oil prices were high in the global market, creating a double whammy on inflation because the economy is import-dependent, especially on crude oil.

When crude oil prices rise, everything is affected because it is used in logistics and vehicles.

“Almost everything’s affected; that’s why if you go to the markets or supermarkets now, prices are really going up. It’s tough, especially for people who don’t have jobs or those earning less than minimum wage,” the economist noted.

What’s pathetic is the attempt to massage the numbers. Malacañang announced that it achieved a historic 9.7-percent poverty rate ahead of the 2028 target.

Most economists ridiculed the claim because the formula used to define poverty was disconnected from the actual cost of living. Poverty disappears on paper while it persists in reality.

The computation considered a daily income of P97 to be enough to pull a family out of poverty.

The expert said speculators were exploiting the situation, which was feeding the peso’s weakening.

“There’s really a huge demand for dollars right now compared to the supply coming in. It’s because, you know, there’s a lot of need, like for importing oil, machinery, and raw materials for technology products. Then there’s the food we import. Plus, the payments for our debt,” he said.

Foreign debt under Marcos went up by over 90 percent. So while the peso weakens, servicing that debt becomes more expensive.

Foreign investments are also weak, while overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are also sending less money, as many workers in the Middle East have been affected by the conflict there.

The situation is heading toward a repeat of the crisis in the 1980s, during the twilight of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, when it was hard to import anything and businesses were on the verge of collapse.

As then, the economy is now in stagflation, which means growth is stagnant and inflation is high. Rapid advances in technology are also expected to threaten jobs in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

All that remains to prop up the economy, the expert said, is household spending, heavily supported by OFW remittances.

The crises that unfolded during the previous Marcos administration and those confronting his son today are uncannily similar, foreshadowing a repeat of the same dire consequences.