The real state of the nation

As of press time, the president's State of the Nation Address has yet to start. However, both the Congress and the Senate have already chosen their leaders. It’s as if the whole thing was already planned out with almost all officials uniformly uttering the name of their choice for the leadership.

The choices for Senate president and House speaker have already been discussed a couple of time by the president himself. We knew how we will maneuver the legislative branch of the government so his agenda and plans for the next three years of his administration will be in place. Well, if it is all for the better good then I don't see anything wrong with that. As long as the motive and intent is pure to make this country a better place.

With the start of a new year in governance, we are set to hear reports about what the different departments did. But what the rest of the country doesn’t see is the real state of the nation. We are blinded by the reality of the glimmer in the promised change when the prices of the basic commodities continue to rise, fuel prices keep on soaring, and the basic Filipino still feels poor.

We might have overcome the bloating inflation in the previous year but it has left a sore effect to the common Filipinos whose incomes are a little above average or less. There is a tightening of the budget when the Filipino should be enjoying the fruits of their labor.

There is no genuine security that we feel around the atmosphere. Yes, the police work double-time in the war against drugs but in this war comes the consequence of men carrying guns in an attempt to fight back. These guns are being pointed at anyone and anybody can become a victim. There is no feeling safe anymore.

The streets are desolate at night unless you are brave enough to disregard the thought that you could be picked up by a vehicle and killed. Add to that the real score that people are being killed every day --either as a legitimate operation or by unidentified persons.

The people in the media industry are slowly becoming like puppets as fear continues to hound them in their daily work. There’s a need to censor certain information because of the threat of being badmouthed by supporters on social media. The legitimate force of the media who toils hard to get the facts straight are now tagged as "fake" and anonymous news pages are more trusted by people.

This, ladies and gentlemen is the real state of the nation today. I can't believe how some can still be completely blind to reality. I feel like it’s slowly becoming the new normal and that we are slowly adapting to it. It gets scarier by the minute how we are losing sympathy for one another, and the ability to fight for what’s right.

How long must we live in this lie that this is not the country we want? We wanted change, but not blood to be spilled all over. Everyone deserves justice.