In a year of real optimism, what could go wrong ?

raise a holler on the other decisions of Court of Appeals Justice Normandie Pizarro after his scandalous Joel Reyes decision, while merrily soldiering on with the impeachment of the CJ, is a double standard that stood out like the behavior of a drunk in a churchyard. Other than the Joel Reyes case and the Marcos wealth case, Mr. Pizarro has cleared other controversial cases with mind- boggling decisions. Only the HoR did not bother to inquire.

The firing of Mr. Carandang, the deputy Ombudsman, and the refusal of Ms Morales-Carpio to is the kind of rash decision that could plunge the country into a constitutional crisis. Instead of should have come clean on his bank records to clear up the allegations of multiple bank transactions once and for all.

People won’t mind if Mr. Duterte is wealthy. He is past 70. He is a lawyer. And at that age, he is expected to have a decent amount of money. If he has P100 million in the bank, what is wrong with that? Mr. Duterte has been working all his life and to have money is not a sin.

The all-out war with the Left will not lead to a victory of any kind, moral or military. The Left has a permanent base, the academe and the hamlets of abject poverty and hopelessness. No sieges of leftist strongholds will lead to victory against the nimble and resilient Left.

Mr. Duterte’s words in the early days of his government— that he is out to secure the “peace of the living“— should have been the operative policy with the Left, not a historically debunked mailed- fist policy.

If crude hits $80 plus per barrel, all the macro assumptions of the economic team will have to be revised, from positive to negative. Growth prospects will dim and all said—will go awry.