Bidding goodbye to the Year 2005!

This is our final column for the year 2005 and what a year we've just had! Year 2005 began with the news about the Asian Tsunami which struck Aceh, Phuket, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and all the way to Somalia in the East African Coast. About 231,000 people were killed in the Tsunami and scores are still considered missing, probably washed away into the sea. In the isles off the Andaman Sea, entire families or barrios of fishermen disappeared. The magnitude of this disaster was just the beginning of year 2005.

Two more major natural disasters struck. Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States, notably New Orleans in Louisiana and the cities and towns of Alabama. The world did not expect a major flaw in American efficiency, which they showed in the tsunami stricken regions. Help came to New Orleans too little and too late. That disaster wouldn't have been that destructive if only the levees of New Orleans were reinforced to withstand bigger hurricanes. But America's infrastructure maintenance was given a low priority, thanks to the still ongoing war in Iraq.

While the world was not prepared for that piece of news, Hurricane Katrina exposed more than American incompetence; they exposed something few people have seen in wealthy America: Poor Americans, living in 3rd world conditions within American shores. Those tv footages of a besieged America in the year 2005 will be hard to forget.

The next natural disaster struck Pakistan and India in the disputed Kashmir Region, where a huge earthquake killed an estimated 70,000 people. Of course the disaster-weary world responded quite slowly to give aid to these stricken nations. This should give us an idea of how angry God must be at the world because most of the disaster-stricken areas are places where armed conflict has been ongoing for decades.

Aceh Rebels fought the Indonesian military for decades; so too the Tamil Tigers against the Sri Lanka military. India and Pakistan went into two major wars for control of the Kashmir region. Call it ironic, but thanks to the tsunami, the conflict in those regions has been temporarily shelved.

But a couple of days ago, Acehnese Rebels signed a Peace Accord with Indonesia and they voluntarily disarmed themselves, working hand-in-hand with former enemies to rebuild Banda Aceh. How we wish our homegrown Communist rebels would do the same, all in the name of building a better Philippines. But I have faith our communist leaders would never stand down for the greater good of our country and people.

Back here at home, once we were known as the Disaster Capital of the world thanks to Mt. Pinatubo and the infamous world record holding maritime disasters: The sinking of Dona Paz and Dona Marilyn. But God was busy causing natural disasters elsewhere and spared the Philippines. But alas, our politicians didn't spare a minute in causing man-made disasters, the biggest of which is the "Hello Garci" political scandal.

This scandal emanated from illegally wiretapped conversations by Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, which forced Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) to go on nationwide television to apologize for her "misconduct." It thus gave an opening for her political enemies to seek her resignation.

Her government almost fell when the infamous Hyatt "10" Cabinet Secretaries abandoned her, thinking she would fall. But the President survived, thanks to the support of people outside of Metro Manila.

The President's near-mishap caused her to speed up her program for Charter Changes resulting to the creation of a Consultative Commission (ConCom) which finished its task on schedule. Hence, for most of the year 2006, we will be debating whether we should change the charter or not.

Meanwhile, ugly politics also plagued most of our local news when the band of four members of Congress - Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez, Rep. Antonio Yapha and Rep. Simeon Kintanar - whose common denominator is that they're last termers and cannot seek reelection in the same post, came up with the idea of breaking up Cebu Province into four Provinces, a proposal so abhorrent, the Archdiocese of Cebu, led no less than our beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, chastised this move as a great evil.

These proposals came upon the heels of the election of Cebu's 1st Lady Governor Gwen Garcia, who was perceived as a neophyte in Cebu politics, which in truth she really was. But Gov. Gwen showed that she wasn't just former Gov. Pabling Garcia's little girl. Gov. Gwen, an avowed workaholic, rolled up her sleeves to improve things at the Provincial Capitol. Best of all, she took the cudgels of leadership in Cebu when faced with the Sugbuak proponents. In the end, this plan backfired and Cebuanos supported Gov. Gwen.

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