It has been a week since I posted because shit has hit the fan.

Since Monday, I’ve been chasing CEOs, regulators, and whoever I can talk to about this oil crisis.

And yes, I was driving to and from Makati/BGC and absorbing the gas prices that doubled since this shitty war. It hurts, damn it, but I needed to work. I needed to chase people. I needed interviews.

As of Tue when the government declared a national energy emergency, the Philippines only had 45 days worth of fuel. It had to negotiate with SEAsian neighbors and even Russia for at least 700,000 barrels of oil to augment our supply. As of Friday, the government was able to extend the buffer to until June.

But this doesn’t ease the burden of skyrocketing pump prices.

Jeepnes drivers could no longer bring home earnings because the price of diesel has more than doubled. I feel for them.

Patreng Non again opened the community pantry for public utility drivers and food/ecommerce motorcycle riders. However, that is just one area of Quezon City. We need to do this nationwide.

One of the CEOs I interviewed last week said this is worse than what happened during the pandemic. What we had then was mobility issues, which was manageable because we were able to work around it. This time it’s different. It’s a supply problem and that means if you don’t have it, then there’s no workaround. You just don’t have it.

He said Metro Manila is vulnerable because all of its food supply is trucked into the city. It doesn’t have its own food supply whereas people from the provinces have backyards and smallholding farmers that can sell food within a certain radius.

One of my bffs that has a trucking business stopped operations because it no longer makes business sense. The cost of fuel is just too high while the contracts didn’t change.

I had already thought about this carefully so tonight I decided to shop for two months worth of groceries. It would save me the trip as I have to be careful with my fuel consumption. Prices of goods after March would jump and Lord knows how long we have to endure such burden that we have no control over.

My freezer is now filled to the gills and my extra supplies are now stashed under my couch and over my kitchen cabinets.

The thing here is, I don’t know if I would still be able to hold on to this job. Iran has threatened to cut the subsea Internet cables in the Strait of Hormuz and 90% os internet traffic pass though there. If I don’t have internet, I can’t work. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Iran has been trolling Trump for several days now and it’s hilarious and at the same time scary. This is psy war in a different way. They’re using humor to drop hints at what they’re going to do next but it doesn’t remove the sting.

Aside from hacking into the head of FBI, Iran has tracked down the Israeli pilots that have dropped bombs in Iran and now they’re doxxing the pilots. The civilian bombings in Israel are really targeting the families of these pilots. Iran has their coordinates. 👀

You see, this war is different. US and Israel are not fighting ragtag jihadists in Iraq or Syria. Iran has a well-trained and organized military. They had been waiting for the two for 20 years. This is a fight for their existence and you know how that went with Vietnam…

Reports said the US 82nd Airborne Division is already en route to Khrag Island, an important oil terminal in Iran, for ground assault.

Por Dios santo, Trump is leading them to their senseless deaths!

I’m so fat. My last outdoor exercise was in November and during my last visit to my endocrinologist, my test results showed that I’m losing control. My HbA1c test was elevated so my doctor asked if I want to change my medication. I said I’ll try to go on a diet again and exercise. If I still can’t bring it down, then I have to have a more aggressive blood sugar drug.

So I put on my new OnCloud shoes yesterday at 15 mins before 4 pm to hike up on the mountain.

I thought my body would hurt because it has been months since I did long distance walking but I still managed to go to the weekend community market this morning on foot without aches. I should walk again after church this afternoon.

Then a deep tissue massage.

Sounds good.

Goodbye, amihan. You helped me bring down my electricity cost as I didn’t run our airconditioners for three months. You were awesome.

But today I had to turn it on at noon because it was irritatingly hot. There goes my Meralco bill… 😵‍💫

Today is the end of Ramadan (Eid al Fitr) so most of us in Southeast Asia didn’t work. I worked so hard yesterday, churning out three stories, because a long weekend was upon me. One day less, less stories for me.

I got tortured again by that editor. Actually, she was torturing two of us. That other journo is our Manila reporter, who has been ranting to me for more than a week now about the editor from the land of bubblegum pop. I really, really couldn’t stand it any longer. I’ve already told friends that I’m quitting so that they can watch out for job openings for me.

The one who wanted me to be a comms consultant for their firm told me that they already had a comms team in place (got tired of me waiting when I will make up my mind). Meanwhile, the job notice given to me by a friend suddenly closed after only a day of posting. I was about to work on my application last night after work when I saw this.

The other job posting at the central bank given to me by that same friend was a dud because the post was just for formalities since there is already an internal hire for that. 😑

The two posts I applied for at a multilateral agency are still at the “screening” stage. Friends told me that institution is notoriously known for a long hiring process that can last up to 6 months. I applied for it in January so it’s likely I won’t hear from them until June. 🫠

I hope I’m still sane by then. Because the way that this editor is driving me nuts is going to push me into depression again.

Editor from the land of bubblegum pop admonished for such a trivial thing last Monday.

I was working even though I was sick, emailing my colleague for the story we were working on, talking to sources on the phone. Then I became feverish at around noon, so I had to message the team that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the 1 pm call because I was down with fever.

I took a nap so that the fever would go away.

