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Thursday, December 09, 2004
Sienes: GMA's handwriting on the wall?
By Cris G. Sienes
Different Strokes
'Millions of hungry people are a dangerous lot. They are easy preys for rabble-rousers, and we are not lacking in rabble-rousers.'
MANY columns back I wrote that the surging oil prices are too serious for the government to ignore. Surging oil prices keep on pushing up the prices of food items, school supplies, medicine, LPG and other basic items badly needed by Filipino households. They also push up fees for services, tuition fees, transport fares and even fees for masses for the dead, not to mention that they engender transport strikes and massive rallies.
If nothing is done about the never-ending increases in oil prices and they keep pushing up fees and prices of basic commodities, time will come when the millions who are poor can no longer meet their basic minimum needs. Once this happens, people will be greatly dissatisfied with the government.
As can be gleaned from print and broadcast media reports and tv interviews with ordinary people, dissatisfaction with the government is now creeping into the ranks of the masses. Primarily people are discontented because the government has failed to check surging prices of basic commodities engendered by the oil price increases. The prices of basic commodities and fees are almost, if not already, beyond their reach.
That life for people in the country is hard can be gauged by the steady hemorrhage of Filipino professionals and laborers to foreign countries. Even doctors and nurses are reportedly taking caregiver courses just to be able to find gainful employment abroad.
The growing dissatisfaction of people with the government has caused PGMA's popularity to plunge almost to rock bottom. These developments elicited mixed reactions from critics. There were those who predicted a fast recovery for the country's economy.
There were also those who painted grim scenarios for the country. One critic likened the present situation in the country to a volcano, which is set to explode. "If the people's discomfort are not addressed," the critic said, "this will lead to another Edsa Revolution and (PGMA) will not stay long in government service."
The critic had a point. Right now there is a growing discontentment among our people with the government. That is if print and broadcast media reports are to be believed. How much more if, because of the soaring prices of basic commodities, the millions who are poor can no longer afford to buy food and can no longer eat even one square meal a day?
Hunger, to reiterate, is our strongest instinct. It can drive people harder than the whips of those who scourged Christ. Millions of hungry people are a dangerous lot. They are easy preys for rabble-rousers, and we are not lacking in rabble-rousers. Unless the people's reported discontentment with the government is addressed, there could be another Edsa Revolt, which could topple the administration, as it did the Estrada administration.
PGMA and her administration must act fast to address the people's growing dissatisfaction with government. One way is to turn the economy around and solve the country's fiscal crisis. PGMA being an economist, it should not be very difficult for her to do this. Hiring a foreign economic adviser might help. Two economists are always better than one. But while this is so, it will be an admission that she is helpless in lifting the country from the economic stasis it is in and solving our fiscal crisis.
As for the surging oil prices, while the government may be helpless in checking them because they are dependent on the price of crude oil in the foreign market, there are always other alternatives. For instance, we have been told that we have perfected coco diesel and natural gas and that we can use them for our vehicles. So why don't we pursue the production of coco diesel and natural gas so that the country will be less dependent upon foreign oil? Too, we reportedly have rich oil sources in the country, as in Palawan and the Sulu Sea. Now is the time to tap these oil sources and develop them so that we will have our own sources of oil. In the face of the surging oil prices, anything is worth trying, and the time for trying is now. Delays could spell disaster for the country, and the surging oil prices and prices of basic commodities could very well be the handwriting on the wall for the administration.
Point to ponder: "No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach." (Woodrow Wilson, Speech, May 23, 1912)
(December 9, 2004 issue)
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