From the health situation to politics, 2022 has been a year of momentous changes for the country.
After two years of crippling lockdowns, COVID mobility restrictions and health safety protocols were rapidly lifted, with the last being the mandatory masking outdoors. The lifting of restrictions allowed the revival of travel and tourism as well as the wider reopening of the economy. This Christmas season, churches can again hold full in-person masses and other rituals to celebrate the holidays.
In November, the country forged ahead with the full return of face-to-face classes at all levels. Difficulties arising from the pandemic led to two million students stopping formal education in the first year of lockdowns, and about a million in the second year. Even those who could handle hybrid education modes reported problems in learning. The country will have to address the learning gaps arising from what is now being considered as lost years in Philippine education.
Even as jobs and livelihoods were restored, Filipinos grappled with spiraling inflation, starting with fuel price surges as Russia invaded Ukraine, followed by soaring prices of basic food items due to the weakness of the agriculture sector. US interest rate hikes to temper inflation in that country compounded the problem as the strong dollar weakened the peso and made imported goods more expensive.
The year saw the country grappling with unusual shortages or price surges in items including large potatoes, flour, field corn, broiler chickens and even salt. The year closes with sugar prices still sky-high and the country out of white onions, with households forced to scrimp on a basic condiment for holiday dishes – red onions – as the price soared to a dizzying P700 a kilo.
Food accounted for the largest chunk of 14-year-high inflation this year. And such food items fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture, whose current head happens to be the new president of the republic.
The leadership change in May has been the most dramatic in decades, reversing the people power revolt in 1986 that toppled the 20-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda. Ferdinand Junior has made no secret of his desire to fully rehabilitate the Marcos name, in the eyes of both Filipinos and the world. He has received a strong mandate for this, garnering 31 million votes to become the first majority president in decades, with his running mate Sara Duterte getting even more votes.
To do this, he must implement long-term reforms, in agriculture and other sectors. In terms of personal style as well as in his approach to law enforcement, human rights and diplomacy, President Marcos has shown himself to be refreshingly different from his predecessor. This new year, the momentum of change must be carried over into the structures where long-term reforms are overdue, to create a vibrant democracy and a strong republic.