FILIPINOS with a rudimentary understanding of global affairs know the cause of the supply shocks that led to the current shortages — and spiraling prices — of oil, fertilizer and other critical commodities, and to the forcible evacuation of Filipino workers based in Persian Gulf areas, which means a massive loss of jobs and economic lifelines.
All of these and the ensuing national trauma caused by these supply disruptions pushed the government recently to declare a state of a “national energy emergency.” Our current oil stock is good up to June, and the top-of-mind concern of the government is “where will we get our next diesel and gasoline supply?” The specter of a looming catastrophe hangs in the air.
The cause of that is United States President Donald Trump and his decision to help Israel bomb Iran on Feb. 28. It’s a reckless decision to wage war on a country that was of no imminent threat to the US, a decision made out of whimsy that was totally oblivious to the historical fact that wars have consequences. In retaliation, Iran placed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for one-third of the global oil and fertilizer supplies, in a state of de facto closure, choking most of these supplies not only for the Philippines but also for many Asian countries.
Wars are not “excursions,” as Trump had described his misadventure in the Gulf, but grave decisions done at the highest levels, with defined war aims and endgame in case of victory or defeat.
In a globalized world, a war-induced supply shock in an area as critical for oil supply, such as the Gulf areas, could wreak havoc and cause suffering in distant nations like the Philippines that have nothing to do with that war.
The simple summation is that Trump, a draft dodger who ran on the platform of avoiding foreign armed entanglements, suddenly fell in love with old-fashioned imperialism, with nothing but recklessness and whimsy, and without the attendant seriousness. Hence, Gulf-oil-dependent Philippines is truly in a state of a national energy emergency, and the powers-that-be have to scramble for solutions to rein in the impact of supply shocks.
Meanwhile, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is heavily profiting from the war as billions of dollars from the sovereign wealth funds of the Gulf kingdoms that are enabling the war are flowing into his investment fund. This is on top of the investments these kingdoms have poured into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business.
What is the war in the Middle East all about and what lessons can we learn from it? Reckless leadership and disastrous decision-making that ignore the lessons of history, of the laws and the Constitution, often go hand in hand with corruption. Remember that, in launching the war, Trump bypassed the US Congress and the Constitution and acted unilaterally. On top, of course, of the profiteering.
Here in the country, the anti-Sara Duterte bloc in the House of Representatives that has endorsed the impeachment resolutions the House Committee on Justice is now deliberating on is essentially telling Filipinos this: try to look at the origin of the current crisis we are facing right now, the national nightmare that we are facing right now. And you will wake up to the striking parallelisms: Trump’s reckless decision-making, plus the attendant profiteering, led us to this crisis; the allegations in the impeachment resolutions against the vice president suggest, more or less, the same thing. Duterte, particularly during her term as education secretary, had recklessly and deliberately squandered tens of millions of pesos in public funds due to her feckless leadership, her flouting of the Constitution and the law, the setting aside of her legal obligation to be a responsible steward and user of public money.
Trump, on his war orders, has been accused of ignoring the law and acting illegally and recklessly. That, more or less, is the sum of the accusation against Duterte in those impeachment resolutions.
Why is not the US House impeaching Trump? That chamber is controlled by his allies. Democrats in the House have vowed to impeach Trump should they gain control of the chamber after the November 2026 midterm elections. They impeached him twice during his first term, remember? Duterte’s allies do not control the Philippine House, and that made the impeachment resolutions easier to file and endorse.
Today is actually the perfect and the most opportune time for the House to deliberate on the impeachment complaints against the Duterte princeling, contrary to suggestions that the current crisis should put the impeachment on hold, so Congress can focus on helping pass policy to rein in the impact of the current crisis.
The cause of the ongoing nightmare in the country and much of the world is failed leadership. This is precisely what the House is probing right now: the allegations of failed leadership, then rendering a possible impeachment verdict once proven true. In the stated mandate of the House, making failed and reckless leaders accountable is a calling and a duty that is higher than looking for oil stocks to buy, or looking for fertilizer stocks to procure. Procurement is, more or less, the mandate of the executive branch.
Right here and right now, the highest calling of the House is probing allegations of failed, reckless and lawless leadership, which, incidentally, is the cause of the crisis we are suffering from at the moment. In a functioning republic, the mandate to impeach is an unimpeachable one.
