[Rappler’s Best] Who’ll call it quits?

It’s been a distressing week, to say the least. The Middle East crisis has begun to hit our households, as this Rappler data scrollytelling shows. A historic first, the Philippine peso has also breached P60 to a dollar, and this — while not surprising — rings the alarm bells, as JC Punongbayan explains here.

• To illustrate, the Philippines’ Department of Energy said it has allowed vehicles, power plants, and generators from 2015 year model or earlier to use a cheaper but dirtier type of fuel. The worst scenario is not even soaring prices but depleted supply, said the energy chief.
• The government flip-flopped last week, as it sought to manage both the oil supply problem and consumer rage. A fare hike in nearly all modes of public transportation was supposed to take effect on Thursday, March 19, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. suspended its implementation. 
• Transport workers responded with a strike. The lack of clarity also prompted poor families to take long queues at government rice stations, pushing up the price of rice. 

Missiles and drones continued to fly over Middle East skies, so that we could barely catch up. Worse, the man who triggered this war could not make up his mind — from declaring it’s “winding down” to sending US Marines to the conflict area for a possible ground attack, and to threatening on Sunday, March 22, to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants, which is like saying obliterate all Iranians. The Islamic state vowed to strike back.

Iran is one formidable foe ranged against a fickle president. 

Entering its fourth week, the crisis puts a spotlight not only on the deep arsenal of a besieged country, but also its superb guerrilla skills that have prolonged the war, brought it to a different terrain, and made efficient use of its logistics.

• The closure of the Strait of Hormuz that’s crippled the global supply chain is just one part of the story. Iran has punctured the once-secure air defense systems of the wealthy Gulf states that are allied with the West; they’re left between the urge to join the US-Israel enterprise in finishing off Iran and the fear of more dire consequences. 
• The Trump-Netanyahu alliance has announced that Iran’s military has been decimated. Israel’s precision weapons have killed — in two days — the chiefs of Iran’s security, intelligence, and paramilitary forces. But as of the weekend, Iran continued its attacks on Israel and other areas in the region.
• Iran fired two long-range ballistic missiles at a US-UK military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the first time that the country has used long-range missiles since the war broke out on February 28. 
• Iran’s attacks on US data centers based in the Middle East also reflect the broadening of the war terrain to deliver strategic economic blows and expose gaps in protections for civilian infrastructure, as Gelo Gonzales explains in this story.

The ripple effects persist:

• The stranded supply of oil and fertilizers is hitting economies in Europe and Asia the hardest. While the Philippines claims it has more than 200 days of fertilizer buffer, it nonetheless has asked assurance from China — at a strenuous time for both countries’ diplomatic ties — that it won’t restrict fertilizer exports. China reportedly said yes, but this remains to be seen. 
• The Philippines may lose $200 million worth of banana exports, Iran and neighboring countries being big markets.
• Airlines are redrawing their plans. United Airlines, for example, said it would cut its scheduled flights by 5% in the coming months, according to Reuters.
• Here’s how Asia is managing the energy crisis. 

As if all this war talk isn’t enough, the US announced a partnership to explore the building of a new ammunition production line in the Philippines. Read more about it here. 

Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss: 

• Dwight de Leon tells us why the House-approved anti-dynasty bill is a big joke.
• Bea Cupin explains a Duterte-era arrangement between the coast guards of Manila and Beijing for formal cooperation — and which now seems to be close to completion.
• James Patrick Cruz exposes the conflict of interest of Health Undersecretary Glenn Mathew Baggao, that involves his contractor-brother.
• Kevin Hapal rues the real trap of AI. It floods us with “subintelligence” and simultaneously erodes our ability to “recognize, question, or resist it.” 
• Victor Barreiro Jr. walks us through how extremists are using gaming culture to manipulate young minds. Gelo Gonzales says the problem manifests in the Philippines — extremist indoctrination via Roblox that has prompted a warning from the government.
• Marites Vitug tackles our strategic partnership with India. 

– Rappler.com

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