Call for help, Sir
Published Jun 9, 2022 12:05 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Mr. President, you can do it: 21 days before you step out of Malacañang, 21 days to save our fishermen, farmers, jeepney drivers, housewives, commuters, the masses from the high prices of fuel that have all but taken the joy out of work.
Caught between the excise tax (₱6-10 on diesel and gasoline) and VAT (12 percent), neither of which government can afford to excise (as in cut out like a diseased organ), the people are crying for a solution or a miracle. They cannot wait another day, just as President Duterte will not wait one hour longer before he leaves office to enjoy what he calls “the sunset of my life.”
But there is a solution, one PRRD holds in his hands. All he needs is one hand to place a call to President Xi Jinping in Beijing and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and ask those special friends for a special favor: Sell your oil to us at friendly Third World prices.
The people are familiar with DU30’s independent foreign policy – friend to all, enemy to none – and how he described Putin as “my best friend” and Xi as “a good neighbor and ally.” Now is the time to call on our friends to come to our help, all 110 million of us.
During the oil crunch in 1974, President Marcos, the father of our next president, sent the First Lady, the mother of our next president, to China for a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong because the Philippines was desperate for barrels and barrels of black gold to improve our supply and stabilize prices. An unprecedented move, but it worked.
Half a century later, we are in the same bind. Today, with several countries in the EU banning the import of oil from Russia, President Vladimir Putin has more than enough in his stockpiles to share with us. China, after a lockdown in Shanghai sent global oil prices going sky-high, is back in business. Knowing how the Chinese work, they’re adequately, excessively maximized in their storage capacities.
Mr. President, after your two most important phone calls of the day, you may want to send Davao City Mayor and incoming Vice President Sara Duterte to convey your best wishes to our good friends.
Jullie Y. Daza
Mr. President, you can do it: 21 days before you step out of Malacañang, 21 days to save our fishermen, farmers, jeepney drivers, housewives, commuters, the masses from the high prices of fuel that have all but taken the joy out of work.
Caught between the excise tax (₱6-10 on diesel and gasoline) and VAT (12 percent), neither of which government can afford to excise (as in cut out like a diseased organ), the people are crying for a solution or a miracle. They cannot wait another day, just as President Duterte will not wait one hour longer before he leaves office to enjoy what he calls “the sunset of my life.”
But there is a solution, one PRRD holds in his hands. All he needs is one hand to place a call to President Xi Jinping in Beijing and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and ask those special friends for a special favor: Sell your oil to us at friendly Third World prices.
The people are familiar with DU30’s independent foreign policy – friend to all, enemy to none – and how he described Putin as “my best friend” and Xi as “a good neighbor and ally.” Now is the time to call on our friends to come to our help, all 110 million of us.
During the oil crunch in 1974, President Marcos, the father of our next president, sent the First Lady, the mother of our next president, to China for a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong because the Philippines was desperate for barrels and barrels of black gold to improve our supply and stabilize prices. An unprecedented move, but it worked.
Half a century later, we are in the same bind. Today, with several countries in the EU banning the import of oil from Russia, President Vladimir Putin has more than enough in his stockpiles to share with us. China, after a lockdown in Shanghai sent global oil prices going sky-high, is back in business. Knowing how the Chinese work, they’re adequately, excessively maximized in their storage capacities.
Mr. President, after your two most important phone calls of the day, you may want to send Davao City Mayor and incoming Vice President Sara Duterte to convey your best wishes to our good friends.