Political fighting diverts public from grave issues

Last weekend’s political dramatics excited the public. But in the end, they distracted attention from critical issues.

Filipinos need unity to repel China’s sea aggression. Leaders must avert food shortage from El Niño drought. Myriad other problems demand solutions.

Young voters saw Sunday an ex-president attacking his successor. Last time that happened was 2001, when Erap Estrada made loyalists bar Gloria Arroyo’s cops from jailing him for plunder. In 1976 Diosdado Macapagal harangued Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law, then holed in at the US embassy.

Today it’s Rody Duterte labeling Bongbong Marcos a “drug addict.” In doing so, he only raises questions about himself. Like, why didn’t he have him arrested as he did countless others, 6,000 of whom were killed for resisting? Or, why didn’t he name BBM, as he did five generals, three congressmen, 34 mayors, eight vice mayors, one provincial board member and 211 barangay chiefs?

Duterte’s tirade elicited a cool retort from BBM: it must be the effect of fentanyl, which he admitted [in November 2019] to using.

China escalates its bullying, meanwhile. The other week its coast guards ordered Filipino fishermen at gunpoint to throw back seashells gathered near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. Last month Chinese gunboats water-cannoned unarmed Philippine government staff rationing fuel to fishermen.

Panatag is Philippine territory, being a high-tide elevation within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. It is 650 miles beyond China’s own EEZ. Yet it annexed the sea feature off Zambales in 2012.

Also within Philippine EEZ off Palawan, Chinese gunboats ram civilian resupply boats to Marines at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. In December a Philippine Coast Guard vessel they water-cannoned had the Armed Forces chief and his deputy onboard.

Confronted by global backlash, Beijing toned down, saying it will allow resupplies for humanitarian reasons. But it’s only a China Communist Party ploy – one step backward, two steps forward, Mao Zedong practiced in war and diplomacy.

Beijing must be cheering on its Philippine political surrogates to shake up the government. A divided archipelago benefits China’s expansionism.

Then there’s hunger due to food inflation. In December 2023, 12.6 percent of Filipinos suffered involuntary hunger. That’s a 30 percent jump from 9.8 percent in September, Social Weather Stations reports. Everything was costly last Christmas, from corner store, snacks and canteen meals to canned and processed foods.

Expect worse from El Niño in the first half of 2024, weathermen say. Government is unprepared.

Crippled this month were onion farmers in Ilocos, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Mindoro. Triple whammy, they cried:

• Artisanal wells have dried up from rainless months. Government only promises but doesn’t build irrigation.

• Army worms infested leaves, thus lessening photosynthesis. No pesticide aid to planters.

• Traders bought from planters at only one-fifth the breakeven. Reason: there was onion oversupply – and overprice – in Metro Manila, as Customs and Bureau of Plant Industry allowed imports beyond the December 2023 deadline. Same time last year, onion farmers earned P300-P400 a kilo.

Rice lands have dried up in Zamboanga del Norte. Elsewhere, all agriculture officials can do is advise farmers to not plant till June lest they fritter away capital. How will farmers and consumers fare?

In December, Benguet vegetable prices dropped atrociously low: carrots at P1 to P5 per kilo. Packaging cost not yet included. Yet in Metro Manila and Southern Luzon, carrots sold for P70-P80 a kilo. And there was the usual smuggling of Chinese cauliflower and other farm produce.

Traders are always blamed. But they too are victims. Local governments slapped them with all sorts of legal requirements. Failure to pay results in prohibitions to transport chicken or pork.

Extortionists teem. Example: enforcers of Manila’s Traffic and Parking Bureau who mulct huge unreceipted amounts from food truckers.

Racketeers operate in most harbors. Protected by port officers, they impose fees for useless services and inexistent cranes.

Not to forget, political warlords who force fishing fleets and food shippers to buy fuel exclusively from them.

All those jacked up logistics costs. Payolas to extortionists and racketeers are passed on to consumers.

Corruption encumbers taxpayers. State auditors report that one third of government’s agriculture spending in 2020, 2021 and 2022 remained unliquidated and unexplained.

Pending are a hundred major infrastructure projects. Corruption and red tape scare away foreign investors. Lawmakers pocket flood control and river dredging funds.

Those are the weightier issues.

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