Many streets have less or no jeepneys /tricycles since the pandemic till now.
What hit our drivers most were the unregulated fuel hike/excise tax, the continuing unstable/ fluctuating oil prices since DU30’s term.
If our Filipino drivers are no longer plying their vehicles, where are they now? How are they doing?
One interviewed driver lamented that since he lost his job and no longer had income to pay rent for their small room, now, their whole family lives inside the jeepney that he used to drive/to earn for their families’ daily needs.
Other displaced/unemployed drivers are now trying to find casual jobs in construction or whatever may be available so their families may be able to eat each day.
Even if they are able to find a job for a day, their meager daily wage can barely feed the whole family for 3 meals.
With the rising prices of many basic commodities and the pervading short supply even of salt and sugar, how do you think most of our unemployed/homeless/the needy and their families are doing since Marcos Jr. claimed he won by 30 million votes?
How are the poor among these so-claimed 30 million voters doing now?
As fuel prices remain unkind to drivers and consumers and food items terribly expensive and in low supply, even food producers/farmers/fisherfolks and their families are unable daily to eat enough or at all.
The knee-jerk response of the inefficient Department of Agriculture - to import just about everything that this country is short of (sugar/salt/fish/even onions and more) - will further drag our food producers/their families into deeper/wider poverty!
With unstable/problematic food supply, expect the rest of the Filipino consumers (thousands of those who, like the jeepney/other public vehicle drivers have been pushed to unemployment/underemployment) to also suffer through higher prices and less/or no more food at all daily from now on!
And the domino effect of bad/incompetent governance will spread and drag the whole nation, millions of Filipinos and households through more widespread/life-health threatening hunger and poverty!
Who is in charge? Who will take care immediately of the needy millions of Filipinos?
The elected of the 30-million voters, right?
But has Marcos Jr. ever gone around nation-wide to check/and see for himself how the poor and the poorest of his so-called 30 million voters are doing now?
Instead, since his June 2022 election, he has been busy travelling abroad 8 times, spending precious public funds that could have been used for the immediate use of the growing poor and hungry!
Retired University of the Philippines Professor and Economist, Winnie Monsod, estimated that the latest Davos trip cost at least a whooping P65M!
With Marcos Jr. in his huge entourage (media reported about 70 people , Marcos Jr. team reported 18 members) were his wife/ son, GMA, Speaker Martin Romualdez/and wife, 1 Senator, 6 Cabinet members, 3 undersecretaries, a special assistant, and a Presidential adviser.
How many of the Social Weather Stations surveyed 12.9 million Filipinos who reported feeling poor during the 4th Quarter of 2022 would have been promptly assisted by that P65M Davos trip and other trips of Marcos Jr. and company?
Marcos Jr. justifies the costs and the trips in terms of the investment pledges obtained for the country from the trips.
Until confirmed cash/investments are in, however, pledges alone cannot justify the trips and the public funds spent for Marcos Jr. and company.
Instead, the total public funds spent for the 8 trips should have been immediately invested, used and prioritized for our millions of needy Filipinos!
Instead of travelling abroad, shouldn’t Marcos Jr. also immediately first fire himself as an unqualified/ ineffective Agriculture Secretary who is unable to effectively resolve escalating food prices and widening food supply shortage?