The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) pushes strategies to nip inflation by pushing buttons to increase the supply of food commodities while addressing supply-side pressures. Briefly, BSP calls for a “whole-of-government approach” as a shield for the vulnerable sectors economy impacted by high prices of commodities. With this as a strategy, the national government shall mitigate the supply-side of high prices through improved farm production and addressing bottle-necks for key food items. The BSP’s monetary policy acts in tandem with the fiscal policy and programs to prevent prolonged inflation effect.

BSP’s latest data assessment shows inflation to average 5.6 percent for 2022 and 4.1 percent in 2023, before easing back to within the target range at 3.0 instead of 3.1 in 2014. Pressures from the supply-side and the on-going Russian and Ukraine attribute to the inflation occurring globally.

The Philippine currency has depreciated by as much as 15.7 percent to hit new record lows in 2022 from 50.999 to $1 in late 2021. The central bank is committed to maintain the double-barreled response of raising interest rates by 50 to 75 basis points and intervening in the foreign exchange market to stabilize the peso addressing the volatility in the market amid the aggressive rate hikes of the US Federal Reserve.

MY COMMENT:
I accept the BSP’s challenge to the country’s economic team on the need to tame inflation by improving/increasing farm productivity (a PBBM battle-cry), and addressing bottle-necks for key food to mitigate the supply-side pressures.
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WITH the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we are reminded of our duty to make our family life as healthy as possible. And by healthy, we mean that we animate our family life with the love that reigned in the Holy Family.

Lest we think that animating our family life with love is something purely theoretical if not impracticable, we have to realize that there are specific and concrete things we can do to make our family life vibrant and healthy.

Obviously, a healthy family life means that time is spent with the family. There have to be customs and practices where the family can be together. It would be good if, for example, all the members can take some meals together, like dinner, after which a little family get-together can take place.

This is important because that’s the way all the members can truly know each other and monitor developments as they come. Life offers endless situations, conditions, challenges, trials, etc. Everyone in the family, but especially the parents, should help one another go through these varying circumstances properly.

With time together, they can see each other’s strengths and weaknesses, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, and would be in better position to help in some way for the proper growth of each one.

One of the things we can do is first of all to teach everyone as early as possible to be always thoughtful, mindful and caring of one another in the family. This will require some training that ideally should start when the children are still small. Of course, the parents take the primary role in this regard.

Let’s remember that the child is the father of the man. How the child is, how he is trained, will show the kind of man he will be when he grows up. Thus, virtues should be imparted and learned as early as possible.

Children, for example, should be taught how to serve the others, how to deal with the unavoidable differences and conflicts among themselves. They have to learn how to educate their emotions and effectively blend the different faculties and powers they have, so they can attain some degree of inner harmony and move toward human maturity.
Most important, of course, is to train them to develop a working life of piety. As early as possible, children should learn how to pray and how to maintain an intimate relationship with God that is also translated into their proper relationship with others. Obviously, some practices of piety have to be inculcated in them in a way that is most attractive and that befits their conditions.

There has to be a way of regularly assessing how each one is growing. It should be a way that is clear about what criteria, standards and norms to use. With the many confusing things that are at play in the world today, it might be prudent to seek professional and expert advice in this regard.

What is clear also is that to make family life healthy, we have to use both human and supernatural means. Everyone has to be taught to use both reason and faith, feelings and intelligence, study and work on the one hand, and prayer, sacrifice, recourse to the sacraments, ascetical struggle on the other.

The natural and the supernatural, the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal have to blended properly!

The year 2022 is ending after all the tumultuous and virus stricken and economic down turn that it brought we cant help but feel optimistic as Social Weather Station surveyed and found out that 46 percent of Filipinos feel that their lives will improve. The National Optimism score rose from 43 to 46 % . Optimism glows on Filipinos and its something unusual given the economic realities that we are experiencing . The High Cost of Fuel, Onions , Commodities and even Noche Buena staples.

As the year ends a series of government benefits came as mandated PEI (Productivity Enhancement Incentives) and SRI (Service Recognition Incentives) came as a welcome acronyms . The benefits with the maximum of Php. 25 ,000 combined and Php. 15,000 minimum, can jumpstart the new year.

This writer would like to stress and dwell on the positives, and perhaps focus on the best that this column space can convey, with the PEI and SRI reality and the safety we are lucky to be bestowed by the Lord, let me share the good song “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You”. This is a popular song by Meredith Willson, Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”. Wikipedia

The song is now considered a standard, recorded by many artists.

It was used as Tallulah Bankhead’s theme song for her NBC radio program, “The Big Show.” Bankhead would recite the words in her husky voice, with guest stars joining in reciting the words, one line per star, which made a memorable ending for the show.

However, it was most popular when it was regularly sung by Kate Smith on her early 1950s TV show as the closing song.

Here is that song:
May the good Lord bless and keep you
Whether near or far away
May you find that long awaited
Golden day today

May your troubles all be small ones
And your fortunes ten times ten
May the good Lord bless and keep you
Till we meet again

May you walk with sunlight shining
And a bluebird in every tree
May there be a silver lining
Back on every cloud you see
And all these beautiful lyrics be my wish for everyone, Happy New Year everyone!

Many reasons explain why firecrackers and fireworks must be banned during the New Year’s celebration. The biggest of which is the fact that the smog created by these mini-explosives may cause more people to develop respiratory problems.

Some of these people may already be suffering now, a few days before that noisy revelry. We pay the price of that merrymaking in the form of aggravated respiratory ailments like asthma and allergic rhinitis. The toxic smog has added another level of danger to the already-contaminated air that we breathe.

The so-called Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) pollute the atmosphere following the firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices used in this celebration. Experts have it that these fine particles in the air and penetrate the upper respiratory tract and be deposited deep in a person’s lungs.

It is said that the most susceptible to risks associated with these minute pollutants are children, the elderly, and people with heart and lung diseases. It is not surprising that many of them are now suffering from respiratory problems, especially in urban areas where the use of firecrackers during new year’s eve is so rampant despite warnings and campaigns against it.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said that the TSP in Manila has tremendously increased from 134 ug/ncm in 2009. The normal TSP standard for a year is 90 ug/ncm, according to the World Health Organization. Too bad our rejoicing for the new year also sends toxic pollutants into the air, to our hazard.

The past administration of President Duterte, then, made so much sense in banning firecrackers and other related devices to usher in the new year. The government is mandated to protect its citizens from any harm, and since these items are rather injurious, they have to be banned, or else the people will suffer as a result.

Surely, healthy people are also necessary for the government to operate and function normally. It would cost the government huge funds if epidemics and pandemics prevail among its people. So, as much as possible, if healthy hazards can be avoided, they should be done away with as prevention is always better than cure.

So what if the new year turns out quiet? That would be better than having a noisy one with damaged respiratory system.