So, what kind of Christmas and New Year celebration can ordinary Filipinos look forward to when the country is lost, with political infighting occupying the mind and precious time of our leaders with an eye on political dominance, with no one paying serious attention to the ailing economy?
Unemployment is hitting 3.9 percent of the 50 million workforce or approximately two million heads of families; adding to their ranks are the overseas workers being repatriated and coming home for good, retiring from their high-paying jobs in the war-torn Middle East. The $30-35 billion in earnings that they bring into the country is jeopardized. The taxes that we dutifully pay, which could have enhanced health and other social services, are lost to corruption. Inflation is increasing, and the prices and the lack of supply of basic foodstuff are dire bleak Christmas forebodings for ordinary families.
Spotty public transport and the main thoroughfares every day are snarled in crippling traffic. With all these, upon seeing that government time and resources are being wasted by self-serving politics, one could end up not caring enough about the country’s future anymore.
But hope is the last thing we can afford to lose. We do not lose anything by being hopeful. Each one of us should be concerned about the country’s future, that we can look forward to better things and things getting better, believing that happenings and events are not misplaced; they are in the right place in God’s own time and by His will. He is sovereign. Each one of us can do what we can to make our lives better for ourselves and for the others in our sphere of influence, and this country cannot fall apart if every decent Filipino will resolve, united in the thought: I will do my part to do what is right for the future of this country.
– M. K. TAN, captbeloytan@gmail.com