ROUGH CUTS | They’re making hay now that…

INDEED it is hard to argue with the saying that the best time to make hay is when the sun shines at its brightest.

     And it is literally manifested by some government officials occupying “sunshine” position in the present government. Of course they may or may not be in cahoots with those above them. But what is certain is that as far as their agencies are concerned they are kings. Even persons who we believed before are incapable of committing even the slightest of omission we now found out to have possibly succumbed to temptations attendant in the disposal of the functions of the office. This top government agency executive now owns a spacious and very cozy coffee shop somewhere in the sanctums of the city proper. And we could not believe that he was able to go into that business owning everything including the very spacious location and the nice and appropriately-designed building for a coffee shop establishment with only the official’s salary as source of its capital. Of course, if the official won a lotto jackpot, his case would be another story.

     However, the one thing that cannot be denied is that the agency this executive heads has transactions all over the country, from north to south. And these transactions are mostly in hundreds of millions of pesos, some are even in billions.

     Now could you blame people in the know, including us, if they entertain some degree of suspicion on the sudden appearance of this executive’s “blessings?” Tell the people.

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     Indeed this raging pandemic brought about by the Corona Virus disease has been the single biggest force bringing people and countries to their knees. Some even appear to have completely submitted to their fate to the point of already begging for their daily subsistence.

     In the Philippines for example, the President humbly admitted the other day that the country’s economy is losing some P2 billion daily as a result of the pandemic.  Unluckily for us we are one among the many Filipinos who are most badly affected. The only good thing that separates us from the other suffering citizens of this country is that we still have our measly monthly SSS pension, so is our partner in life. Honestly however, we are stripping bare ourselves of anything that can be considered some minor perks in life. The little income on the sides, the small business we engaged in, our minuscule transport service are all inoperational, blown by the tsunami that is the CoViD 19. The family’s thriving business of renting out lights and sound equipment, full band resource rental (including services of musicians) that used to be almost fully booked the entire month prior to the onset of the pandemic, suddenly went phffft. Bookings were cancelled as face-to-face conventions, large social gatherings including weddings that used to be the biggest and usual source of booking contracts were not anymore allowed under the pandemic regime. And adding to the misfortune is that shortly before the pandemic we risked purchasing on loans new equipment adding more to the family’s indebtedness. And suddenly the pandemic came forcing our projected cash flow instead to fly away from us.  

     Now, even our more reliable fallback source appears to be failing us. We have to understand of course because this income side-source too is also affected by the pandemic. Given this situation, we are now deep in our thoughts about how we could possibly look for other alternative, yet honorable sources of finances enough for the family. Otherwise we might just have to join those who are already into begging in order for us to survive.

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     And as the raging CoViD 19 pandemic is bringing nations and economies to its knees, there is another man-initiated pandemic that seems to be forcing poorer countries and its people to lay flat on their stomachs.

     We are referring to the almost weekly increase of prices of oil and other petroleum products. The latest price hike was effective the other day with the cost of diesel fuel averaging an increase of P1 per liter.

     Why are we saying that this almost regular weekly hike in petroleum product prices is kind of a pandemic in itself?  Simple; this is because any upward movement of the prices of petroleum products has a wide ranging impact on any country’s economy. Therefore, the ultimate sufferers are the people themselves. A pandemic on top of a larger pandemic! This is worse than a global armed conflict!

                                                                    

 

                                                                        

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