CARTOON by Shekinah Maranatha Sande.
After three months of being sworn in as the chief executive of the country, President Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos Jr. and his administration have been marked with a plethora of controversies and uncertainties in terms of governance—which incessantly suffocate the economy, the people, and the Philippines as an entirety. In PBBM's first 100 days in office, his presidency tenure has underscored multiple calamities: the sinking of the Philippine Peso, executive resignations, and tendentious personal affairs.
During President Marcos’s inauguration, he stated that he planned to counter the relentless rise of the American dollar, but the Philippines continued to fall into economic recession otherwise. In the early stages of October, the value of the US dollar spiked to nearly sixty pesos, with the local currency dropping to rock bottom. Inflation and the sugar shortage created a ripple of economic dilemmas that altered the country’s socio-economic and political landscape and paved the way toward an inflationary spiral—a manifestation of Marcos’ track record of corruption and incompetence.
Various global conundrums have led to the rising prices of basic consumer necessities. One major reason for this is the war raging between Russia and Ukraine, which has led to the steadfast increase in the value of gasoline. Adding to the flames of disaster, the nation, also being bombarded by natural calamities, has lost over 2.5 billion pesos worth of agricultural and infrastructural damage. Is the peso weak because the dollar is strong? Or is the peso weak because it is truly weak?
The first 100 days of President Marcos’s term was nothing short of ordinary. The head of the state has gone to four bilateral talks with the chief executives of Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United States. The goal was to strengthen the ties between the nations and to ameliorate trade in the upcoming years. Around $18 billion worth of investment pledges were secured from all of the talks combined, guaranteeing the people that we will soon find ourselves bouncing back from the destructive economic effects caused by the pandemic which plagued the world for two years.
Regarding the President’s performance, a mass of Filipinos gave him a high approval rating for his conscientiousness. Lots of Filipinos trust the current administration in the fight against natural disasters and criminality in the country. PBBM then claimed that he had built a functioning government despite the empty chairs in his cabinet. It's been months since the start of the new administration, yet the presidential council is still in search of reliable leaders to usher in various branches of governance. The absence of a health secretary could be catastrophic for the months to come, and in the present, with the country’s continual aspiration to beat the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a benefit of the doubt, these shortcomings may still be a budding product of a short-lived and adjusting presidential administration and PBBM still has a long journey. However, it should be noted that the Philippines has suffered from, by far, its worst economic recession over the past few years. Inflation has skyrocketed, and petroleum prices are at a record high. If this trend continues, the country may find itself on the brink of an economic dilemma. With the president’s response to the different problems, it can be said that Marcos Jr. is on the right track, but given the drawbacks of his current movement, he is moving at a slow pace toward his journey for absolution.
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