BY GONZALO T. DUQUE
A national emergency
I am not really disturbed, if not annoyed at what the House of Representatives has been doing in relation to the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The obsession to bring her down by Congresswoman Gerviz Luistro and Congressman Terri Ridon is beyond my imagination.
Our country is facing a lot of problems brought about by the Middle East conflict and all they do is engage in useless and anti-people exercises.
Well, Congressman Toby Tiangco says it all. They have to get the neck of the Vice President because the moment she wins the presidency, those who persecuted her will all be gone and disappear from the face of the earth.
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At the outset, I want to be clear on why Senator Rodante Marcoleta should be the Vice President to VP Sara in the 2028 presidential election.
And I am all for it.
In my three past electoral battles—twice for Congress and once for Vice Governor—I have never been supported by the Church where Senator Marcoleta belongs.
Of course, I had to think twice before I committed myself to him, especially when I endorsed him as a senator during his senatorial bid in the 2025 elections.
But my observation about the man, his competence, and his integrity completely convinced me that he is up for the job.
My friends in the old Liberal Party, namely Abraham Sarmiento and Jovito Salonica, did not belong to the Catholic faith, but just the same, they attracted my attention because of their competence and integrity.
Another person I am going to campaign for is Atty. Rowena Guanzon, who has the makings of a good senator of our Republic.
She is not only a friend but we used to belong to the Liberal Party. We were sent by our party, the Liberal Party, to Germany to bond with the Federal Socialist Party of Germany, a counterpart of the Liberal Party here in the Philippines.
I will talk more lengthily about our friendship in my next column.
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It would seem that our country, especially our province and city are in for a hard time.
Our oil supply may not last for the next 30 days and the only country that can give us our supply is China.
But wait! China might not supply us with oil at all because of our posturing on geopolitical issues.
Is America ready to supply us with our oil needs?
In the U.S., the price of oil has risen to the roof. In our country, it’s the same.
I learned that we had been begging China to supply us with the much-needed oil.
Maybe, we could send Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela or retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio to negotiate with China and beg to supply us with the oil that we badly need. Ha, ha, ha, ha!
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Mayor Belen has ordered all gasoline stations not to hoard gasoline or overprice it or they will face the full wrath of the law.
To my mind, these are just veiled threats. What is really important is for the government to put up a national plan to address such a national emergency.
In 1972, there was an oil embargo imposed by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia as a result of the war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
I still remember the time we had to get our gas rationing through coupons to get our allocation of 20 liters a week.
I was lucky because I drove a Volkswagen at the time, enough to sustain me for a week.
Without a national plan, we are in for more problems, economically.
But President Bongbong Marcos—when confronted with the issue—declared that “we are still normal”. Ugh!