Hope, fear and change in the New Year

Filipinos have entered 2025 with the least hope and the most fear since 2009. According to the Social Weather Stations (SWS), this represents the lowest level of New Year hopefulness recorded in 15 years.

I find this hardly surprising. The budget issue has sparked more controversy, notwithstanding its signing on Rizal Day, uniting Filipinos across sectors. 

The Marcos Jr. administration shamelessly defended a corruption scheme in the bastardized 2025 national budget and acted like the Filipino people are too stupid to notice. I am referring to the P26-billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) to help what government social workers called the near poor (as if the plight of the poorest of the poor has already been addressed).

Teachers are asking: why are PMA, PNPA funds in the education budget?

Health advocates are puzzled: why does Marcos Jr.  continue to deny subsidies to PhilHealth when cases of heart attacks, cancer and diabetes are growing?

Government workers, including uniformed personnel, are worried: will our retirement funds be at risk?

The fears have sound basis. The Marcos-Araneta-Romualdez triumvirate is paralyzing the Philippines by systematically depleting its funds. As we speak, around P250 billion have been taken from GSIS, SSS, LandBank and DBP to the Maharlika Fund, with no status of work or accomplishment being provided to the public. 

Further, the Marcos-Araneta-Romualdez trio has no plans of slowing down, siphoning available public funds, the recent reported case is the impounded funds of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. 

If this trend continues, and with the profligate spending of the government, it won’t be long until our economy collapses.

The Diehard Duterte Supporters (DDS), as we all are aware, have been waging a lonely battle against the current administration, especially in their call for a hair follicle test for PBBM to determine his physical and mental fitness to lead the country. The Dilawans have been eerily silent on this issue – and most issues – surrounding the presidency of Marcos Jr. in the last three years.

However, the budget debacle in the last month of 2024 gave rise to massive public indignation, including reaction from the Dilawans. 

For the first time, we have seen a common issue – a common ground – for the DDS and the Dilawans.  

Pu-puwede pala. After all, we only have one Philippines that we dearly love. 

A good case in point is the ecumenical prayer of evangelical and Catholic bishops, with the theme “Oppose the budget that serves only a few people,” held last Dec. 23, 2024 at the EDSA Shrine. One of the organizers is Rev. Fr. Antonio Labiao Jr, who incidentally filed the third impeachment case against Vice President Inday Sara Duterte. 

While there may be some political or ideological differences between the DDS and the Dilawans, there are areas that both sides may converge, such as dissatisfaction with the performance of Marcos Jr. in issues like crimes and corruption.

Having said this, can we fire an incumbent President and Chief Executive of a country? 

Yes, we can.

The 1987 Constitution provides that the President may be removed from office by impeachment.

We all know impeachment has zero chance to succeed with Martin Romualdez as House Speaker.

The question now: can the people fire a badly performing President through People Power? 

The answer is a definite Yes!

As matter of fact, the 1987 Philippine Constitution is the fruit of the People Power Revolution of 1986. The Philippines “constitutionalized people power, the direct but peaceful exercise of the will of the sovereign people,” as my colleague at UP Law Raul Pangalanan called it.

Politics is addition. Assuming that one-third of the population belongs to the DDS and another one-third comes from the ranks of the Dilawans, this roughly translates to a sizeable majority of our people, who is against PBBM.

But will the military move?

It depends.

Recently, retired officials from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police issued an open letter highlighting a P15-billion budget cut from the AFP Modernization Program and flagging unjustified budget increases for Congress and discretionary funds. 

This is certainly an angry protest, and we are only scratching the surface, I would say, for I expect growing dissatisfaction from the ranks of uniformed personnel. 

We cannot downplay the pivotal role of the military in the mass mobilization of people. It has long been widely accepted that regime change requires the acquiescence of the military.

Will US support to PBBM remain iron-clad under the incoming Trump administration?

Not the same as PBBM’s kindred spirit – clueless Biden. As we all know, president-elect Trump and former president Duterte clicked. One thing both have in common: Trump and Duterte are known for their real action and quick results, not feel-good speeches.  

Ultimately, the success of any people power movement lies with the people. 

When will the Filipino reach their tipping point? When do we say enough is enough? 

As of now, there is still no end to the public uproar generated by the unchecked greed of our lawmakers, and dismissed by a clueless and out-of-touch President as simply “noise.”

The country is ripe for leadership change. We deserve better. The Philippines deserves better.