The half-full glass

My annual year-end exercise of looking at the glass half-full is made easier this 2022 by the low base for comparison, at least in terms of public health, the economy and politics.

COVID has not been declared endemic in our country, and the BF.7 Omicron subvariant now rampaging across China is causing deep concern among health experts.

Unlike China, where citizens reportedly continue to show strong hesitancy in getting their own domestically produced COVID jabs, the Philippines has developed a wall of vaccine-induced and natural immunity to the coronavirus.

This is evident in the absence of a COVID surge as of yesterday, despite all the Christmas parties, large crowds at in-person masses and the holiday shopping rush of the past weeks.

Still, Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista wants COVID health safety requirements reimposed on travelers from China – something that other countries including the US and Italy have started to do.

Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 wanes, but the government is in the process of procuring bivalent vaccines, designed to fight the Omicron subvariant and its mutations.

Despite the lifting of nearly all restrictions, many people continue to wear masks, observe distancing and practice hand hygiene.

The year has not been free of people I know dying of COVID, but the pandemic situation is clearly less dire compared with the past two Christmas seasons.

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The much-improved COVID-19 situation has allowed greater economic reopening.

The lockdowns paved the way for rightsizing across many sectors, and there are people who will no longer get their pre-pandemic jobs back.

Still, the majority of jobs and livelihoods have been restored, for both the domestic workforce and the massive army of Filipinos employed overseas.

This in turn has meant the revival of consumption, and robust growth for our consumer-driven economy. While the year saw many establishments closing down for good even in the fourth quarter when demand is traditionally high, there have also been a number of new business openings.

Election spending contributed to the year’s economic growth figures. The economic stimulation was among the upsides in what is, hands down, the story of the year in this country: the spectacular return to power of the Marcoses.

This is my annual focus on the bright side, so let’s get on with it: despite the toxic campaign and suspicions of massive vote buying, and the passions running high among the contending parties, the 2022 general elections turned out to be relatively peaceful and orderly.

Thanks to the record of his predecessor and his father the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is seen as a more benign President in comparison.

From the inaugural address at noon of June 30, the change from the Duterte administration was palpable. No more rambling, stream-of-consciousness presidential speeches; there is a recognition of the power of well-crafted words.

Children can again listen safely to a presidential address without the likelihood of hearing expletives, sexist jokes or crude insults of opponents.

The commitment to kill, kill, kill has been replaced by a return to the more humane tack of saving the user and jailing the pusher (remember this slogan?).

United Nations special rights rapporteurs are now free again to visit the Philippines.

Meanwhile, instead of denigrating other countries, Marcos Junior has embarked on a global getting-to-know you (and the world getting to know Marcos 2.0).

For the first time in over six years, a Philippine president was in the United States again, meeting with his US counterpart and addressing the United Nations General Assembly (never mind if the session hall was nearly empty).

Instead of heaping insults on the European Union for raising human rights issues, the new Philippine President visited the EU headquarters in Brussels. His secretary of justice, meanwhile, reassured the UN rights body in Geneva that the human rights situation has changed under Marcos 2.0.

BBM has publicly invoked the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, as awarded by the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

At the same time, however, he is set to visit Beijing this Jan. 3 to 5, notwithstanding the killer BF.7 surge – in a pragmatic juggling of Philippine interests, as other countries including the US are also doing in engaging with the world’s second largest economy.

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BBM’s picks for his economic team reassured the business community from the start of his term.

The reassuring environment is now being shaken by concerns about the headlong drive to create the Maharlika Investment Fund. But the MIF has yet to be finalized in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, again compared to Duterte’s dealings with the business community, one of the country’s wealthiest industrialists summed up the prevailing sentiment about Marcos 2.0: the tycoon told me recently that at least there are no more presidential rants against the “oligarchs” and big business.

“We’re no longer seen as the enemy,” the tycoon said.

BBM also appears to be starting to relax in the presence of mainstream media, although he and his allies still show a preference for media entities and personalities deemed to be friendly.

As for the winning tandem’s campaign theme of unity, BBM renewed it in his Christmas message.

What he means exactly by unity, however, is unclear, and assessing the progress of this effort isn’t a simple task.

I don’t know if the trolls have taken a break from going after his political opponents. BBM himself, however, has maintained his campaign stance of keeping himself above the fray.

The political opposition has also been observing, it seems, a honeymoon of sorts, beyond the traditional 100 days. Perhaps this is also because Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not given them a lot to go against in the past six months.

All surveys even at the height of the pandemic restrictions have shown Filipinos greeting the new year with high hopes for a better tomorrow.

This year it has been the same. And all things considered, there is reason to be hopeful.

Here’s hoping that 2023 will be a better year for everyone!