By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
We were sizzling, being fried on a frying pan when the pandemic hard lockdowns were imposed. In hunger, we writhed in pain. Some “ayuda” (dole outs) came once or twice. But those were just about it. A can or two of cheap sardines, some packs of the cheapest noodles, a half-sack of rice. That was all the government was worth to its citizens. For a good two years in uncertainty. All the while, the danger of suddenly having to leave your family to be brought back later as ashes in an urn was there.
For us in the media, about three months later, we had to get back to work. We just had our nostrils above the water line, hoping we would survive.
As always in such crisis, it is the provincial folks who had some money to pull out from under their mattresses to set their affairs in order. They needed to see their lawyers to transfer whatever they had to the names of their kids or whoever were entitled thereto. Just in case.
Lucky for us, the process or most of the deeds required had to be published in a newspaper of general circulation. So they had to come to us. We were known to be one of those, or the only one(?) with a heart. We had to bend backwards to accommodate customers, as far as we could.
Then came the gravy if we could call it that. They had the money, the banks. I knew, in those dark moments their people were busy combing over papers to see where the money should next come from. Savings? Investments? Forget it! Everybody was down.
Luckily for them, the government only gave debtors just about a month of reprieve before their creditors would come a calling. That was so bad for the debtors, like you and me.
As I said so many times before, they will go afrenzy foreclosing here and there. They would be like vultures making their peculiar sounds as they circle above their next foreclosure targets.
To their credit, and as a matter of common sense, they started with the fat accounts. People with money.
So their lawyers were busy. And also us as the legal process had to be published. Ever aware of karma, we did not abuse through high publication charges that will ultimately be shouldered by the bank debtors. But still we considered those as the gravy as there were no collection problems with banks, except for a few which always found ways to keep the people’s money in their vaults.
So we survived.
Almost immediately thereafter, I had to go down to the lowlands passing through Metro Manila. The buses coming from far provinces like Baguio were almost empty. I boldly predicted it will take about two years before economic recovery efforts would gain some traction. A few weeks after, the result of a survey of heads of big companies was released saying the same thing.
Then something happened that made me swallow my words. Saudi Arabia and Russia declared on behalf of the OPEC+ that the group will cut back on oil production by as much as two million barrels a day. The effect, high prices of everything.
That is in addition to the effects of the Ukraine war and the Chinese drought and its economic setbacks.
The bottom line is recession. In simple terms, economic hardships including lack of jobs and scarcity of almost everything.
So we got into the fire. I guess though, we are better off than being in hard lockdowns. At least, we now have a fighting chance.
How long will it take? For quite a long time.
Those who can work hard and be creative will get through. For the rest, it will be a very painful process.
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