No money, no honey? No worry dollar is up

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

—Mark Twain

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

AT the remittance center inside a Filipino grocery store in Queens Boulevard, New York City December 9 afternoon, I noticed the Philippine peso was once again “below the gutter” vis-à-vis the US dollar: One US dollar was equivalent to 59.23 in Philippine peso via Ria money transfer.

This meant our peso sank once more to a new all-time low on December 9 to join most regional currencies’ decline against the US dollar on cautiousness before the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, reportedly with bets on a rate cut by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also affecting sentiment.

If peso is down going to the Yuletide season, it’s the right time to remit cash to the Philippines for dollar income earners in the United States.

The local unit slid by 28.5 centavos to close at P59.22 versus the greenback from its P58.935 finish on December 5, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed.

This was reportedly a fresh low for the peso, beating the previous record of P59.17 logged on Nov. 12.

 

-o0o-

 

The local currency has reportedly depreciated by P1.375 or 2.32 percent from its P57.845 finish on Dec. 27, 2024 year to date.

Wealth Insights reported that the peso opened Tuesday’s session weaker at P59.08 versus the dollar. Its intraday best was at P59.07, while its worst showing was its closing level of PHP 59.22 against the greenback.

Dollars traded went down to USD 1.097 billion on December 9 from US$1.423 billion on December 5.

The peso dropped along with its regional peers as the dollar was stronger overnight on higher US Treasury yields as markets await the Fed’s policy decision, the first trader said in a Viber message.

 

-o0o-

 

Also, the US central bank was set to begin its two-day policy meeting overnight, where it is widely expected to lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points (bps) for a second straight time.

While a cut this week is already priced in, Wealth Insights added that markets are unsure about the Fed’s future policy moves, especially with Chair Jerome H. Powell set to end his term by May next year and with the latest data showing a mixed picture of the state of the US economy.

The dollar was stronger against most Asian currencies amid escalating tensions between China and Japan, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort added in a Viber message.

“The peso weakened anew past the P59 level as market expectations firmed over a potential BSP rate cut this week,” the second trader said in an e-mail.

 

-o0o-

 

Alice Guo, Casandra Ong, Zaldy Co, James Ang, Eric Yap, Bong Go, Michael Yang, Peter Lim, Atong Ang.  

Except for Roque and Bato, Chinese-sounding family names have been dominating the news in the Philippines these past weeks.

They hogged headlines because of their alleged involvement in several criminal activities, not because they are role models for our youth to emulate.

Only Filipino-sounding family names Guanzon (Wengweng because of her infamous Gucci and Rolex-highlighted mall performance), Discaya (Sarah because of malversation case for a “ghost” project in Oriental Mindoro), Duterte (Polong because of his plan to visit 17 countries starting December 15 until February 2026) were able to break the ice.

 

-o0o-

 

Cold sore treatment: what works for fast relief and healing. That annoying tingling on our lip, followed by a painful bump. Cold sores always seem to pop up at the worst times. 

Maybe we’ve got a big presentation at work or a family photo coming up. Whatever the timing, we want that cold sore gone fast.

More than 3.7 billion people under the age of 50 (or 67 percent of the population) are infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), according to the World Health Organization, so most of us know exactly how frustrating cold sores can be.

But the right cold sore treatment can cut our healing time in half and make the pain much more manageable.

Let's break down what actually works and what doesn't, so we can get back to feeling confident about your smile.

Best cold sore treatment options: prescription vs. over-the-counter: The cold sore treatment that works best for us depends on how quickly we catch the cold sore and how bad your symptoms get.

Prescription cold sore treatments that work.

Antiviral pills are our best bet for stopping cold sores fast.

The most common ones are valacyclovir (Valtrex), acyclovir (Zovirax) and famciclovir (Famvir).

These antivirals stop the virus from spreading. When we start taking them within the first day or two of feeling that tingle, they can:

-Cut healing time by 1-2 days

-Make the pain much less severe

-Help prevent the cold sore from getting as big

Prescription creams like acyclovir cream can also help when we put them right on the cold sore. They're not as powerful as the pills, but they still speed up healing.

 

-o0o-

 

Daily prevention medicine might make sense if we get cold sores more than 6 times a year. Taking antiviral medicine every day can stop most outbreaks before they start.

Over-the-counter options.

-Abreva (docosanol) is the only cold sore medicine we can buy without a prescription that's proven to work. It can shorten healing time by about a day if we start using it right when we feel the first tingle.

-Pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen help with the aching and swelling. We can also try numbing gels with benzocaine for quick relief.

-Ice packs work great during the first day or two. Put ice on the cold sore for 10-15 minutes several times a day to reduce swelling and numb the pain.

-Lip balm with sunscreen protects our healing skin. The sun can make cold sores worse and take longer to heal.

(The author, who is now based New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Failed assassination attempt on Imelda

“Assassination has never changed the history of the world."

--Benjamin Disraeli

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IT’S the 53rd year since the failed assassination attempt on 96-year-old former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, mother of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., which happened on December 7, 1972.

The date coincided with the 84th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the bolo attack on Mrs. Marcos occurred less than three months after the declaration of Martial Law.

“Everybody was still adjusting to the new life under authoritarian rule, which somewhat resembled the Japanese Occupation at least in terms of a curfew that restrained the population’s taste for boulevard alcoholism and nightclub psychedelia,” Manuel F. Martinez, a 1971 Constitutional Convention delegate, narrates in Assassinations and Conspiracies.

In spite of the civil tension, Mrs. Marcos braced for another day of public functions.

In connection with the nationwide campaign for cleanliness and beautification, an awarding ceremony was scheduled on that day at Nayong Pilipino in Pasay City.

 

-o0o-

 

“The rites at Nayong Pilipino proceeded smoothly, with Mrs. Marcos onstage receiving one by one the awardees and shaking hands with them,” recalls Martinez.

“Her guards, naturally, were not on the stage but a short distance away, for who would think any attempt on her life would be made in that most friendly environment.”

In terms of parks and plazas, South Cotabato bagged the grand prize for being the model province.

The municipality of Kiamba won the cleanest award.

Among those who went up the stage in the group that would receive the award was a man in all-black suit and pants who pretended to be part of the delegation.

“When his turn came before the First Lady, he whipped out a bolo and made two determined thrusts at her. A split second before the attack, as photographs later showed, she was looking sideways and did not see the bolo already leveled horizontally a few inches away from her abdominal region,” observes Martinez, a former copy editor of Asiaweek in Hong Kong.

 

-o0o-

 

According to Martinez, Mrs. Marcos “was quick enough to parry with her arms and fingers the first blow.”

She incurred lacerations at the back of her right hand, on the right forearm, across the index finger and the ring finger of the right hand, according to hospital report.

“In short, without help from anyone, she defended herself. She fell down from the second thrust,” Martinez stresses.

This was how Martinez completed his narration of facts on that fateful day:

Quickly, 22-year-old Linda Amor Robles of the Department of Education, who was secretary of the cleanliness committee, covered Mrs. Marcos with her own body and suffered a huge three-inch wound on her back.

The First Family a week later, when Imelda could walk around with a sling around her arm, visited her in the hospital.

Tourism Secretary Jose Aspiras also shielded Mrs. Marcos by taking some of the blows.

He sustained a head wound that took nine stitches. Others who tried to cover her were Social Welfare Secretary Aldaba Lim and Josefa Aquino, the wife of Highways Commissioner Baltazar Aquino.

 

-o0o-

 

The would-be assassin, diverted from the fallen First Lady, continued to hack wildly until he was shot dead by guards who had jumped upstage.

The whole scenario happened before a shocked, unbelieving television audience around the country who were watching the awarding ceremonies.

Mrs. Marcos was immediately flown by helicopter to the 9th floor of the Makati Medical Center.

Shortly afterwards, President Marcos speedily came to her side, grim and unsmiling, and soon he ordered the scene replayed again and again.

Because they had no equipment or tape at the hospital, a television station replayed it for him on the air, and Filipinos saw the many replays themselves for hours.

Marcos’ anger mounted as he watched them, sometimes banging his fist with tremendous force on a tabletop.

He asked why the assailant was killed—he should have been captured alive to tell the whole story, since it was possible someone ordered him to do the job, which may have been a conspiracy.

In Stalin’s regime, the would-be assassin would have been used as witness to incriminate innocent people and send them to death.

 

-o0o-

 

It was said Marcos interrogated the guards who shot down the bolo wielder, for it was not impossible that one of them was part of the plan and shot the assassin to silence him.

Later on Marcos told reporters he was satisfied that the guards could not be blamed for immediately killing the man.

On television, the President assured the nation that the First Lady was safe and recovering.

