A new year’s always a new chance to make a change. Here are 16 things we hope to see in our country in the next 12 months.
1 Let’s actually know what we’re talking about.
To make a genuine effort to be as informed as possible before weighing in with comments or judgments, whether online or otherwise, and at the same time to always, always be humbly aware of the still-unfathomed depths of one’s own ignorance (but to not make a big show out of it, either way). To perceive spin for what it is, but also to not be overly susceptible to conspiracy theories. —Luis Katigbak
2 Bid trite Thought Catalog articles goodbye.
This 2014, we want to lay to rest the online magazine called Thought Catalog. No more self-indulgent articles about the “20 things you should do in your 20s†or “10 people you should not date†because it sounds like the same sentiments over and over again from people who don’t seem to have much to say about anything aside from themselves. Surely Thought Catalog—which claims to be the “future of journalismâ€â€” can think of more important things to write about than appeasing the existential crises of all 20-somethings. At first it was a refreshing read, listening to the new generation’s open letters. But the stories have become redundant, and now it’s like listening to the same teenager whine about love, and his career, and how to YOLO, and you start to wonder when they will stop reading Thought Catalog, and just go out and do something about it. And so, this year, we say goodbye to Thought Catalog, and maybe look to reading actual journalistic editorials instead. —Kara Ortiga
3 Democratize Imperial Manila.
Manilenos complain about the horrendous traffic, the claustrophobia-inducing crowds, the diminishing air space. We simplistically attribute this to population growth, and rally behind measures like the RH Bill to help staunch the rodent-like increase of people. Otherwise, we turn to more fundamental reasons such as the discipline, or glaring lack thereof, of our public transportation drivers. But population control is an uninspired solution, while bus drivers and the like are forced to meet a quota per day—failure of which dwindles the already measly payment they can expect to receive.
What is often overlooked is that the amounts of people congregating in Metro Manila aren’t even from Metro Manila, but are migrants from neighboring, or even far-off, provinces. More often than not, these migrants come to the capital looking for work, propelled by dreams of making it big in the city, or compelled by a dire need to feed their families. Our countrymen chase pipe dreams, of course. The myth of Manila as a sort of benevolent, opportunity-creating Eden has been shattered some time ago, and yet the people just keep coming. A solution? Industrialize the various provinces—create opportunity, livelihood, infrastructure, outside Imperial Manila. Let’s just see if Manilenos aren’t the ones flocking to the provinces after that. —Samantha King
4 Don’t settle for “pwede na.â€
To not settle for the subpar, whether due to laziness or just sheer self-delusion. Demand from yourself what you know deep down you are capable of, whether you are an artist, a politician, an engineer, or a teacher. (And on a very closely related note, to employers and institutions: to pay people what they are worth.) —Luis Katigbak
5 Don’t let crummy Hollywood movies reel us in.
Hollywood is pulling the biggest joke on us by producing less original work, and more prequels, sequels, spin-offs and remakes than the industry seems to ever have seen before. If it isn’t based on a previous film, it’s based on a novel, a comic book, or a TV show. How is this okay? And why are we still spending so much money to see a movie about something we have already seen before? It’s a lazy era for blockbuster filmmaking. Imagine the Academy Awards honoring a bunch of movies based on old material. They’ve copped out to the formula of safe moneymaking methods by sticking to material they know the audience will sink their teeth into. But they may not have predicted that Alfonso Cuaron’s original masterpiece Gravity would top box-office records worldwide, even above Fast and the Furious (six) or the sequel of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (which is based on a children’s storybook). So this year, we hope to at least see new themes in Hollywood. — Kara Ortiga
6 Let’s mature to other deep-seated issues.
In 2013, we learned about the evils of Pork Barrel. The Napoles issue—with its good-cop, bad-cop drama and showbiz fanfare—became so overwhelming that it easily captured everyone’s attention. For some, it was their baptism of fire, marching to the streets with their own personal battle cries. From here we saw the great catalyst — taxes.
It made one understand all the fuss about the Napoles issue, that this was primarily a matter of money for a vast majority. What of the other issues that don’t involve “taxpayer’s money?â€
2014 should be a year for us to grow and rally behind other deep-seated issues apart from pork barrel (e.g. Agrarian Reform, Visiting Forces Agreement, lack of state subsidy for education, unfair trade practices imposed by the WTO, etc.) Fighting for our taxes was the beginning. In 2014, it would do the rest of the nation good to wake up to the fact that there’s more to battling poverty than working overtime and paying your taxes right. —Samantha King
7 No to animal cruelty.
To be kinder to humans and other animals. —Luis Katigbak
8 Reintroduce someone to the wonder of books.
Esquire.com had a wonderful feature on books to give people who don’t read. Apart from the actual list (which is great, by the way) the article’s intro talked about how society is in danger of becoming illiterate. With too many things taking up people’s time, books are the ones being forgotten. This year, we thought it would be a great idea to give someone a really fun book. You don’t have to be pressured to give the kind of book the “literati†would read on their high horses. To make things simpler, we suggest giving your friend/s an accessible book that’s sure to be enjoyed. If you ask us, we recommend giving Charles Yu’s Sorry Please Thank You: Stories or Without Feathers by Woody Allen. Both feature a collection of short stories that’s easy to digest, and more importantly, entertaining. End of the day, you want to give them something to read that will get them hooked on… books. Side note: isn’t rhyming great? —Jiggy and Jonty Cruz

