3 p.m.
Manila, 10 September—When a President announces beforehand that he’s calling a press conference at a specific date and time, it’s natural to assume that something must be up. Amid spiking inflation, increasing oil prices, and the weakening peso, it’s hard not to think about extraordinary measures, like martial law perhaps, to curb whatever it is that this inept government cannot seem to get a handle on.
Or, maybe it would be nothing. As nothing as this ‘talk-show-type’ of thing that Bong Go has been talking about, purportedly with Panelo.
I hate that this government is a master of diversion. I hate that it’s always possibly about something else, like:
The fact that the arms deal that they wanted to get in Israel and Jordan has not materialized at all.
Senator Trillanes’ upcoming inquiry into Bong Go’s involvement in possible corruption in allegedly seeking favors for his father and half-brother’s construction firms, which bagged multi-billion contracts in Davao but have so far been unable to deliver.
Senator Trillanes’ current inquiry into Solicitor General Calida’s security firms, which similarly bagged multi-billion government contracts after he got a position in the government—a clear case of conflict of interest.
Record-high inflation, which the government’s economists purportedly miscalculated at first, among other woes.
Yet the first thing that comes to the President’s right hand mind is a fucking talk show. WOW.
If the President is addressing inflation, which has consistently figured at the top of whatever survey seeking to ask respondents about the issues that are closest to their heart, then I’d be interested to hear what his solutions are, if any. I don’t want to hear a rehash of his anti-rice cartel rhetoric, since that obviously is mere lip service, considering how fucked the rice shortage is.
I also want ZERO mention of the drug war, unless it’s about his kumpare Peter Lim or his own son Paolo finally getting arrested.