Hello, 2019!

How does a year become a year? Is it always marked by rarities ­– a comet that slices through the night sky? Or a moon that takes our breath away — big, giant and blue?

Is it always measured in 12 months as Julius Caesar’s astronomers taught us? Or is it always related to the rotation of the Earth around its axis? 

Science tells us it is, but not here. The Philippines is quite an exception as it always is. 

Isn’t life always so bizarre in this land of mayhem? Isn’t time in this country so frustratingly circular that we are always living a page out of Einstein’s dreams? 

The ancient Egyptians who divided the day in 24 hours may find their idea useless in this part of the world because there’s no end to the same surreal events in this country — 24 hours is just not enough.

As we saw in 2018, the Philippines just seems to be moving in circles instead of moving forward. 

One is tempted to think our calendars don’t need numbers anymore because the same things happen again and again, year in and year out. 

Perhaps one can never really measure how a year becomes a year here in this country. 

But here’s an attempt — and hopefully not futile — to bring attention to some of the things which I hope will never happen again in the new year and in the years to come.

Inflation

The monster inflation that hit us in 2018 really hurt us. You see Filipinos are a resilient lot. Throw us sh#t and we may still feign a smile. Crack endless green jokes and we may even laugh. Put us in the middle of a disaster and we will survive. 

But when prices of food spiral out of control, it’s a different story. 

While some of the factors that caused the spike weren’t exactly within our control, I don’t believe we were totally helpless against it. As I said before, I believe monetary authorities just didn’t look at the rear view mirror long enough to see what was coming. Inflation reached a high of 6.7 percent last year, the highest in nine years. It has slowed, but hopefully it doesn’t go crazy again this year. 

‘Rice shortage’

It’s hard to imagine that the Philippines has a rice problem. The government really needs to boost support for local farmers so they can compete. Relying on imports alone is a band-aid solution.

Food establishments should be able to source their own rice requirements and their rich owners should be required to support local farmers.

Airport mess

Now who can forget the airport mess? Our gateway was paralyzed in August after a lone Chinese carrier veered off the runway. From the two local airlines alone, at least 39,000 passengers were affected. What a mess!

Every stranded passenger – man, woman, child – as a result of that disaster must be enough reasons for the government to act on pending airport proposals. 

Shabu

Then there’s the audacious smuggling of shabu. The Bureau of Customs was at the center of some of the biggest drug scandals this country has ever had — P6.5 billion worth of shabu during the time of former commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and P6.8 billion during the recent stint of commissioner Isidro Lapeña.

Combined, that’s about 2,200 kilograms — more than enough for each and every Filipino to get high on the poor man’s cocaine.

And yet the brutal drug war continues. Clearly, the government is waging a battle against the wrong people because the drug lords are still raking it in.

Taxes

New taxes welcomed us at the start of the year and there will be more in the new year. There’s no escaping it, it seems. 

But when the government is pushing for more taxes while corruption remains rampant, budget insertions for whimsical projects continue and there’s unnecessary spending, it just won’t work and it might even slow the economy.

It seems the executive and legislative branches are trying to outdo each other by raising taxes and spending unnecessarily. 

Good news

Of course, we had our share of good news, too, among them bells, beauties and basketball. 

We saw the historic return of the Balangiga Bells after 117 years, a fruit of the efforts of Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose “Babe” Romualdez and everyone in government who worked for this. 

Days before Christmas, Catriona Gray brought home the Miss Universe crown. It was another source of pride for Filipinos. 

But my favorite good news is the successful journey of the UP Fighting Maroons to the UAAP basketball finals after 32 years. What a historic feat for my Alma Mater. The experience was a reward in itself. 

Let us wish for more of these good times. Life is really so brief, there’s no time for the same sh#t year in and year out. We really need to move forward, not in circles and not backwards. 

Let us long for a better tomorrow and let’s start working on it today and everyday after that. 

That I believe is how a year becomes a year. 

May we all have a prosperous and meaningful 2019!

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is [email protected]