After the oath-taking of President-elect Bongbong Marcos on June 30, he is expected to hit the ground running and attend to the many problems affecting the country, the most important of which is high prices.
And because of high prices, mainly caused by the escalating high prices of gasoline almost hitting P100 per liter, the domino effect seriously affects transport fares.
BBM must also have to attend to the outcries of jeepney, provincial bus, and taxicab drivers to approve higher fares.
Santa Banana, in my over 70 years as a journalist, I have never seen an incoming President confronted with so many problems as that which President-elect Bongbong must face in his first 100 days.
Aside from the problem of high prices affecting every household, there are other multiple challenges facing Marcos which he must attend to immediately.
Marcos must attend right away to the biggest challenge of all: how to jumpstart economic recovery.
And he must address the problem of jobs and livelihood of the MSMEs to stop the problem of poverty, my gulay!
As a result of all these multiple challenges facing the incoming President, his economic team will have more than enough problems to attend to which affect national interest and even national security.
Aside from his economic team, headed by by Benjamin Diokno as Finance Secretary, Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual , Felipe Medalla as Bangko Sentral Governor, Bongbong has up to this date not named who will head the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture.
Santa Banana, in my more than seven decades as a journalist, I have never seen an incoming President confronted with such gargantuan problems as BBM will have to face. Can Marcos hack it? The first 100 days of BBM would be worth watching.
Whether we like it or not, we can either sink or swim with him. My gulay, which will it be?
Another big challenge that the incoming President must attend to right away is the problem of food security which is fast becoming a big challenge as well for every country.
How to meet this challenge is so daunting that he needs not only the cooperation of the government but all sectors of the economy.
Marcos must rely on what his economic team will do, and how his Secretary of Agriculture will do. Right now we have to import not only rice but fish and other agricultural products.
Since the secretary of agriculture can only do so much, a lot of things must also be attended to by BBM to solve the problem of other departments.
The price of rice, the staple of every Filipino household, must be edged at P20 per kilo. Can the Marcos administration do it?
It all depends on how much rice and agricultural products the country will produce each year.
Food security is something that must be attended to, whether he likes it or not because it’s a problem of every household.
The advantage of Marcos is that he was elected as a majority President, which means that he can muster the support of the majority of Filipinos.
And whether we like it or not, we, the people, can either sink or swim with him.
The appointment of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile as Bongbong’s chief legal counsel is excellent.
With the many years that JPE has been with BBM’s late father, strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, and with JPE’s various positions as Commissioner of Customs, Finance Secretary, Justice Secretary, and Secretary of the Department of National Defense, and his many years as a senator and
congressman, Enrile certainly can advise BBM on what he should do.
With the many problems confronting President-elect Bongbong , JPE’s many years as finance secretary will help the young Marcos a lot. Santa Banana, I know quite well that in government there’s no substitute for experience.
Surprisingly at age 98, Enrile’s mind is still very sharp. As chief legal counsel, Enrile’s appointment comes at the right time.
Santa Banana, I can’t believe it, I got so very many “likes” and congratulatory comments on the FB post of my ”Life Achievement Award as a Journalist” given to me by the prestigious Rotary Club of Manila, the oldest Rotary Club in Asia!
They could not have come only from relatives because I don’t have that many relations, but friends and perhaps readers of my column.
I cannot stop believing in the impossible with my RCM award when my colleague and good friend Tony Lopez, BizNews Asia publisher, introduced me as a long time journalist. Tony told the audience that the only event Emil did not cover was the Last Supper.
Again, my eternal thanks to the Rotary Club of Manila for an award that culminates my over 70 years as a journalist. To borrow a quip from the farewell speech of Gen. Douglas MacArthur at Westpoint: “ Old journalists will never die, they just fade away.”
To me, my career as a journalist is a calling, more than a profession, and I don’t regret having been a journalist for over 70 years now.
My deepest gratitude to RCM and all its officers and members. As somebody now in the pre-departure area, waiting for my last flight to the Great Beyond, to Heaven with God as my pilot, I hope to bring my trophy with me. Thank you, thank you again, Rotary Club of Manila.
The standoff between the Cebu Governor, Gwen Garcia, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Interior and Local Government over the use of masks, should be resolved immediately since other local governments have the tendency to follow the example of Cebu. .
And, my gulay, when that happens, the outcome can only result in confusion and chaos.
I believe there can only be one set of health protocol for all local governments.
And there can only be one set of guidelines and protocols for everybody.
My gulay, contrary to what Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia claims, it’s not a question of the rules, but what is proper and practical, not what the provincial board claims, that masks are optional in open spaces.
The standoff cannot be prolonged. And I believe that when it comes to questions like these, the President should have the last say.
The people are at a loss whether to believe or not predictions that sooner or later the NCR and Metro Manila will have an elevated Alert Level 2 by next month because of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
If it will be Alert Level 2, albeit the NCR and Metro Manila had Alert Level 2 before, and nothing would be new. Thus, it would do well just to wait for the IATF decision. They know better.