Yes, this is not a joke. 😤

The thing is under the law, confidential funds (that don’t need to be audited by the state auditor) SHOULD only be applied to intelligence funds. There are specific uses for this kind of confidential funds and SHOULD NOT be abused for other purposes, like TRAVEL. WTF are they going to use it for during their travels???

Confidential funds may also be used to pay rewards to informers; uncover or prevent illegal activities that pose a clear and present danger to the agency, its personnel and facilities; and others that may be authorized in the General Appropriations Act.

The circular provided that the conduct of confidential activities, as far as practicable, be done in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.Confidential funds may also be used to pay rewards to informers; uncover or prevent illegal activities that pose a clear and present danger to the agency, its personnel and facilities; and others that may be authorized in the General Appropriations Act.

The circular provided that the conduct of confidential activities, as far as practicable, be done in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.

Rappler.com

And because there is zero checks and balances in this government because everyone else is under the Marcos machinery (The House Speaker is Marcos Jr’s uncle, the deputy speaker is his son, the brainless Sandro Marcos, and Senate is basically a Duterte-Marcos upper chamber), what can you expect? Budgets are hardly deliberated on.

Good morning, Philippines! LIZA ARANETA MARCOS has a huge wardrobe budget.

And this is another thing that happened today:

For USD earners like me (but don’t give a fuck), this is good on a myopic level because you get more pesos on your dollar.

But for those who think about the bigger picture like me, this means that all goods and services are going to be a lot more expensive. We are a net importer of oil = transportation costs will be much higher. As it is, Grab is more expensive here now compared to Singapore or just about the same.

This redounds to cost of food because our goods are transported by trucks, not trains. We are an archipelago so goods are either flown or shipped by vessels fed by oil, not LNG. We also import rice, flour, and other basic commodities. Even onion and garlic! And salt! It’s quite ironic the we are surrounded by millions of km of coastlines and yet we are importing salt!

Cost of power is also climbing because our base load power plants are fed by imported coal and diesel. As it is, gasoline is cheaper than diesel nowadays. And the Filipinos pay electricity through our noses because we pay market rate. Our power is not subsidized, unlike our neighbors. That’s why Indonesia’s inflation rate is artificial in the sense the true cost of goods and are not reflected in the prices that they pay for because its government is shouldering a good part of their expenses (from power to medicines) through state-owned enterprises that own own almost everything. How can you even have three state-owned pharmaceutical companies? Their train fares are subsidized. Just about everything is subsidized.

Anyway, I digress. The point here is, the peso is weakening at a faster rate than expected because it could not shadow the actions of the US Fed. The gap between the USTr and our own benchmark rates has widened, thus, hot money from emerging markets have fled faster. We couldn’t shadow the latest actions (and future actions of FOMC given their latest hawkish stance) because any sizeable rate hikes (like a 75-100-basis-point hike) would kill our very fragile economy now. The BSP has to prioritize the economy before tempering the sinking peso.

This faster fall of the peso will kill our exports as well. Why? Half of our exports is comprised of electronics and semiconductors. Traditionally, these exporters order raw materials (because we don’t process our own minerals like silicon, silver, gold, nickel, and copper) abroad around third quarter in preparation for the orders for Christmas (hello iPhones and iPads). With the way things are, the raw materials have become more expensive now. Then this makes the cost of manufacturing semicon and electronics more expensive = costlier exports.

So I will punch any Marcos apologist right smack on their face if they say that this is good for the economy and that Marcos is making us richer by making us earn more pesos to the dollar. 🙄 Spare me this stupidity. A former reporter (who is now a lawyer) messaged me about this forex thing and she told me that an uncle of her brother-in-law said that this is great and in any case Marcos will make things better because the Marcoses will bring out their gold stash (a.k.a. the mythical Tallano Gold) to help the Philippines. And the sad part here is he was being serious about it, my friend said. Then multiply that to the 31 million who voted for Marcos. This is the level of stupidity reigning over the country today.

Social media has made Filipinos more stupid.

AND THE FUCKTARD MARCOSES ARE ROBBING US RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES! Legalized stealing.

OMG 🤬

How can I even…

I need a drink.

On the brighter side of life, my 10-hour nilaga is stupendous!

The soup is 👌 *chef’s kiss*

I’m keeping the broth again for future dishes like pho or some egg noodle dish? Ramen? Soba? I can’t wait for my Instant Pot so I can experiment with new dishes I can cook with it.