9 Stop making traffic a way of life.
The way to reduce road traffic is by upgrading public transportation, re-implementing a stricter truck ban, and regulating buses by implementing a fixed salary. Maybe start by unearthing the Napoles treasure so we can fund a major overhaul not just in Metro Manila in major cities nationwide. We need a railway in just about every major highway in Metro Manila, for starters. And how about finishing the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project first? More than 11 kilometers will then be covered, from Baclaran to Bacoor. But even such a prolonged construction is slated for implementation in 2017. At the rate they’re going, will building an MRT extension in C5 take an additional half-decade of considering as well? Or how about that bottleneck traffic in Eastwood that’s been there since we were in high school? Imagine the time we could all save if we didn’t have to slave in traffic all day. All I’m saying is this traffic has to stop being a way of life for us already. —Ralph Mendoza
10 That we’ll have more mainstream TV shows and films with interesting female characters
Independent cinema has been doing this for years, but it’s high time that our local channels and big production houses get behind writing stories where women aren’t just bit players, one-note kontrabidas, or weepy protagonists who go abroad for an unspecified amount of time and come back with a vengeance after finding out she was actually the heir to a vast fortune (you knew that trope was coming, didn’t you?). It isn’t that we want just “strong†women that fight and wield weapons, we want them to have complex storylines and richly imagined backgrounds, too. — Margarita Buenaventura
11 Make healthy food more of the standard than a luxury or hype magnet.
There has got to be more real food that real people will not only find edible but enjoyable. Enough of the under-priced fast food or over-priced New Yorker grub, although that would be nice from time to time. There has got to be a middle ground out there where the average bro can easily gain access to food that is both delicious and healthy. We got to be like the Japanese, man. All that soya, greens, fresh seafood, and lean meats. There has to be a way to make healthy food more of the standard than a luxury or hype magnet — without sacrificing quality. I do not know how exactly to go about such an endeavor. Maybe entertain the idea of a health mall or something. On a more hopeful note though, healthy produce has got to make a formidable return next year and be supported through and through. Or else we won’t even be around to see this country in better days. — Ralph Mendoza
12 Make writings on Andres Bonifacio more accessible (among other things).
There have been a slew of books on the great Katipunero, but most are filtered and desensitized, geared towards children eight years old and above, used as a laughable excuse for a high school history text. Of course, there are the more intellectual offerings like Teodoro Agoncillo’s The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan, Santiago Alvarez’s The Katipunan and the Revolution: Memoirs of a General, and Sylvia Mendez Ventura’s Supremo: The Story of Andres Bonifacio—but good luck finding a copy at any major bookstore near you.
2013 was the year of Bonifacio’s 150th birth anniversary, celebrated just two years after Jose Rizal’s 150th in 2011. And yet, comparing the celebrations and commemorations that took place for two of the country’s greatest heroes, the differences couldn’t be starker. Among others, Rizal was honored with an academic conference led by National Artist F. Sionil Jose and former Senator Eduardo Angara, which produced a compilation of the critical essays and speeches that were presented at the conference. Bonifacio, on the other hand, was honored with a costumed fun-run around the commercial complex named after him. May 2014 be the year when Bonifacio is trivialized no more. — Samantha King
13 Stop watching TV Patrol.

If The Newsroom taught us anything, it’s that broadcast journalism should be taken seriously. That show would always call back to the golden age of news when professionalism was always in the air, and how ratings and advertisements never affected what was being reported. We’re guessing the hosts of TV Patrol never watched The Newsroom or even a proper news program because whatever happens at 6:30 p.m. every night on ABS-CBN looks more like a show hosted by headless chickens than anything else. When a daily news show spends more than a third of its runtime on CCTV footage, you know you aren’t getting all the news that’s fit to print (or something like that.) We feel bad for the show’s real reporters like Atom Araullo, Jing Castañeda, and Jeff Canoy, who have to carry weight of actual journalism the three hosts can’t. Props though to the genius who thought of calling Noli De Castro’s segment K.S.P. because that’s probably the only real thing about the guy. We recommend you watch The World Tonight over at ANC instead. Better yet, just follow Maria Ressa and Patricia Evangelista’s reports. —Jiggy and Jonty Cruz
14 Be more like John Lloyd Cruz

Almost all men respect John Lloyd Cruz. The greatest actor of his generation taught all of us that we don’t need abs to be successful. The always charming JLC showed us that we also don’t have to cater to social media 24/7 to get the admiration of fans, that the work should always be enough. Even though at times we wish he played roles truly deserving of his talents, the man always put in the work no matter the part he’s given. Maybe the biggest thing he taught us the last few months is how to keep private things private. We can all learn from him on how one should handle controversy and not stress about explaining everything to people who crave gossip. Sure, the guy may not be perfect but no real man is. The best thing about John Lloyd though is he doesn’t let his fame be an excuse to get out of trouble. You the man, Lloydie! — Jiggy and Jonty Cruz

15 Prioritize creativity everywhere.
Old solutions don’t necessarily address new problems, which is why creativity is now in demand more than ever. We need creative solutions. We need people in power who can authorize the average creative to approach issues with fresh eyes. We need to espouse creativity in just about every thing, from education to media. More outlets for music, art, or whatever brain flex you would require to get the right side of your brain going. People need to demand more parks and fewer malls, or wherever they can draw inspiration from. Being creative doesn’t necessarily have to translate to hipster vagueness either; in fact, it means the opposite: a resourcefulness to find clarity in your everyday life. The moment we as a people are clear about what we want as a whole, the better our chances of progress. — Ralph Mendoza
16 That stores will no longer carry free size clothing.
There is nothing free or freeing about free size. Nothing. No one’s really sure where the dastardly idea came from (perhaps as a means of economizing on fabric) but aside from making shopping more tedious than it already is, it sends a message to Filipino women that there is only one ideal size for all of us to have and that size will only really fit, like, 12 people in this country. In that same breath, it might be good for local dressmakers to rethink the styles that they produce for The Heavier Set because really, not all of us aspire to look like tents. (No judgment to those who do, though.) — Margarita Buenaventura