Politics for a change

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I do not normally write about politics. I started my career as a deskman. My task was to take the phoned-in stories of reporters and type them out, which was quite an irritating task physically because you had to cradle the phone between your ear and neck while typing out the reporter’s story on a manual desk typewriter.

Thankfully, I eventually got assigned to the lifestyle section, but unfortunately it was not the direction where I wanted my journalism journey to go, and it just so happened that the business section of the Tuvera-owned Evening Post, with the late Butch del Castillo as business editor, was looking for new reporters, and hence began my career as a business journalist.

My initial business coverage was in the trade and industry sector, but eventually I was moved to the banking beat, which included covering the economic spectrum of the government sector – NEDA, the Budget Department and even the Finance Department, because their heads were members of the Central Bank’s Monetary Board. It was where I fell in love with covering the business and banking sectors, which I covered for more than a decade.

However, there was a brief one-year period when I was transferred to cover the political beat as a Senate reporter during the first term of then Senate president Jovito Salonga. I stayed as a Senate reporter for about a year before the desk again decided to reassign me to the prime beat of Malacañang, where I managed to last for one short week.

Why just one week? Because I was bewildered by the physical coverage of ambushing then President Cory Aquino and getting shoved and pushed by burly foreign correspondents who towered above me at the Gazebo press area. Likewise, I became the victim of some reporters who would “borrow” my story and pass it off as their own. There were also attempts to “mislead” new Malacañang reporters with “kuryente” or fake news stories – thankfully I did not get victimized. Instead, I opted to quickly skedaddle back to the safety and serenity of the banking beat.

Thus, while I like following political news, my interest has always been in the business sector.

It was a refreshing change of topic, though, for the Monday Circle at the start of this week, when Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro accepted an invitation to address the breakfast meeting of the group composed of business journalists, broadcasters, public relations practitioners, stock market analysts, stock brokers, economists, researchers and retired business and industry officials.

There was also a short briefing by OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David about their recent poll on political frontrunners for the 2028 presidential election, which showed that Vice President Sara Duterte still leads as the presidential candidate favored by 46 percent of those polled by OCTA Research, and current Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo trailing at 35 percent.

I have only seen Usec. Claire on televised Malacañang briefings, but I have always enjoyed her sharp and witty exchange with reporters. It was even more pleasant and engaging to hear and meet her for breakfast and a short Q&A on certain issues involving the President’s economic concerns and health and some topics that, unfortunately, she requested be kept off the record, meaning that we cannot write about them.

So while those off-the-record snippets would surely have been of more interest to readers, you will just have to make do with the few tidbits that she offered about President Marcos’ most pressing economic concerns and his health.

At the top of President Marcos’ economic concerns, Usec. Claire said, is the continuing Middle East conflict. “That is the No. 1 issue that the President is really concentrating and focusing on. He is always telling Energy Secretary Sharon Garin there should always be a supply of petroleum.”

Otherwise, she said, the President expressed concern that the smooth flow of business would be affected and the economy could be derailed. The President, she said, has emphasized that “we should not focus on the price as of now because what we need as of now is supply. Because if there is no supply, we will not be talking about the price. So, the focus is ensuring supply... from all the sources, we should have.”

Likewise, she said, there has been no issue with regards to the safe passage of Philippine-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but she admitted that she has no information about the possible amounts involved in securing oil resources as it is Garin who is privy to those numbers.

She revealed, though, that the government has been able to source some crude oil supply from Russia, and recently from Malaysia, but coursed through Singapore. She clarified that the oil sourced from Russia has been with the acknowledgement of the US government.

Another topic she touched on, but did not really want to elaborate on, was the government’s financial assistance package following the Middle East conflict. The government, she said, is in the process of studying the financial assistance program in light of the realities that face the government and how the government can continue to fund and extend such assistance to the sectors that may still need it.

On the President’s health, Usec. Claire assured us that the President is healthy, even as some sectors try to press for more disclosure about the state of his health.

Lastly, before she had to leave to attend to her duties in Malacañang, Usec. Claire jokingly parried speculation about her own political plans with her increasing popularity, admitting that she has now registered what could possibly become her political tag of “Aunty Claire.”