Goodbye to a most unforgettable Year 2009!

This is the last column for the Year 2009. As we enter the Year 2010, the last year of the first decade of the New Millennium, we look back at the major events that shaped our lives for much of the year. Let’s start by remembering those who passed on from this world to a life eternal. Who would ever forget Superstar Michael Jackson whose songs we’ve grown and lived with in our younger years would be gone this year? His death became a worldwide event that we barely realized that another Superstar from the 60s era actress Farrah Fawcett also died almost on the same day, but the publicity of Michael Jackson’s death overshadowed all major events.

For us in the media, a great name left this world, Walter Cronkite of CBS Evening News, whose voice we heard when US Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Talking about the Kennedys, the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy was also a major event in US as he is the last Kennedy of his generation. Here at home, we won’t forget the funeral of former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino. The Filipino people showed their gratitude by showing up in unprecedented numbers, while behind the scenes, opportunists in the opposition plotted a strategy to rekindle the Cory magic by selling her only son Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to be the next President of this country.

The year 2009 brought untold natural and man-made disasters, especially maritime disasters that plagued our country even up to the dying days of December. Last Christmas Eve the M/V Catalyn B struck a fishing vessel F/V Anatalia and sank off Limbones Island off Cavite, leaving at least four people dead and more than 20 still missing. 12 bodies have since been recovered. As the search for the missing continued in that disaster, last Sunday another sea tragedy happened when the M/V Baleno 9 of the Besta Shipping Lines sank off Verde Island near Batangas. 69 people have been accounted for, but 36 are still considered missing.

As for natural disasters, the nation anxiously awaits the eventual eruption of Mt. Mayon volcano in Albay, but fortunately because it hasn’t happened yet, the local government units had the time to evacuate the residents living close by. But no one was prepared for the twin Tropical Storms, "Ondoy” that struck most of Luzon, especially Metro Manila last Sept. 26, 2009, that brought unprecedented floods in many low areas in the nation’s capital, notably Marikina and parts of Muntinlupa.

This was followed four days later by Tropical Storm “Pepeng” that struck most of Central and Northern Luzon inundating most of Pangasinan leaving Baguio City isolated. It is the only storm in recent memory that literally turned back on its path. Both storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” taught us a bitter lesson that we Filipinos are never prepared for the worst disasters to happen to us. Political opportunists immediately blamed the Arroyo Administration for delays in helping the flooded victims, with complaints that the waters took more than a week to recede. Blame the government? Or should we blame the people whose garbage and refuse clogged the esteros?

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There is no doubt that the most unforgettable moment for the Year 2009 is the infamous Nov. 23rd Maguindanao Massacre where 57 people were brutally shot and killed, then hurriedly buried with their vehicles flattened by a backhoe. This gruesome killing allegedly by Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., the son of incumbent Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr. will go on record as the world’s worse crime committed against journalists, where some 34 journalists were killed on the job.

This incident is also unforgettable. Last Dec.4, 2009, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Proclamation No.1959 and declared Martial Law in the Province of Maguindanao, the first time ever that Martial Law was declared in this country since then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos declared Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972. But unlike the Marcos declaration, Proclamation No.1959 was lifted on Dec.13 amidst praises from many sectors of society that no human rights violations were reported during the 14 days when the Writ of Habeas Corpus was suspended. This incident is a stark reminder for our countrymen that warlordism is very much alive and kicking in this country!

While we won’t forget those ugly incidents, we remember with pride Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Miguel Cotto that made boxing history and made all of us proud to be a Filipino. The international recognition of the tireless efforts by Mr. Efren Peñaflorida as CNN Hero of the Year for his “cariton classroom” sends a message of hope to the majority of Filipinos for a better Year 2010 that despite all the odds against us, the indomitable spirit of the Filipino people will conquer all our adversities!