IF onions could launch a revolt, we should have new government leaders by now.
However, onions, or their prices, could only make coup plotters weep as it does to the consumers.
And there’s no sign we’d stop crying over the cost of typical Filipino food which onion as their staple ingredient.
Before onion, there was the price of meat. All kinds: Beef, pork, chicken, and fish.
Before meat, there was rice. Didn’t Rodrigo Duterte promise to bring its price to P15 per kilogram? Didn’t President Bongbong Marcos vow to give us P20-peso per kilo of rice on retail?
None of them happened, just small shows in controlled environments like the minuscule Kadiwa markets that cater to merely hundreds, if at all.
Now, we have the price of eggs to be concerned with. And we wonder how much more people could make their money buying than their true value.
Despite these false promises, the general public could only rant online. Moving thumbs could not launch revolutions, though.
We’ve ousted two presidents in Edsa without the onion’s help, although the price of food had skyrocketed at the end of Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s fading years, and Joseph Estrada had faced too many scandals that led to his departure from the Palace.
The previous weeks were marred by reports about the supposed restive units in the military.
Quick denials were issued by the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), but as they say: when there’s smoke, there’s fire.
No plot succeeds when news about it runs faster than the first troop movement.
A coup d’etat needs surprise as its main element. But there was no need for that for the former high-ranking military officials whom leaders of the units dissatisfied with the second Marcos leadership have looked up to.
Reports have it that they have assured these units of their support. But Marcos knew it and he had to make his move to win them over to his side.
Taking points from the Duterte book, Marcos has recently appointed Former Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to replace Clarita Carlos.
Año had served as secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government under Duterte. The retired Army general once sat as AFP chief of staff from 2015 to 2016.
Carlos was a university professor who once condemned the state’s red-baiting practice.
Almost coinciding with Año’s appointment was the delegation of Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., the presidential peace adviser. Galvez is also a former Duterte man, having led the country’s anti-Covid vaccination program following his retirement as an Army General.
He replaced Jose Faustino, Jr., whom the Palace said quit but not under controversial circumstances.
These events led to the alleged destabilization moves by military officials. The reports circulated on messaging apps and social media platforms but denials were issued just as quickly.
They proved that the military remains highly politicized, however, and that one spark could alter Philippine politics. As patronage plays a big part in the officials’ promotions, discontent also runs high down below.
There’ll be loyalty checks, for sure.
All this while Juan de la Cruz could no longer afford to eat three square meals a day.
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