Calm amid chaos

During the celebration of Father's Day, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos shared a family photo collage of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (PBBM) along with their three sons. In an Instagram post on June 15, the First Lady wrote: "Thanks for being the calm in our chaos..."

That says a lot about the character of PBBM as a family man.

But as our country’s Chief Executive and considered as the father of the nation, such state of calmness amid chaos could evoke double-edged impressions.

It could mean he is a laid-back Chief Executive in handling the affairs of State and will not put his foot down even if the government is running like a headless chicken. And even at times when the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

Or, it could be the President is cool as a cucumber. Which means he is very, very calm, with no worries and will not press the panic button in any emerging crisis. It is as if everything is just normal and he’s not affected by the pressure of time or people within and outside his comfort zone. Should anything out of the ordinary daily activities happen, he does not manifest any emotion nor show any reaction, one way or the other. In short, he is unflappable. Well and good, that’s fine.

Except at times, there is SNAFU, if not FUBAR. Snafu as in situation normal; all fu**ed up. And FUBAR, as in fu**ed up beyond all recognition (or repair).

Perhaps, PBBM demonstrates the same calm facade several days after the eruption of another armed conflict between Israel and Iran. It was Friday the 13th of this month, two days before the global observance of Fathers' Day, when Israel launched surprise drone attacks targeting key military and nuclear facilities inside Iran.

In the opening hours of that day, world tension escalated after Israel succeeded in their targeted assassinations against Iran's top military leaders and nuclear scientists, airstrikes on nuclear and military facilities and destruction of Iran’s air defenses.

Naturally, Iran retaliated that very same day and counter launched missiles at military sites and cities in Israel. The missile exchange renewed the dec-ades-long conflict between the two countries.

The Philippine embassy in Israel estimates there are approximately 31,000 Filipinos legally working and living in Israel. But this number does not include un-documented ones. Mostly caregivers, many of our Pinoy workers live and work in Israel’s largest cities, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

As of Friday, Philippine Ambassador to Israel Aileen Mendiola reported the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) injured in the ongoing attacks be-tween Israel and Iran rose to eight, with one in critical condition at an Israeli hospital.

Mendiola admitted the situation in Israel remains fluid as the people attempt to function normally despite the continuous attacks. There is an existing deploy-ment ban in Israel that was imposed in October 2023 at the height of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

There are 26 Filipinos included in the first batch of repatriates scheduled to depart Israel in the next two to three days. To date, 1,333 OFWs have been repa-triated to the Philippines as of June 12.

We are thankful for the great assistance of outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss. While he and his family are wrapping up their stay here, the Israeli embassy in Manila remains open to help the families and relatives of our OFWs to reach out and connect with them.

“Toda raba, meaning to uphold your international commitments, protecting and repatriating two official Filipino delegations who were guests of the Israeli government for study programs. They were caught in the middle of the armed conflict that interrupted their stay there.

“The delegates came to Israel as our guests and as part of a long-standing friendship and partnership between our two countries,” Ambassador Fluss pointed out. “In moments of crisis, true friendship is measured by action. We made sure our guests were cared for, protected and brought home safely.

The first delegation consisted of 17 high-ranking local government officials, including mayors, vice mayors and members of Congress, who were invited from June 9 to 16. Under Israel’s MASHAV, or Agency for International Development Cooperation, they joined the program focused on urban agriculture as a stra-tegic tool for food security, resilience and sustainable development in urban settings.

The second group of delegates were from the Department of Agriculture, including four senior professionals who took part in a hands-on educational program on dairy farming from June 7 to 14.

Following Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks, both delegations were safely evacuated within 48 hours via Jordan. The effort was led by the embassy of Israel in Manila, in close coordination with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. The Israeli government covered all costs – including food, transport, flight tickets and even hotel accommodations in Jordan.

Citing the suspected massive missile capability of Iran, Israel’s preemptive strike dubbed as “Operation Rising Lion” tilts the world to the edge of nuclear wea-pons war. It is feared to escalate following the United States' bombing yesterday of three suspected nuke sites in Iran. It turned out to be a ruse after US

President Donald Trump earlier gave Iran two weeks to accept his peace deal to restore détente.

As expected, the crude oil market composed of the biggest oil-producing countries in the Middle East are bracing for the impact of the latest Israel-Iran missile exchanges. Consequently, our local refined oil products like gasoline and diesel are projected to increase by as much as P4 to P5 per liter effective tomorrow.

Should the world price of crude oil breach $80 per barrel, our transport authorities are ready to grant a P1 hike in existing public jeepney and bus fare rates.

And the rest of the domino effect follows.

But no worries. PBBM remains “calm amid chaos” that he made a sudden trip to Japan. After attending the World Expo in Osaka, he flew via private plane calmly back to Malacañang.