Glitz, glamor and grocery bills

Coffee shop talk, board rooms and mobile phones were abuzz over the past few days with all sorts of speculation on who would be removed and retained – and why.

In the end, just like the midterm election itself, there was a surprise twist. While some changes were expected, some Cabinet members were unexpectedly retained, others were surprisingly booted out.

Here’s what I heard:

One Cabinet member was moved out of the department supposedly because that Cabinet official’s paramour was throwing weight around.

Another was removed not so much because of underperformance but because of intense lobbying from big businesses, including a powerful business-political clan. One of the members of this family is also part of the Marcos government and was retained.

On the other hand, another Cabinet official also had to leave after setting a big and unrealistic goal for their department.

A member of the economic team was also surprisingly retained, despite earlier rumors to the contrary.

PR goals

Following the revamp, Malacañang now wants members of the Cabinet to improve their PR blitz so that the people will know more about what they’re doing, sources said.

They were told to take the cue from this newly appointed secretary who came in before the post-election revamp and who seems to be all over the news.

For sure, President Marcos knows the people aren’t happy with his leadership.

He hopes that by implementing a Cabinet revamp, he can usher in new changes and win back the people’s approval.

But the most immediate and pressing need is to bring down prices of food and other basic commodities. I don’t see the recent Cabinet changes addressing this.

For the past two years, Filipinos have had to grapple with higher prices of goods and commodities. One just needs to do the usual grocery or wet market visits to see how many of our basic food items have gone up – painfully high for many of us, especially the minimum-wage earners, and more so for those who live a hand-to-mouth existence.

One does not get the feeling that things are improving, not even with inflation supposedly easing to 1.4 percent in April from 1.8 percent in March, which is supposedly the lowest rate since November 2019.

Prices are still rising, although the rate of increase from the previous month is slower.

How can the Marcos administration address this?

We already know that he retained his entire economic team but he should recalibrate their focus so that they aren’t just chasing economic growth numbers but also providing immediate relief across sectors.

The Department of Trade and Industry, for instance, should step up monitoring of prices of basic goods because it is possible that retailers are taking advantage of the situation by continuing to raise prices.

The Department of Agriculture, which supposedly has a cavalry of undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and executives – the biggest in the current bureaucracy – needs to do more to provide direct support to farmers, stabilize rice supply chains and make import policies more transparent. These efforts would help bring down prices.

Medium-term solutions include investing in post-harvest infrastructure such as cold storage facilities. This is to reduce food waste and stabilize supply. One must also cut red tape and middlemen in the supply chain and let farmers sell directly to buyers. Indeed, we need more direct markets for farmers.

The government needs to support local production by providing farmers access to cheaper credit, better seeds and modern farming methods. Digital tools can help them monitor, in real-time, supply and demand to preempt shortages and price spikes.

Hopefully, these initiatives can help address the problem of high food prices. It’s a serious issue which Marcos must prioritize now.

It doesn’t help that Malacañang seems more focused on exhibitions, movies, fashion shows, performances, social events, parties, etc. – all that glitz and glamor.

That’s not necessarily wrong, but it seems dissonant, especially with Filipinos struggling amid the high cost of living in the country.

Peace and order

Another big issue he needs to address is peace and order.

Rody Duterte, who remains well loved by his followers, continues to cast shadows on this nation of 120 million.

This is partly because in Metro Manila’s nooks and crannies, dwellers say, the criminals are back. The drug users have returned, no longer afraid a bullet may hit them anytime, as it was during the time of Duterte.

Those extrajudicial killings are wrong and unjust – and will always will be – but some people believe they were justified. The only way they may be convinced otherwise is for Marcos to improve the peace and order situation in the country by bringing criminals – big or small – to justice.

He needs to bring back the public’s trust in policemen. More importantly, he needs to plug the drug menace at the source. If he succeeds in doing this, he would win the war on drugs.

Fighting corruption

During the remainder of his term, he must also work on strengthening institutions by ensuring accountability, especially in corruption-prone sectors.

As for that budget mess by Congress last year, supposedly in the name of ayuda, the people have not forgotten about it.

No doubt, the Marcos administration needs a major reset. Enough of the glitz and glamor. It’s time to work.

And so here we are with a semi-new Marcos Cabinet. We’ll have to wait and see if real changes will follow.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.