2012: The end of times for our political system?

For our very first Straight from the Sky for the Year 2012, we bring you a unique New Year’s presentation with the General Managers of the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort & Spa, the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, The Waterfront Hotel & Casino, the Marriott Hotel and Movenpick Resort Hotel, who will greet you and share what the Year 2011 was for their properties and their respective expectations for the Year 2012.

 With us tonight is Hans Hauri of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel and currently the President of the Hotel, Resorts, Restaurants Association of Cebu (HRRAC) and Tourism Congress Vice-President for the Visayas; Joachim Schutte of the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa; Klaus Graesslin, of Movenpick Resort Hotel; Alfred Portenschlager of Waterfront Hotel and Casino and Bruce Winton of Marriott Hotel.

 The insights of these expats working in Cebu’s tourism industry are invaluable. With the tourism industry being a major contributor to our economy from all walks of life, the GMs have asked me if we could do this kind of show at least twice a year or on a quarterly basis and I just might do this. So watch them tonight on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm for this very unique New Year’s presentation.

* * *

 While yesterday January 1st was our very first column for the New Year 2012, however our readers know that our Sunday columns deal only with the Sunday gospel, hence you can say that this column is the very first column for the Year 2012. What can we expect for the Year 2012? Well, there was a survey that revealed a very high figure of more than 80% of Filipinos having high hopes for the Year 2012. I too feel the same way, as we must approach the New Year with optimism rather than pessimism.

 But somehow there are always the doomsayers within our midst who have lost all hope for a genuine change in this country. Perhaps they must have seen the National Geographic or History channel documentaries or that 2009 movie entitled “2012” which deals with the end of the world. As we’ve already heard from the Mayan calendar or the so-called Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, the Year 2012 is the year that the world would end. But many scholars have already proven this to be wrong.

 Come to think of it… if you looked back at the year 2011 in February, there was the New Zealand earthquake, which was followed by the March 11 tsunami that hit Japan, the flooding last October of most parts of Central Luzon and the totally unexpected disaster brought by Typhoon Sendong last Dec.17 was almost a repeat of the Japanese tsunami. But then we are still here… and the world hasn’t ended… yet!

 While we cannot predict what to expect for the Year 2012, if you read your Bible, specifically in Genesis, after the great flood, God had a covenant with Noah that he would no longer destroy the world through a flood. Hence the flooding we are having are mere warning signals of the Wrath of God for we have abandoned God, much in the same way that the Israelites eons ago turned their back against God even after God delivered them from bondage. This is why God punished them by letting them go around in circles in the desert for 40 long years before they could see the promise land.

 If there is anything we can predict it is the coming tsunami of man-made disasters. Here in this country, our nation will once again be given a ringside seat to another political upheaval with the expected impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. How this would end, I dare not say. But you already heard from the pro-PNoys like Leah Navarro on nationwide TV that they cannot accept defeat in the impeachment trial. What are they saying? That there would be trouble in the streets if CJ Corona is acquitted or wins his case? What sheer arrogance!

 From this statement, should we already predict that the Philippines will once again go into another dramatic, albeit historical political upheaval? Who knows! But then George Santayana once said, “Those who forget their history is doomed to repeat them.” If you looked back into our recent political history, EDSA One that booted out the Marcos Dictatorship happened on Feb.22, 1986; EDSA II that booted out the corrupt Erap Presidency happened on January 17, 2001 in an unfinished impeachment trial. Will history repeat itself in this sick nation of ours? Only God knows what’s in store for us.

 As it is already January and Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III has already pushed this country into the brink of another political upheaval, we just could be headed toward another political precipice. Is this why the former DND spokesman Jess Paredes was talking about a revolutionary government and was immediately fired? God forbid that the Communists would take over our ill-fated Republic. This is the real threat to our democracy.

* * *

Email: [email protected].