More challenging times ahead

“The major concerns of the people, as measured by recent surveys, such as high prices, unemployment, low wages — all ‘politica del estomago,’ will continue to bedevil us”

Our president is going to Saudi Arabia today, his 15th overseas trip in the 16 months he has been in office, to attend the inaugural summit of Southeast Asian leaders and Gulf states tomorrow.

He was hoping to pitch in for investments from the oil-rich Arab nations, particularly for the newly-created Maharlika Investment Fund.

These Arab nations have plenty of money to spare, and have created their own wealth funds out of largesse through the years from oil and natural gas.

But the summit is not expected to produce much results beyond the handshakes and the smiling photographs.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict has upbraided the summit, as the full attention of the Arab world is on the mayhem in their neighborhood.

This must have weighed heavily on the president’s mind as he suspended the implementation of his controversial no-wealth fund just before he left.

Furthermore, the two government-owned banks which provided P75 billion in initial funding realized after the fact, or after releasing their contribution to Maharlika, that such funds would compromise their ability to comply with Bangko Sentral regulations on capital requirements.

Goodbye to farm credit and what little DBP spares for industry, P750 billion in loanable funds are now banked with Maharlika.

See what rushing Maharlika did, with hardly anyone in Congress saying nay?

Which brings me to my point in this article — there will be more challenging times ahead, whether for the last quarter when the celebratory mood of Christmas makes our people forget momentarily their poor plight (but for the Small Laude’s and their internet ilk).

I hate to sound pessimistic at a time when we should be spreading hope amid the dreadful events happening in the world these days, but such seems to be our fate, almost ‘Sysiphean’ despite leadership changes.

Inflation will continue to bedevil our efforts, with a likely dip this November as the rice harvests come in (absent any strong typhoon hitting the palay-producing regions), but caught in the seasonal