The President
is a magician

I was stunned. Never had a president of the republic ever assured local businessmen that he has the deft touch by which he could just as easily open new buying nations for our banana exports. That’s worth something like P6 to P8-billion that is being threatened in China.

But it was a revealing assurance by President Benigno Aquino III that he thought the Mindanao banana shippers need not worry about the present predicament they are facing. After all, he assured them, he can easily get new buyers for them.

Now, consider that it took our banana exporters several years to develop their China market to what it now is. But suddenly, with it using their economic clout China is now threatening to stop further entry into China of Filipino bananas.

But don’t worry, says the president. He has ready buyers.

I just hope that he was just misquoted. But I think that is pure stupidity to mesmerize disappointed and worried shippers that their problem can easily be waved aside by just the assurance by the president.

If he can do that, no reason for the Philippines to worry about anything. After all, their president is, by his magic wand, is going to solve our problems.

***

Now, if we should worry, the Chinese had held some 43 crates of papayas and pineapples impounded in Shanghai following the discovery of mealy bags in them.

That, I think is something that we should truly worry about it. First, they were bananas. Now, initially papayas and pineapples. And, yes, the decrease in the number of daily flights from Guangzho province to only once a day from May 26 to June 30.

And hotels and tourism destinations of the Philippines have been complaining about the drop in the number of bookings for China-Philippines fights as well as cancelled reservations for hotel rooms.

We hope that the president does something to address the standoff between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal issue before the situation deteriorates further from just economic threats to something more serious.

Perhaps, there was something to what a Chinese friend told me once. That all China wants is just to talk business with us. “Wala naman ‘yang problem, Pagusapan na lang kung magkano sa iyo and magkano naman sa amin. (Only talk on how much for you and how much for us)”

So Mr. Pangilinan may actually have something up his sleeves when he discussed with a big Chinese multinational firm joint exploration of the oil fields in the Scarborough Shoals.

That, I think, may have provided the key to the solution of the problem. Just a joint exploration of the underwater reserves of what China needs and the Philippines needs as badly. After all, by ourselves, we cannot exploit these deposits.

So, why not use common sense and try to discuss the problem over the issue with numbers?

That may settle once and for all, the problem with China.

***

The Senate impeachment tribunal yesterday was rocked by vitriolic language with senator judges pillorying the Kaya Natin spokesman for presenting anonymous documents that he had submitted earlier to the Ombudsman against Chief Justice Renato Corona.

It capped the series of “mysterious” appearances of “anonymous” and unauthenticated documents detailing alleged deposits of Corona. In this case, dollar deposits and euros.

In this case, Harvey Keh appeared at the office of the presiding officer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and submitted to the presiding officer a well-clothed envelope detailing the alleged deposits of Corona.

And, just as surprisingly, an ABS-CBN team was around to take shots, of the incident and report on the contents of the documents. Again, unauthenticated.

Senator Miriam Santiago oozed vitriolic language as she vented her ire against the Kaya Natin “trick” which she termed as intended to pave the way for the Ombudsman to investigate Corona and also to pave the way for another impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice.

Later, Senator Jinggoy Estrada elicited from the Kaya Natin official the admission that he had informed a reporter of the Philippines Inquirer about the anonymous documents.

Funny, the same scenario had been used in giving him the documents that ended up in the hands of the Senate President and the impeachment court. They were just in a brown envelope and deposited in the mail box of the Kaya Natin with no names. It was anonymous, again.

So stunned was the Kaya Natin official that, without verification, he immediately calls another tabloid writer about it and came out with the story of Corona’s unexplained dollars and Euro deposits in several banks. And Kaya Natin never had gone out of its way to authenticate the documents nor try to trace the authorship.

Miracles just happen in this administration. And too many miracles regarding the charges against Corona.

So, who actually had done these things? Your guess is as good as mine.*

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