Wishes for the New Year

Today we are at the beginning of a new year, 2025. In one of my recent columns, I highlighted the major events of the past that had history-changing effects on the Philippines and Asia. Today, I want to write on the future of the coming year.

I will not try to predict because there are too many variables that will affect the economy and geopolitics of the year 2025. Instead, I will write about my wish list for different scenarios.

The first of my wishes is that the 2025 midterm elections will finally result in winners that are worthy of being public officials, especially in the Senate and the House. This means that the Filipino electorate will stop voting for entertainers and scions of family dynasties. Surely the time has come for the people to stop voting for movie stars who like to comb their moustache in the middle of a hearing and other celebrities who have no idea about nuances and interpretations of the Philippine Constitution.

The main role of senators and congressmen is to enact laws. The public, however, should see that the main preoccupation of our present legislators is to ensure that they have sufficient pork barrel funds to dispense for the purpose of their reelection.

The sad thing is that there are candidates that would make excellent senators but they lack the necessary resources to win. In the present Senate, one senator, Risa Hontiveros, has proven that she has the necessary qualities for someone to be an outstanding senator – courage and integrity. In one Senate hearing, she was the only one who wanted to admonish Rodrigo Duterte for his aggressive and discourteous language in violation of Senate rules. A majority of the other senators in the hearing ganged up on her, but she stood her ground and was able to face them all down.

The sad thing is that there are qualified candidates who have the potential to become outstanding senators in the mold of the past great senators like Lorenzo Tañada, Jose Diokno, Ninoy Aquino, Soc Rodrigo, Raul Manglapus, Joker Arroyo, Rene Saguisag.

Someone told me that when he compares the outstanding senators of the past to the entertainer and family dynasties in the present Senate, he felt like crying, to see how low we have gone.

This year, fortunately, there are still some candidates who have decided to go against the odds and run for the Senate. The list includes names like former senators Kiko Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, labor leader Luke Espiritu, former COA head Heidi Mendoza.

Any basic change in our society must come at the local level. Unfortunately, we have literally only a handful of mayors that have changed the quality of life in their city. These include Benjamin Magalong of Baguio, Vico Sotto of Pasig and Jerry Treñas of Iloilo.

The party-list system has been accused of being a tool of traditional politicians. Fortunately, in the coming elections, there are at least two party-lists that are worth supporting. My fervent wish is that both will make it to Congress. The first party-list nominee of Akbayan is Jose “Chel” Diokno, human rights lawyer and former dean of the De La Salle College of Law. The other nominees are Rep. Perci Cendaña, former UP Student Council president, and Dadah Ismula, Moro women’s leader.

The other party-list that deserves support is the Mamamayang Liberal headed by former senator Leila de Lima, who spent seven years in jail for her courageous stand against extrajudicial killings (EJK). The other nominees are former congressmen Teddy Baguilat and Erin Tañada.

My second wish is for the Philippine public school system to be raised to the quality level of the best private schools. I was once asked in a TV interview how we can ensure that the public school system gets sufficient funding, adequate infrastructure and superior teaching personnel. I said that the best and only way to achieve all these is to pass a law that would require all public officials from the president, senators, congressmen, down to the local level, enroll their children in the public school system. If this law comes into effect, I guarantee that the quality of the public schools will be raised to the level of the best private schools.

If the UP Diliman, a public school, can attain or even surpass the academic levels of La Salle and Ateneo, there is no reason why the public school system cannot also be raised to the level of the best private schools.

My third wish is that in this coming year, the economists of the government and the private sector will become aware that the real economic target should be the reduction of income inequality and not just gross domestic product. There is no point in the Philippines achieving middle income status if the majority of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, while millions of others wallow in poverty.

I wonder how these wishes can come true in the coming year. Will it require a miracle from God? Or, God forbid, will a violent revolution be necessary?