I woke up to a Teams message ping, with the K editor scolding me for just messaging on Teams, for skipping the call, not filing for leave if I don’t intend to work, etc etc.

I told her I was working and didn’t intend to skip work, it just so happened that at noon I was down with fever and had to sleep it off.

Where is the humanity? Where is the empathy?

So even though I was not feeling well, I drove all the way to Ortigas yesterday to attend a week-long conference. I was coughing and sniffling — I was a danger unto humanity.

@channelnewsasia

With oil prices climbing past US$114 a barrel amid escalating conflict in Iran — and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at a standstill — here are some measures Asian governments are rolling out to shield their economies from volatility at the fuel pump and rising costs for consumers. #iranwar #oilprices

♬ original sound – CNA – CNA

What did I say last year? Trump will lead the world into recession in 18 months? I hate it when I’m right like this. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The last time oil spiked this high was in 2008, when it hit USD 147 bbl. That brought Philippine Airlines down to its knees because it hedged its jet fuel and lost a lot of money. It filed for bankruptcy later. It took a decade for the flag carrier to emerge from that bankruptcy and… here we are again. 👀

At that time rice prices also spiked and I interviewed Jollibee what it planned to do to keep prices from blowing up. You see, Jollibee is the biggest importer of rice next to the government. We also use the company as bellweather for consumer spending since it caters to a wide market segment. I remember I spent a laborious afternoon computing and comparing Jollibee’s profit margins across several quarters after they released their numbers when inflation hit 9-10.5% for an article on the crisis.

It was a good thing I was driving a Japanese kei car (I miss my Suzuki) that sips gas so I could still afford to drive to work at that time despite my meager salary. It is underpowered but that 800cc engine was a lifesaver during those lean days.

We’re so cooked right now. USD 200 bbl is unthinkable. Net importers like the Philippines should suspend VAT on oil. The Dept of Finance in 2008-2009 had a sliding excise tax mechanism to ease the pain. I’m not confident with the DOF now. 💀

After that inflation crisis, we hit the Great Financial Crisis, a decade after the Asian Financial Crisis.

Are we ripe for another financial crisis? Yep. We will call this the Trump fucking crisis.

I moved furniture around for better Netflix/Youtube bingeing. Twin A suddenly had an urge to do anime marathon yesterday and today we watched some cycling travel Youtube series because I’m still sick. It made our living/dining area feel extra cramped but this way we get to use our TV more.

I told Twin A we could change the dining table into a circular one for better flow but she said she liked thia better. Well, it’s true that a circular table won’t allow you to spread when working on projects.

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to end this war. He was counting that Iran is not going to retaliate so he thought this will end in a few days.

Iran had always threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz but it hasn’t really closed it off in a literal sense. Missiles and mines were just enough to spook tankers, hence, the “tanker war” in the 1980s during the Iran x Iraq war. The US needed to escort tankers that wanted to cross the Strait of Hormuz because the Oil Crisis of the 1970s was not yet a far-off memory that time.

Now Iran is doing the same with drones. Insurance companies do not want to underwrite these tankers that needed to cross the Strait so the shippers decided that it’s not worth the hassle and financial risk. And a little fact check: the US hasn’t escorted any tanker despite claims by Trump administration that the US Navy did.

Such liars, these bastards.

And financially, there’s a reason insurers balked at covering ships through the strait. “Even if you were to offer a subsidized price,” Henagan says, “it’s a war zone. Certain boats are going to sink, and DFC is going to have to pay out the insurance.”

The agency has a finite budget. It can’t feasibly insure “all maritime trade” in the area, he says. Approving applications will also take time, Henagan notes.

And, of course, even if they can get insurance coverage, many companies still won’t want to risk losing their ships. — NPR

Diesel at PHP 100/liter by next week? This is insane!

We only have 30 days of fuel left.

This. This.

A Hiligaynon lullaby sung in an American hospital drama, finally recognizing that Filipinos exist in US healthcare system. My aunts and uncles who migrated to the US were all in healthcare. Isa Briones (who plays Dr. Santos in The Pitt in this video) is the daughter of Jon Jon Briones, The Engineer in Ms Saigon when Lea Salonga was still playing Kim.

The Pitt also have two Pinoy nurses — Perlah and Princess — who gossiped in Tagalog about their colleagues right before their faces. They were even doubting whether the resident doctor, Dr. Santos, was even Pinoy because she’s so white. They just had a hunch that Dr. Santos could understand their chatter.

But this Hiligaynon lullaby cemented that Dr. Santos, indeed, was Pinoy.

The Pitt just recently won an Emmy.

The criticism that ER received years ago was that everyone was white. Where were the Indian doctors? The Pinoy nurses? About a third of foreign-born nurses in the US are Pinoy and 18% of all the nurses in California alone are Filipinos. We keep losing Filipino RNs to US, Europe, and the Middle East. There is also a growing population of healthcare workers in Australia. My cousin-in-law is a nurse in Ireland so my cousin, who had a very good job here, had to quit and follow her husband in Cork, Ireland. A Harvard Medical-graduate cousin of mine is a pediatrician and is still practicing there in Boston together with her Indian physician husband, who also graduated from Harvard.

Finally, a medical drama with some POC.