He said he wished he were there when the incident happened.

He added that when he declared Martial Law “we knew we would pay the price, but I cannot forgive myself that she herself had to pay it.”

But instead of being daunted, he said, he would even more resolutely proceed with his program “to eradicate and eliminate all threats against the stability of our society and to push through the (martial law) reformist program.”

(The author, who is now based New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Laway brothers

“Every story needs an element of suspense-or it's lousy.”

—Sydney Pollack

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IT seems it is easy to commit a crime in the Marcos Jr. administration and delay the process of the criminal’s accountability or even get away with murder, so to speak.

This apparently became possible because most of the top officials entrusted by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to run after plunderers, grafters, money launderers, the tongressmen and sin-nators are lousy enforcers of law if not incompetents.

Take for instance the sagacious Remulla brothers of Cavite in Luzon. Both Ombudsman Jesus Crispin and Interior and Local Government Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” may be flamboyant and Mr. Marcos Jr.’s most trusted, but they are also the most erratic and rambunctious.

While the president was proud to announce at least several big fishes will be locked in jail in relation to flood control projects mess before Christmas Day, all the Remulla brothers could boast of possibly bringing behind bars was contractor Sarah Discaya and, as usual, the ants and insects in the DPWH.

 

-o0o-

 

Is she a big fish? Maybe yes, but we already knew who she is and what she and husband Curlee did; they have been hogging the headlines these past three months and both didn’t need further introduction and condemnation.

With or without big announcements or Christmas timeline, the couple is heading for the slammer and there is no need to accentuate their fall.

If billionaires Curlee and Sarah are arrested and jailed this week or anytime soon, people don’t give a damn; they knew the couple would be punished anyway based on the degree of their malfeasance.

But the laway or saliva administration, banking on the talents of the Remulla laway brothers, couldn’t catch a single whale shark,  cetorhinus maximus, tiger shark, Rhincodon typus, or even ocean sunfish for the slaughterhouse other than the Discayas.

Where are Joel Villanueva, Manuel Bonoan, Chiz Ezcudero, Martin Romualdez, Nancy Binay, Jinggoy Estrada, Grace Poe, Jojo Cadiz, Adrian Bersamin, Trygve Olivar, and the other thieves and rascals in the House of RepresentaTHIEVES?

Unless some of them are included in the cases for malversation of public funds and plunder in relation to the cold-blooded multi-billion pesos flood control project scandal and are the subjects of warrants of arrest any day this week or month of December, people will continue to suspect we have nothing but a laway or saliva administration.

 

-o0o-

 

Also, because of overexcitement, being talkative and grandstanding of the Remulla laway brothers, Duterte anti-drugs campaign executioner-in-chief second in command Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa couldn’t be located anymore.

This suspected mass murderer mistakenly elected in the sin-nate had been tipped off he would be arrested by the International Police (Interpol) for crime against humanity because of premature announcements made by the laway brothers in the national media.

After elbowing out Gen. Nicolas Torre in a power play early this year, Jonvic couldn’t even perform a shred of what Torre did when he splendidly netted suspected sex maniac Apollo Quiboloy and former President Duterte.

While Torre was reticent and tranquil before and after canning Mssr. Quiboloy and Duterte, the laway brothers were boisterous and have painted the town red after being given screenshot access of Bato’s warrant of arrest supposedly issued by the International Criminal Court.

The laway brothers are really coruscating and outstanding when it comes to coming short of the people’s expectations.

 

-o0o-

 

 

Between the travel, big meals, and family gatherings, our body might be ready for a breather—and the holidays aren't over yet, the CityMed has warned.

It announced that a little self-care goes a long way after a busy travel period. Here are a few ways to get back on track:

-Hydrate and Reset: Even a 1-2 percent drop in hydration can cause fatigue and headaches—water truly fuels recovery.

-Ease Back into Routine: Just a couple of nights of consistent sleep can help rebalance your system and boost your mood before the next round of festivities.

-Check Symptoms Early: Feeling a bit under the weather? We offer rapid testing for flu, strep, and COVID-19 so you can get answers and peace of mind quickly.

-Stay Protected: CityMD is here for your urgent needs, including vaccines for flu, tetanus, Tdap, and more to help keep you healthy all season long.

CityMD stressed: “Wherever the holidays take you, we're here to help you feel your best along the way. Walk into any of our 180+ locations for convenient care, no appointment necessary.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)