Strong peso? Blame it on the weak dollar

As our local Central Bank officials predicted, the peso to the US dollar continues to strengthen with the peso hitting below the P44 to $1 level the best we’ve ever had in the last seven years. But we should prepare for all the possible precautions simply because not all of this can be blamed on the robust Philippine economy, rather we should blame it on the mighty US dollar losing out practically on all the currencies of the world where records have been breaking.

For instance, the Canada dollar is now at par with the US dollar, something that happened only 20 or so years ago. If you looked at the figure of the US dollar vis-à-vis the Euro, you just can’t imagine how weak the US dollar has become. Because of this, countries with strong economies, especially those with cold case to throw are now gobbling up many American companies, thanks to a very cheap dollar. This also means that we shall see fewer Americans traveling to Europe but just staying at home.

Here at home, we ought to take a serious look at the impact of a strong peso versus a very weak dollar. This means our Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) are sending money with less value to their loved ones at home. The more dollars they send here, the more dollars flood the market and as we know about the Law of Supply and Demand, it would further weaken the US dollar against the peso. Then there’s the other problem of our export industries that are getting a beating because of this situation. The Arroyo government must address this problem before things get worse!

* * *

While we generally had a peaceful Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections last Monday, it is sad to note that it was politics as usual in the Barangay polls where vote-buying and other forms of prohibited election practices were largely ignored. This only goes to show that the dirt that we get to hear almost everyday from the top elected officials of the land has seeped through the lowest form of government.

When there is vote buying in the lowest form of government, this tells you that when those Barangay officials win their seats, they will certainly look for ways to recoup their investments. People these days just don’t throw away money without thinking of getting it back. But given the salaries that our barangay officials get, you already know that it is not enough to recoup their election expenses. This means, we shall be seeing projects within the barangay designed to skim off money via the usual corrupt practices.

Since we already know that politics have no morals, we can assume that this dictum has also been embraced by our barangay leaders and worse, brought down to the youth who also ran in the SK elections. I have always believed that if we are going to vigorously pursue a moral renewal, it should be a top to bottom renewal. So the question is, where do we start?

I have never made secret of my desire to abolish the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and I can only hope that Congress would push to abolish this creation of the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship. Let the youth participate in the more laudable problems like the Boys and Girls Scouts or bring back the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) so we can see some discipline with the youth of today, many of whom are so idle, they end up joining those bloodthirsty fraternities.

As for the barangays, we can’t help but notice that in all those years, they have become a duplicate of City Hall. Worse, some of them have already forgotten that they are first and foremost public servants and not our masters. I have always maintained that barangay officials should limit their work into cleaning up their respective surroundings, security, which includes the prevention of illegal structures that squatters do and basic health care. If ever, barangay officials should never be allowed to do infrastructure projects because the temptation is so great to misuse those funds for their personal purposes or in aid of reelection.

* * *

Now it can be told that the Oct.19 blast that destroyed a great part of the Glorietta 2 that sent shockwaves throughout the nation that this was the handiwork of terrorist was not true. Finally the Philippine National Police (PNP) investigators with the aid of Australian Federal Police and Israeli bomb experts came up with their findings that this was caused by a gas explosion. This all goes to show that not all explosions are caused by terror bombs. More importantly, that machine rooms in shopping malls can become potential explosive sites especially if they are placed in cramped and damp places where chemicals mix with the volatile air and then explodes!

* * *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]