Monumental apathy

Man at the Market

Jesse E.L. Bacon II

07/04/2008

Sidetracked in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Typhoon “Frank” that included the sinking of an interisland ferry and the drowning of almost all of its 850 passengers and crew compounded by the President’s equally devastating apathy by insisting on staying on US soil while the whole country was agonizing over this devastation is the harrowing economic prospects of the country.

The price of crude oil in the world market hit an all-time high of $143 per barrel only yesterday and is expected not to stop at that level but even go higher in the days to come. As this developed, the local oil distribution firms are conditioning the public mind about the inevitability of a continuing rise in the pump prices of diesel to as much as P7 per liter as they still have to recover this much amount for past under-recoveries. And not content with this double economic whammy, the peso continues to sharply decline against the US dollar.

Many are now chillingly nervous at the prospects awaiting the country given all these challenges. An economic meltdown is really not farfetched. The sharp rise in the prices of prime commodities because of increasing production costs of either agricultural or manufactured goods is beginning to terribly hurt the ordinary Filipino family’s finances.

Even those in the middle class of the social spectrum are now hurting. And who will not be given the almost daily increase in the price of petroleum products that no economic technocrat in government has so far satisfactorily explained why this is happening, what is its prognosis as to what level this will stop. But worse of all is the fact that no one seems to know whether this increase will ever stop.

The magnitude of the woes that this inevitable economic meltdown presents is far worse than the devastation wrought by the typhoon and the sinking of Sulpicio Lines’ Princess of the Stars. This is not to belittle the excruciating pain suffered by the victims of Frank and the families of those in the ship sinking, but their suffering is peanuts compared to the economic devastation now being suffered by the 88 million Filipinos, at least if viewed in terms of the number of people directly affected by the latter.

The victory of sweet-punching Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas last Sunday, Manila time, was even short-lived because after the euphoria of his masterful conquest of Mexican-American David Diaz, the people had to again contend with mundane concerns such as where will they source their next meal or whether they can have a next meal. This is how sad, yet very real the situation of most of our countrymen is at this point.

The P39 per kilo rice we are buying for our consumption plus the P50.95 per liter diesel that we pump into our family van are admittedly devastatingly very high if ranged against our combined income. This is the woeful reality that our family is in. And we are just one of the hundreds of thousands up to millions of our countrymen who are similarly situated.

Though we can still hold at bay our economic sufferings from imploding, what we can’t bear is the absence of any assurance by the Arroyo administration as to what level this suffering will stop and as to when will this stop or when this administration can finally arrest this suffering. We personally consider our current situation to that of a cancer patient who does not know when his pain will end, if ever it’ll end or if he can still be cured.

This is the painful part of this saga. The absence of a definite assurance from those in government that they can still lick, that they are still capable of locking the horns of this economic evil is not assuring. This columnist likens the country to a log that is aimlessly floating in the sea waiting for the waves or current to bring it somewhere.

The job, the task, the responsibility of bailing the country out of this economic woe or mess falls flatly on the presidency. This is what governance is all about. Unfortunately, the people still have to hear from Mrs. Arroyo a definitive answer as what she’ll do to address them. This lack of a clear-cut proposal from her on how she’ll address these problems is the main reason other political leaders like Sen. Manuel Roxas II keeps egging her to take this or that possible course of action to at least cushion its negative impact on the people such as the temporary scrapping of evat on oil that is not being listened to by her. Quo vadis, Philippines?

(jelbacon@yahoo.com for reactions)

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