What matters the most
THE Christmas season festivities will soon die down, and people will go back to reality, as it were. Reality, for most people, is to face the challenges that were temporarily put on hold because of the holidays. In spite of what they are experiencing, most people would have said, “Pasko naman kasi.”
Nevertheless, that limit cannot be pushed further if they will continue to face rising prices of sugar and onions. People will get frustrated as they get back to work if they continue to be doing “diskarte” as Nicole Tengco beautifully explained in her Rappler Opinion article last Christmas Eve. We cannot continue to believe in the “diskarte” or the Filipino’s ability to doing life fixes in the daily grind.
So, there has to be a clear and formal strategy to properly address these challenges without having to push our people to do their own “diskarte”. This, indeed, is what matters the most to the majority. We should set aside grand dreams and plans that will take years before making a significant impact on our people’s lives. The priority ought to be clear: Government should address the issues of the daily grind, to the best that it can, no matter what.
The global headwinds that added to the rising prices of 2022 are most likely to dissipate by the first half of the coming new year. Three key events will change the course of the global gloom towards recession. First, there is the possible endemicity of Covid-19. Second, there is the reopening of the China economy. Third, there is potential peace in Ukraine. These three will shake the global economies and cause a global shift from gloom to optimism.
A World Health Organization announcement regarding the end of the pandemic could help reprioritize resources towards lessening, or even totally removing, mobility and goods restrictions. This will be boosted by China’s full reopening that could reignite global trade with its factories going back to produce for the world. This reopening will, in turn, address supply bottlenecks and shortages to ultimately help lower supply-induced inflation. Moreover, recent pronouncements of Russia seem to point to their willingness to go to the negotiating table. These three will certainly help “normalize” global trade, bring back the cost of production and shipment to comfortable levels, and make commodity prices such as oil and food predictable based on weather and capacities rather than speculations.
These events, if they do happen, will, in all likelihood, help soften prices, though not immediately. They could also bring governance back into complacency. We should not allow global events to dictate how we respond to our domestic needs and requirements. It should be noted that the Philippines would end the year with more than $8 billion in balance of payments (BOP) deficit due to the high volume of imports coupled with high costs of imported goods. Besides, interest rates will most probably remain high as the country adjusts from the global interest rates push.
These global and local economic conditions should be seen as impetus for governance to be taking a headway. Lower global prices do not mean they will remain the same. While we could benefit from it now, there should now be a recognition that being connected to the global value chain must also mean that we are domestically secured in terms of our food and basic necessities— things that matter the most to our daily grind.
Yes, it will take some time before our trains and subways will run. There must be something that should be done so that people will not turn to buying more vehicles. It will take a coordinated system of public transportation and traffic management that is incentive-based to be implemented, particularly in our major cities. For food and basic necessities, there must be a local approach of having an inventory of what a city/ locality is able to produce, what they have, what they do not have, what they can sell, and what they need to buy. This simple tracking of resources and needs at the local level will put governance on their toes, regardless of what is happening in the global markets.
Hence, 2023 can be a good year for the country, regardless of the global conditions, if we just focus on what matters the most in the daily grind. First should be our localities, and then our cities, and then the nation. Let us work together to have a common “diskarte” and not leave that to every Juan in the street.
Praying that your 2023 will be better in health, finance, and governance!