The late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. knew pretty well there could not be a successful revolution during his presidency. That was, no matter how noisy the left were. The reason? The Filipinos could still afford some tuyo (dried fish) and some rice.
How about this time of the son, PBBM?
Now that the only credible threat to the hold of the Marcoses to power which is former President Duterte and his family had practically been emasculated with his (Duterte’s) being jailed in The Hague, PBBM has to concentrate now on the remaining threat to his hold on political power. And that is, the inability of ordinary Filipinos to afford some tuyo and rice. When that comes to pass, then a revolution or a change in leadership will be a credible alternative.
It is becoming larger in the horizon. Already, years have passed and PBBM is nowhere near to delivering on his campaign promise to reduce the price of rice to twenty pesos per kilo. He is way off the mark even if he ordered a retail price ceiling of P45.00 per kilo of imported rice. Filipinos can hardly afford that. Just the other day, there was a survey result almost one third of our citizens had experienced hungry days since no food was available.
Scary! And with the way prices of basic commodities are rising like a runaway train, things will become worse. That is not even mentioning what is about to hit us from Uncle Sam. The effects of President Trump’s 15% tariff on all goods from the Philippines. Add that to the mix along with the upcoming reason for even higher prices due to the inflationary effects of the releasing of money by the government and candidates for the elections and we will soon be between a hard rock and the deep blue sea.
The moral of the story is, with the clipping of the wings of the Dutertes, come now will be the real Macoy. The effect of poverty might push the people to the limit, their inability to buy some tuyo and rice.**