Middle East war: Winners, losers

There will be no winners in this ongoing war that has upended the world, perhaps even more than the COVID-19 pandemic did, despite the bravado and bluster of the US and Israel.

We are all on the losing end.

The global economy will surely spiral downward as the tensions linger, with Iran’s resolve to fight seemingly stronger than ever.

We may not feel the full impact just yet but in a few weeks or months, prices of everything we consume – from the necessary to the not so necessary – will skyrocket and hurt our pockets.

OFW remittances, 18 percent of which come from the Middle East, will surely tumble and translate into slower spending in the Philippines.

The sectors that will be affected by this include property, as OFWs postpone investments in new condominiums or house-and-lot properties; retail, as families of OFWs here tighten their belts and even local tourism, as OFWs put off plans of coming home for vacation.

The peso is already hurting, and this is sure to affect our trade with the rest of the world as a depreciated peso makes imports more expensive. Importers will need more pesos to buy the same amount of foreign goods.

As it is now, our local pump prices are already dizzyingly high, no thanks to our dependence on imported fuel.

OFWs can’t go home

Another problem is the kafala system in the Middle East, as I learned from Rights Report Philippines, a new advocacy journalism organization founded by human rights advocate Carlos Conde.

In the report, migrant groups raised alarm about the kafala system in the Middle East, which ties Filipino workers to their employers who often keep the OFWs’ passports.

Because of this, OFWs who want to go home are helpless. Our government knows the problem exists but has not done anything specific to address it.

Silver lining

For perpetrators of the flood control mess, however, this deadly and brutal war seems to be a silver lining.

Perhaps, they are the only ones quietly laughing with sinister sighs of relief, because the spotlight has surely moved far away from the issue and from them. Even the Independent Commission for Infrastructure will shut down by the end of March, saying its mandate has been fulfilled.

Clearly, a jittery public is now more worried about the impact of the ongoing geopolitical tensions than continuing to demand accountability from the perpetrators of the grand thievery of flood control funds.

Nobody even seems concerned whether the Senate Blue Ribbon committee report on the flood control issue will get enough signatures to be transmitted to the plenary.

So far, four senators have signed the report: Ping Lacson, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros and Kiko Pangilinan.

The report recommends that a preliminary investigation be opened against Senators Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva – all members of the minority bloc. The leaked draft suggested the filing of criminal and administrative charges against them. (The STAR, March 14, 2026).

Lacson hopes more senators will sign, noting that the partial report can still be amended in the Senate plenary.

Meanwhile, have we heard anything about the others implicated in the mess, aside from former senator Bong Revilla and contractor Sarah Discaya who are currently detained?

It’s no wonder why corruption never ends in the Philippines. More often than not, the criminals go unpunished. It’s also no wonder that people implicated in previous scandals, such as the P10-billion Napoles pork barrel scam, are again being linked to the flood control mess.

They’re simply not afraid to do it again because they got away with it the first time – or who knows how many times before.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this time it will be different.

But there’s no telling what will happen next. So far, we are not seeing serious resolve on the part of the Marcos administration to get to the bottom of the flood control mess.

Instead, its allies in Congress are now focused on the impeachment complaints against VP Sara Duterte, with the aim of diminishing her chances in the 2028 presidential elections.

Good luck with that.

Meantime, one cannot blame the public for losing interest in the scandal as the more pressing concerns on the impact of Middle East war creep into our daily lives.

But in the long term, we hope to see lasting changes that would really fix our weak institutions, especially Congress.

Isn’t it ironic that the two chambers that are supposed to craft laws are occupied by men and women who violate existing laws?

Cong-tractors

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), in a new report, for instance, “found that half of the 64 party-list representatives in the 20th Congress come from active political clans – families whose members currently hold, or immediately preceded them in, national and local office. Nearly a third have ties to government contractors, whether through direct ownership, family connections or campaign donations from contracting firms.”

The report, titled “Dynasties and Contractors Capture Party-list Seats in the 20th Congress,” said “nearly 40 years ago, the framers of the post-Marcos Constitution provided for a party-list system to ensure that Congress would not be dominated by political families.”

To read the full report, authored by Guinevere Latoza and Christian Chua, visit the PCIJ website.

Wars abroad shake the world and sometimes, sadly, they also drown out the battles we still have to fight at home.

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